AAR - Ballistic Radio/Melody Lauer Armed Parent - Nov '16 - McHenry, IL

[Sal Picante]

Pleasing

[Sal Picante]

Alpha Range (where I practically live), was kind enough to host John Johnson and Melody Lauer to teach their Armed Parent class.

The class had 8 attendees ranging in skill from beginner to very advanced. Divided along skill-level, the class was almost perfect thirds. Melody mentioned that this is fairly common since most attendees are interested in the context the class runs in; e.g. the class is "tactic-oriented" rather than a "shooting: How-To".

3 shot some kind of Beretta, 2 folks were using Glocks with optics, 1 was using a Sig P320, and the rest shot some kinda Glock.
1/2 the class drew from an AIWB setup, while 1/2 the class shot some SS hip carry method. (IWB, etc). All shooting was done from concealment, emphasizing the context of how most people will carry when out and about with their kids/loved ones.

The class started out in the classroom with introductions, motivations. Common thread was that almost all attendees had some small children in their life or were trying to understand the context under which the class was designed. Paul Sharp and Mick Schuch were two of these people...

Personally, I have a 18 month old daughter and wanted to defer to the intelligence and thought process that John and Melody put into developing the class. E.g. I can shoot alright, but I wanted to understand how the dynamic changes when children were introduced to a gunfight.



The lecture was excellent even if it was obvious that there were some tweaks being made by the instructors as to who would present which portion. Much of the classroom presented the constraints that occur when with small children. Great footage was shown to illustrate these points: violence against people carrying children, abduction attempts, robbery attempts while with children, violence against children directly, etc.

This 4 hour block was some of the best overview I've seen.

After breaking for lunch we got into the range reviewed safe gun-handling rules, emergency procedure, then jumped into handgun proficiency drills: safely drawing and holstering the firearm, safely changing magazines, working the trigger, etc. Most of the work was "on a firing line" at 3 yards, shooting 2 inch circles. Personally, I think this was pretty well thought-out: may people have trouble with 2 inches circles, even at 3 yards, and instead of just giving them license to lob-in shot on an FBI Q-bottle at 7 and make shit look like Swiss-cheese, this is really forcing the people to work through on an "aim-small/miss-small" target. And this is good - we don't want to lob-shots at the dude carrying off our kid at Walmart...

To cap off the day, we shot the FBI Qual and tore down the range.

The second day really delved into the mechanics of addressing a child with you when it is time to shoot - The meat of the course is really here.
Understanding the context when a fight is constrained by the presence of a small child is eye opening. Just think about these things:

• If you're carrying your kid and draw down, what is the possibility that they're going to get in the way? How do you address this?
• How can you get a kid safely out of the way if things get bad? Will they get in your way? Will they get in the crossfire?

This portion was well demonstrated and discussed... culminating in a modified FBI-qualification incorporating their techniques.

Some things I didn't like (and they know this):

• I really like having written notes/handout since it allows me to look back on topics and think them through again. Students are so busy paying attention that taking notes becomes a chore.
• Having a sheet of attribution/gear/etc. is nice too...
• Some of the lecture/who presents what/etc can be streamlined worked out ahead of time. Presentation was high-quality, but some gaps/huddles took away for a few seconds.
• Let the range staff know what they need to setup ahead of time - would help the course flow really fast.
• We were presented with a very basic ballistic test just to show that bullets do goofy shit (go too far, not far enough, open, don't open, etc) - video/slides, bring a block to illustrate the point. This was an hour that we could've been working on something.

(Children everywhere: Paul Sharp after finger banging the ballistic gelatin)

I really liked this class - anyone who is around small children (parents, grand parents) who routinely carries a gun, should really consider the class.

Good job guys.

[43Under]

Interesting little niche this class falls into.

Are Johnston and Lauer both parents themselves? Not looking to get into one of those "how can I learn gunfighting from someone who was never in a gunfight" things, just curious.

Also, was the course more geared toward having infants, toddlers, or grade-school-aged kids? Or all of the above?

This course is being offered fairly close to me in early 2017. Unfortunately, it's the week before TacCon, so it probably won't happen for me then, but maybe in the future.

[Paul Sharp]

Interesting little niche this class falls into.

Are Johnston and Lauer both parents themselves? Not looking to get into one of those "how can I learn gunfighting from someone who was never in a gunfight" things, just curious.

Also, was the course more geared toward having infants, toddlers, or grade-school-aged kids? Or all of the above?

This course is being offered fairly close to me in early 2017. Unfortunately, it's the week before TacCon, so it probably won't happen for me then, but maybe in the future.

Yes, both are parents of infants, toddlers, and grade schoolers. So all the above between the two of them. I second what Les posted. I think this is solid material. They have definitely put the work into researching this from the perspective of dealing with a criminal encounter while out and about with your kids. They also cover the issues of a criminal encounter while you're in your home and the kids are present. I would recommend this to folks with young kids whether you're a parent or grandparent.

[MVS]

Thanks for the review. I debated going to this class, but obviously decided against it. It sounds like they have a pretty good game plan in place.

[Odin Bravo One]

Having seen a few gunfights involving children, I wouldn't have any reservations taking a class from either of them. This is material not covered by anyone else that I am aware of. And frankly, not relevant until you become a parent, so I can see some concern with the background of any instructor, but especially those teaching a niche skill set. How good a parent Johnson is.....well up for debate, but it doesn't mean he loves his children any less. ��

[Clobbersaurus]

Thanks for posting this review Les.

I've seen some chatter about this class on my media feeds and was interested to see a review.

[limatunes]

Thank you for the feedback, Les. It was great to meet you and have you in class.

To answer your question, 43Under, we cover all age ranges from infants in arms to teens. The techniques for older kids could also be applied to controlling a non-combatant adult.

We're grateful for the feedback from people like Les and Paul who've taken the time to review the class and give us constructive criticism.


-Melody


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NickDrak]

Wish I could have made it. Burned up all of my comp time/personal days for '16. Hopefully they will come back to IL next year and I can convince my wife to go along with me.

[Farmboy]

Great class that taught very relevant material. Thank you for putting up a great AAR Les.

-Adam.