AAR Justified Defensive Concepts Low Light Pistol, High View, West VA 5 Nov

[John Murphy]

I attended Justified Defensive Concept’s Low Light pistol class in at the Echo Valley Training Center on 5 November. Executive summary: take this class!

Course description from the JDC webpage:
“Low Light Pistol is for the Defensive Practitioner who is already well skilled in the fundamental use and manipulation of their defensive pistol of choice but knows that they need additional skill to be able to effectively employ the pistol in a low light environment. You must be safe and competent with your pistol. Prior training from JDC or a vendor we approve is required.

If there is any question in your mind if you have the requisite skill to participate in this course, please contact us prior to registering to ensure you have the skills necessary to benefit from this course. The ability to shoot accurately with one hand only will be stressed. This course is an evening course. It begins in the afternoon and progresses until approximately midnight. It is an outdoor course so we will be waiting for Mother Nature to provide us the Low Light Conditions.

Run time is approximately 4PM to Midnight.”

First Impressions
Arriving on the range early I had the chance to witness the pre-class “talk through” by Brett Harnish, JDC’s owner and lead instructor, with his instructors. Every point of the planned course of instruction was discussed in detail, along with potential problems that could be encountered at every juncture. I have attended many courses, and this preparation was as tight and professional as I have seen. This experience really set the tone for the class.

The Course
I won’t go into detail on the course content (See executive summary above) but here are some particularly salient takeaways:

1. Don’t forget the “weapon” in “weapon-mounted light.” As a citizen f you are searching and assessing with a WML you can easily find yourself charged with aggravated assault. This was the primary reason why the course emphasizes the handheld light. (Several students had WMLs in addition to their hand lights. They were afforded an opportunity to train with their equipment.)

2. The entire curriculum was relevant and informative, from technical discussions to applied techniques. EVERYTHING was demonstrated to established standards and then rehearsed by closely supervised students in a broad daylight/dry fire environment before we went hot in the dark. Learning occurred.

3. The student/instructor ratio which was set at 1:2 during daylight, and 1:1 after darkness. Given the high quality of Brett’s assistants, safety and quality instruction are obviously his priorities.

4. Concepts and techniques were leavened with an appropriate discussion of technology and progressed logically throughout the course. Every student was exposed to relevant techniques and given ample opportunity to experiment in both dryfire and live fire environments. These newfound skills were then subjected to a capstone exercise.

My Takeaways:

1. I really let this skill atrophy, and worse did not keep pace with the vastly improved equipment I am now carrying. (I learned back in the day of the retina melting 60 lumen 6P flashlight. We couldn’t see crap, and we were happy!) Backsplash is a thing.

2. Manipulating ambient light to maximum advantage is an underappreciated skill. In the spectrum of what a citizen needs to learn it isn’t a thing until it is THE thing and a decisive edge. I need to put some more thought into this.

Bottom Line: If you are an average US of A Citizen looking to acquire relevant skills in a very safe, highly competent learning environment, you will not go wrong with this class, or any other of JDC’s offerings.

[77grOption]

John,

It was a pleasure to train with you in class. Thanks for the kind words.

[RegularGuyMatt]

Great class, I enjoyed being there with you.
Solid AAR.