At an auto dealership, it’s not enough for most people to sit in the driver’s seat in the parking lot while listening to the salesperson. It’s insane to buy a car without test driving it first, so why do many people purchase their first handgun after barely handling it?
Handling an unloaded gun from across a glass countertop and basing your buying decision on that five minute experience with no relation to a real situation or experience is unwise.
Purchasing a firearm is a serious decision both in terms of money and what you intend to use it for.
What may be a good choice for one person might not be right for another.
Author R. K. Campbell, who is also a shooting instructor talked about a discovery process he developed to see what handgun was best for his students in his article “Drills for Handgun Selection” on USConcealedcarry.com:
“I have developed a fifty-round drill that tells a lot about the student’s skills and ability with the chosen handgun, caliber, and ammunition. These drills are useful as entrance drills for advanced courses and for evaluation before choosing a handgun. Expending fifty rounds of ammunition is much easier to do than to spend more than five hundred dollars for a handgun that is not suited to the student’s ability. The handgun may not be reliable and it may be too powerful for the student. (Read more about choosing your handguns wisely here)”
The great thing about participating in even the most basic of shooting classes is that it will be an excellent opportunity to try out many different handguns. Students are usually quite happy to swap guns with one another. You may also have the option to rent handguns at some shooting ranges and if you are in a gun shop with a range, let them know how serious you are about buying a piece.
The staff should be more than willing to let you “test drive” used versions of the guns you are interested in purchasing.
Also, while it’s very useful to solicit feedback from experienced people such as friends, family, and instructors, it’s also important to remain vigilant for less than objective opinions. People may try to sway you into buying what THEY like and that might not be right for you. Leave your emotions and attempts at “status” at the door and coolly contemplate your pistol options with a clear head.
Your final decision should be one that makes you feel safe and confident every time you handle your gun.
Those who are new to firearms and shooting in general often have a “Hollywood” concept of guns and what actually happens when one is fired.
Many shooters (both old and new) have a sizable disconnect between what happens in the time between squeezing the trigger and the bullet impact.
Usually we are simply trained to aim and fire.
It’s helpful to see a fired shot in all its stages to help both new and experienced shooters understand what is happening during those few milliseconds. When a shot is squeezed off, things happen incredibly fast – much too fast for the human senses to process the progress of a bullet or even its impact.
When you are introducing new shooters to firearms, it’s always important to cover the basics like recoil and why a gun goes “bang,” best described by author Jim Fleming in his article “The Big Bang Theory” on USConcealedcarry.com:
“Before commencing live fire drills, I told them it was time to discuss ‘the Big Bang.’ ‘What’s that?’ I told them I wanted them to understand what was happening when they touched off each round. The recoil, and the sharp report, what it is, and why it does that. ‘These things can be intimidating to new shooters, and that can interfere with your ability to operate the handgun effectively.’ I believe that if new shooters understand big bang they can move beyond the intimidation factor quickly and get down to the task of improving their operating efficiency with the firearm. (Read Jim’s full article on new shooters here…)”
In addition to covering the shot sequence basics, it’s also helpful to educate a new shooter about what a bullet actually does to its target. With today’s high speed video frames it’s possible to find videos online of bullets in flight, cutting through apples, playing cards and a myriad of other objects.
Watching this kind of footage helps bring home the fact that there is a piece of lead moving at a high rate of speed between a gun barrel and its target.
Save some mushroomed bullets to illustrate the damage that can be inflicted. Using watermelons and other crowd pleasing soft objects for target practice can also help simulate what a bullet will do to a person.
Helping new shooters see the “invisible” side of shooting and bullet impacts will give them a newfound respect and understanding for the power and potential danger of the tool they are handling. Knowledge is power and the more we are aware of what is happening during those milliseconds, the safer we’ll all be.
Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- “Gun Owners of America [has] spent the months since Newtown doing tremendous damage, insisting that expanded background checks will lead to a gun registry.” – New York Times, April 4, 2013
It’s quite a complement when the New York Times thinks that you are doing “tremendous damage.” But you can be sure that the other side is not going to go away quietly.
And sure enough, the Obama Administration is trying to unilaterally undo our recent victory in the Senate – and to undo the “damage” that all of us inflicted together.
But first, a little history.
Remember when Senators Pat Toomey, Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer formed an unholy alliance during the recent gun battle on Capitol Hill? Remember how their amendment would have encouraged your psychiatrist to turn you in to the FBI’s gun ban list?
And you remember how we stopped that provision, because over 40 senators found it to be odious and a violation of the Second Amendment?
Well, guess what? Barack Obama has just concluded that “he don’t need no stinkin’ Senate.”
Instead, Secretary Kathleen “ObamaCare” Sebelius – and her Department of Health and Human Services – has promulgated regulations which would, by executive fiat, waive all federal privacy laws and encourage you doctor to report you to the FBI.
Understand a couple of things: First, the standard which your doctor would use to turn you in is embodied in Clinton-era ATF language and in the anti-gun Veterans Disarmament Act of 2007. Specifically, you doctor would “drop a dime” on you if he suspected you were even a slight “danger to yourself of others” or were “unable to manage your financial affairs.”
So if they say you can’t balance your checkbook, then you lose your constitutional rights.
But there’s another problem: The day these regulations become law, lawyers will be lining up to sue “deep-pocket” psychiatrists for every case where they failed to turn in a patient to NICS – if the patient subsequently engages in a horrific act.
The bottom line? Any psychiatrist who failed to report all of his patients to the NICS system risks losing everything if any of them engages in harmful conduct. Soon the rule of thumb will be: See a shrink; lose your guns.
And the regulations will apply to private, as well as government-employed psychiatrists.
The bad news is that 165,000 military veterans have already lost their gun rights because of the “see a VA shrink, lose your gun rights” precedent from the Clinton-Bush era.
Sadly, what happened to military veterans has now begun in the private sector – especially in places like New York, after they recently passed their misnamed SAFE Act.
“[John Doe] received a letter from the Pistol Permit Department informing him that his license was immediately revoked upon information that he was seeing a therapist for anxiety and had been prescribed an anxiety drug. He was never suicidal, never violent, and has no criminal history.”
So now taking anxiety pills can result in one’s forfeiting their Second Amendment rights in New York!
This is where the gun haters want to push their agenda. And this is one reason why background checks are so dangerous – because they give government bureaucrats the opportunity to deny law-abiding people their constitutionally-protected rights.
But the good news is this: The HHS rulemaking is still at an early stage, and HHS is (no doubt reluctantly) taking the views of the general public.
Also, be sure to tell your congressmen that you oppose the “see a shrink, lose your guns” regs issued by the HHS. Ask him to issue his own comments as well.
The regs themselves lay out several ways that you may submit your opposition. The comment period ends on June 7, 2013.
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585
FAX: 703-321-8408
www.gunowners.org
About:Gun Owners of America (GOA) is a non-profit lobbying organization formed in 1975 to preserve and defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. GOA sees firearms ownership as a freedom issue. `The only no comprise gun lobby in Washington’ – Ron Paul Visit: www.gunowners.org to Join.
Today the Senate rejected gun control, and in a big way. Several gun control proposals failed today, including amendments that would have banned standard capacity magazines, increased background checks, taken guns away from Veterans, and banned virtually every semi-automatic firearm.
Here are some of the highlights.
Lautenberg-Blumenthal Magazine Capacity Amendment
Failed with 46 voting for and 54 voting against. This would have banned those high capacity assault magazine clip thingies.
Burr Veteran Amendment
Failed with 56 voting for and 44 voting against. This is one that wasn’t talked about much, and honestly got a lot closer to passing than I thought it would, which should tell you all you need to know about the current state of affairs in Washington.
Feinstein Ban Everything Amendment
Failed with 40 voting for and 60 voting against. This amendment had zero chance of passing from its inception, but I’m glad it came to a vote. Now the traitors who voted for it can have the vote used against them in 2014.
Manchin-Toomey Background Check Amendment
Failed with 54 voting for and 46 voting against. This was the amendment that I thought had the best chance of making it out of the Senate to be quickly killed by the House, but it failed to make it even that far. Thankfully.
Following the vote, the NRA released the following statement.
NRA Statement
Today, the misguided Manchin-Toomey-Schumer proposal failed in the U.S. Senate. This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution. As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools.
The NRA will continue to work with Republicans and Democrats who are committed to protecting our children in schools, prosecuting violent criminals to the fullest extent of the law, and fixing our broken mental health system. We are grateful for the hard work and leadership of those Senators who chose to pursue meaningful solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems.
While no two shooting incidents will ever be exactly the same, most of them have similarities and it’s possible to do a rough rehearsal of what may happen at any given time.
How you act, what you say, and the moves you make have a dramatic impact on the outcome of a stressful encounter. Are you dealing with opportunistic muggers, or more calculating and wary criminals? Does your attacker know that you are aware of their presence and intentions?
Or is it a cat and mouse game, where you attempt to conceal your knowledge of their possible intentions and “play dumb,” while still maintaining your ability to react?
The good news is there are training classes available that rehearse common attack situations like ATM robberies. These tactical courses can go a long way towards preparing us for unexpected shooting incidents.
Many of these artificial classroom situations have roots in attacks that have actually happened. Those who take these classes come to realize that knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do.
Glenn E. Meyer, PH.D says it best in his article “The Cutting Edge of Force on Force Training” on USConcealedCarry.com:
“In one class, the driver came out of his car, got into a firefight with my partner; both took rounds. For some reason, the folks in the first car, rather than keeping their heads down, had to observe. One young man stuck his head out to see what was up and got shot. The other hid behind his hood and got into a firefight.
As Meyer notes, a destroyed flat tire and rim is nothing compared to being hurt or killed.
Consider taking the next step and learning the skills you need to be able to calmly assess potentially violent situations, which lead to shooting incidents. Distancing yourself from the melee may mean the difference between life and serious injury or even death.
