Andersonville, Georgia was the location for the Intermediate Firearms Carry Skills (Use of Force) class by Firearms Safety Training LLC on December 11, 2011. There were 6 students in the class, including 1 lady shooter.
The class began with a short lecture in the classroom about the components of firearms Use of Force. Decisional shooting is the most mentioned component of Use of Force. However, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has enumerated several other components of firearms Use of Force that should be trained on to avoid liability for inadequate training. Several influential court cases established that inadequate training can lead to both civil and criminal liability. Those other necessary training components were also included in this class.
After the lecture, the class moved to the range for live fire exercises. The initial task was to shoot a concealed carry qualification course since qualification is the first training component mentioned by IACP. While Georgia has no training or qualification requirements, the Georgia Weapons Carry License is recognized in numerous states that do have these requirements.
The qualification course was followed by several sets of shooting drills that covered the other Use of Force components identified by IACP. This included a decisional shooting drill that forced each student to make shoot/no-shoot decisions independently yet simultaneously with other students. Several of the students remarked that they had never done these types of exercises before. Others said they practiced similar exercises very rarely.
The shooting drills were followed by re-creations of actual incidents encountered by armed private citizens. Several of these simulations were shot individually to give the students tactical mental preparation for deadly force encounters.
As a final training component, the students were introduced to handheld flashlight techniques that allowed them to identify targets in low light conditions prior to making shoot/no-shoot decisions. The last task was to shoot the qualification course again with taped sights as daylight began to fade. This introduced them to low light shooting principles and difficulties.
At the close of the course, several students remarked that “they didn’t know what they didn’t know.” The training not only provided perspective on training requirements but also gave them a framework for on-going practice.
Comments