Well, I have to confess that I haven't trained anyone in quite awhile; not that I wouldn't if needed. The last was a "crash course" about 3 years ago. Those are a bit intense and thankfully rare anyway. For the rest, I try to pass people off on instructors with current certifications. I'm sure they're more qualified than I am anyway. Plus, my trusted helpers have died off or acquired medical problems that interfere with performance (ought to include myself in the latter because of a rotator cuff that I haven't had time to get fixed).
I'm so out of the loop that I made a mistake in the above post about "CERT".
For one thing, it's S.E.R.T. (Specialized Emergency Response Training). For another, it's not a course but a semi-local company that certifies instructors, among other things. Two of their courses are for CCW and Enhanced CCW, and are mainly to meet State requirements for getting permits to carry. They have other courses as well with some (most?) are for law enforcement. For some reason, I was under the impression that it was CERT, as in getting certified to carry.
The only contact I've had with S.E.R.T. is talking to instructors certified to teach through them, observing some of their gun handling skills, and helping them build a few goodies for the range. It's easy to tell they are extremely competent. Mostly, the conversations have been about tactics, practical range exercises, and that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure they view me as a dinosaur since I'm a Jeff Cooper based guy, though they have offered to have me sit in on courses and maybe help out.
Anyway, after talking to one of the guys yesterday and getting set straight, I might have the wrong impression of the comprehensiveness of their CCW course. (Some of the things we discussed in the past might be part of other courses). I might have to sit in on a couple of courses out of curiosity, if nothing else.
As far as being sorry to hear of my great aunt, the way I see it now, the story of her last day is just a small part of being sorry that the world is the way it is sometimes.
What I posted was a heavily abbreviated and sanitized version of events, but that was only one day of an 80 year life that was well lived and valuable.
Her death was a result of choices she made and a bad roll of the dice, so to speak. There's no way to know if having a gun would have saved her, but her odds of survival would have been better, and better still with training. You can't avoid the dice rolls, but you can weight them in your favor.
Speaking of the manner of her death finds value in it. It woke up many little old ladies to the fact that sexual attractiveness has very little to do with rape. It shocked me that so many were under that false impression (and it's still far more common than most people think). Also, it made them more conscious of things they could do to to "weight the dice". Many were disabused of other false notions of being well protected.
One lady even said "she should have had deadbolts", and I'll never forget seeing the color drain from her face when I told her that she had deadbolts. Some changed their habits, and there's also value in that.
I guess you might take this as "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade"?
and grinding the rinds into the eyes of your enemy can be a bonus..... just sayin
Topic: 13 y.o. kid does good (Read 6819 times)