I have a new updated, more user friendly website:

www.saltlakefirearmstraining.com  

that has a lot of pictures helping to describe my

training classes and experience.

Plus a study guide of the training curriculum that I teach.

 

 To anyone who has taken a Utah Concealed Firearm Permit Class from me, this is the link to the curriculum for the class you need to have.

  https://bci.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/08/Minimum-Training-Curriculm.pdf   

 

Safe and Responsible use of firearms because guns are serious business.

Updated; 9/11/2023 

This is a quick overview of the classes I teach.

        LOWER DOWN is a comprehensive outline or study guide for these classes that I adapt to the different classes I teach on the shooting range and class room.  

I also have used the text of this presentation in a Power Point Presentation for teaching the Concealed Firearm Permit Class and Permit-less Carry Class sponsored by the Utah Shooting Sports Council at the Cross Roads of the West Gun Shows.

Also the Concealed Classes I have taught for Utah Teachers and other School Employees, sponsored by the USSC.

 

·        For more information: 

·        Clint Simon    801 599 1574

·         This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

·        I teach most of my firearm classes at the Bountiful Lions Club Shooting Range.  About 10 miles North of Salt Lake City, Ut. I like outdoor ranges. Indoor ones get very noisy. And if they are busy they only let you shoot for 1 hour.

 

·    I teach classes by appointment only any day of the week.

 

·      So contact me for more information or we can discuss the best day, time and place for your type of class.

 

·      AVERAGE SIZE CLASS IS 1.8 STUDENTS. The more students per class, I extend class time at no extra charge so each student gets the same amount of individual coaching.

 

·      This is personalized PROGRESSIVE learning.  Each student learns one concept at a time and then we move on to the next as fast as they show knowledge and skill. Hence, the very small class size, it works out better for the students that way.

 

·      At NO EXTRA COST, I let you shoot several shots each from several different guns so you can learn a little about what type of gun you may want to buy if you are planning on buying a gun.

 

·      Who:

ü I teach firearms classes to ANY individuals, couples, women only classes, youth or any small group.

ü I have taught many teen and pre-teen students.  Less than 18 years old, need an adult with them. The adult will learn a lot about how to train and coach younger people.

ü If there is a big difference in abilities between students, I will concentrate most of the time to the more inexperienced student, such as a young student with their parent.

ü I have taught many students who do not own a gun yet or never shot a gun before.

·        What:

ü All classes include learning:

§  Safe gun handling skills

§  Operation of guns

§  Marksmanship skills

§  Self defense skills

§  Training drills for these skills

§  Gun laws

And can also include:

§  Situational awareness

§  Avoidance of confrontations

§  Less lethal defense

ü Common Sense Carry, Permit-less Carry or Constitutional Carry – that’s what we call legally carrying a concealed firearm with no permit in Utah since May of 2021. Basically the same as a concealed permit class on the shooting range.

ü Utah Concealed Firearm Permits. Taught on the shooting range where you can learn a lot more practicing the shooting skills than in a class room.

ü Hand gun

ü Precision Rifle

ü Carbine (short range semi auto rifle)

·      Where:

ü All classes are taught on the most appropriate shooting range for the type of class. This includes “On the Range” Concealed Firearm Permit Classes. 

ü I prefer outdoor ranges.  Indoor ranges get very noisy and it's hard to communicate. Also if indoor ranges are busy, they have a one hour time limit for shooters. I have had to cut classes short because of that.

ü I've held many long distance rifle and more advanced carbine and pistol classes out west of Salt Lake City on the desert where students can use more movement and multiple targets in their training.

ü Most of the classes though are at the Bountiful Lions Club Shooting Range. There is a roof over the firing lines for sun and rain but dress for the temperature.

ü I have taught firearms classes out to 300 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah.

·      When:

ü     Classes are by appointment only

and can be any day of the week. 

ü They are approximately 4 hour classes but vary depending on the students’ wants and needs.

ü So contact me and we’ll figure out the best day and time for your class.  

·      How:

ü I always start out with basic beginner safety, operation of firearms, marksmanship skills and then self defense skills.

ü We usually start with laser pistols and work up to small then larger caliber guns.

ü Depending on experience and ability, it has taken from a few minutes to a few hours for students to progress to more advanced skills.

·      Cost:    Since for students, I pay the range fees which has gone up 75%, ammunition and reloading components costs which has gone up 100 to 300%, since the last time I raised my prices;

STARTING SEPT 1, 2022 PRICES WILL BE:

$100 per shooter but $200 minimum per half day class (roughly 4 hours).

Plus $25 gasoline expense for more ADVANCED long distance, carbine and pistol classes out on the west desert.

Thanks so much for understanding.

ü I always want students to bring their own firearms so they can practice with their own too but use of my guns and ammo is included in the price.

ü Utah Concealed Firearm Permit Classes are the same price. They are about the same as a pistol class on the shooting range. I let students shoot several different guns if they would like. Then after the range time we go over the rest of the gun laws, do finger prints, photo and fill out the application. All included with the price of $100 ea. with $200 min. per class.

ü If you insist you do not need any range time, I can do a concealed class at my house for $50 each, BUT, $100 minimum per class. These are about 4 hour classes.

ü Training for long distance, advanced carbine and advanced pistol classes we go out to my favorite 1000 yard spot, 1 ¼ hours out west of Salt Lake, just north of the old pony express route. Out there we can do a lot of movement and multiple targets in different directions.

 

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·      Below, is the curriculum of practical shooting skills that I teach. I encourage people to read through this outline BEFORE they take a class, and be ready to learn and practice these skills.

·        I offer this outline to anyone to learn from but I can tell you that you can learn and PRACTICE a lot better and faster if you take a live class from me while on the shooting range. 

·        This presentation is more than a Utah Concealed Firearm Permit Class. I get a lot more into Marksmanship and Self Defense.

·       Whether a person has a permit or not, they have to obey the same laws, safety rules and know the same marksmanship and self defense skills.

 

·      I ADAPT this COMPREHENSIVE OUTLINE to the different hand gun and rifle classes that I teach, whether on the shooting range or  in the class room,  considering the different skills, wants, needs, etc. of EACH student.

·      Everyone needs to adapt these principles to their own situations, whether it’s at home self defense, a school teacher, at a store or office.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to carry a certain gun, a certain way, etc. Only you know all your situations for carrying a concealed gun. Remember if all you can carry is a sub compact .22 rim fire, that’s a whole lot better than nothing.

·      There is enough information here in this outline to fill dozens of classes. A person may only take an hour or so to read through this quickly but relax, TAKE YOUR TIME, whenever you want some great reading and learning, carefully read this. This is a "STUDY GUIDE” after all.

·      This outline is ALSO for people that have taken a firearms class from me.

ü They can review here anytime what they have learned.

ü See what there is to still learn.

ü Get reminded of the many things they can practice.

·      I update this guide occasionally as I improve my teaching skills and figure out better ways of explaining principals and coaching students to better influence their learning. And for fixing typos.

·      I have said to most students as I give concealed classes, “You will get your concealed permit but I am more interested in making sure you learn and practice responsible firearm skills.”

  

 

SAFE & RESPONSIBLE

MARKSMANSHIP AND

SELF DEFENSE SKILLS

Because guns are serious business

 

1.              INTRODUCTION

A.  Hi, my name is Clint Simon

B.  Here is some background information so you are informed about where I'm coming from.

C.   I have been officially teaching private firearms classes since 2008.

D.  On the shooting range averaging 1.8 students per class.

E.   Coaching them individually as they practice the shooting skills.

F.   Have designed and ran monthly practical precision rifle competitions for 7 years.

G.   Have taught “For Credit” Rifle and Pistol Marksmanship Classes at the University of Utah for 8 years.

H.  Was asked several times by a S.W.A.T. Trainer to design courses of fire and run his officers through for their training.

I.     Taught firearms classes at both the Cabela’s stores in Utah for their NRA Week.

J.     Have helped with a dozen FREE Utah school teacher concealed classes and taught three of them myself.

K.  Have helped out with more than a dozen shooting organizations in Utah as Range Officer, Safety Officer, Instructor, etc.

L.   I charge for private classes. Everything else I have volunteered time and money. I have volunteered so much I must really enjoy working for free.

M. Have taken 5 NRA Instructor Courses.

N.  Two dozen days at the Bountiful Lions Club Shooting Range being instructed by an Army Sniper in the 1990’s.

O.  I started competing in major regional shooting competitions in 2001 along with tons of local competitions with rifle and pistol since then.

P.    I have taken dozens of in person training classes, on line and DVD courses.

Q.   And one of the best times of learning is when I spent 1000’s of hours on the shooting range building reactive steel targets and shooting venues and having shooters on the range try them out for me to see how they worked. I spent countless hours shooting and talking to LE and some really great competition shooters about techniques and figuring out how to best engage different targets in different situations.

R.  See a lot more on my website www.utahshootouts.com under “experience”.

2.              Purpose

A.  This presentation is for:

1) Anyone carrying a concealed firearm in Utah.

a)  Utah Concealed Firearm Permits

b) Common Sense, Permit-less Carry or Constitutional Carry

c)  And anyone that owns or has access to firearms.

2) Because whether you have a permit or not, you have the same responsibilities and laws to follow.

3) The only exceptions is WITH a permit you can carry into public grade schools and most states recognize Utah’s permit even though they may have different laws concerning concealed permits you have to follow.

4) Also with a permit you are exempt from the back ground check fee when buying a gun from a dealer because you had a back ground check to get your permit.

5) Provisional permits, 18 to 20 year olds, cannot carry into public grade schools or most other states.

6) You always have to find out what other states laws are to carry into their states.

7) If you have an out of state drivers license and that state honors Utah’s permit, you need to get their concealed permit OR get a Utah drivers license before Utah issues you a Utah permit.

8) Also; except how you hold the firearm and the actual operation of the firearm, almost all these principles of safety, marksmanship and self defense work with rifles too.

B. People’s needs and wants differ. Not everyone needs to carry, own or have a firearm in their home.

C.   We’ll be talking about:

1)   Safe and Responsible use of guns;  because way too many people are wounded or killed by accidental, negligent, rule breaking and irresponsible handling of guns.

2)   Operation of guns – On the shooting range you will practice shooting them correctly and safely. In the class room we will let you use plastic ammo to load, dry fire and unload these guns.

3)   Marksmanship skills - so you can hit your target, because ¾ of shots fired in the average gun fight miss their target. And you will learn how to automatically aim, with sights aligned on your target.

4)   Self defense strategy and skills

5) You will have to take control of yourself.

6) How to stay in physical and mental control in self defense situations, to better your chance of winning a gun fight.

7)          Self defense or being a protector doesn’t mean just shooting someone. Most of the time it is de-escalating situations and less lethal defense.

8) Also we’ll talk about Utah laws concerning citizens self defense with guns.

3.              This is NOT:

A.  Law Enforcement

B.  Military  or

C.   Competition Shooter Training

4.              This IS:

               Common, everyday,

“Private Citizen,”

Practical, Responsible Training for Self Defense.

5.              These all have similarities of safety and marksmanship skills but Practical Firearms Training means training in thinking skills, responsibilities, avoidance of confrontations and self defense skills.

6.              There are many things you can do while training or competing on a closed range in LE or Military training or in a competition, that you can’t do while practicing on a public range.

7.              Self Defense As Opposed to:

A.  “Competitions” – Each shooting sport is specific to its own rules. They need to be kept separate, or it’s like playing basketball with football rules.

1) There is nothing wrong with any of them. I have designed or competed in hundreds of shooting competitions.

2) Competitions are a great way to train and progress in your shooting skills and compare yourself to other shooters.

B.  “Law Enforcement“ and “Military” work in teams, have extensive communication skills, each person has a specific job, different rules of engagement and different job descriptions than citizens have. They have responsibilities to engage the bad guy. Citizens do not have to.

8.              It’s always good to get as much training as you can afford to get from Law Enforcement, Military or Competition shooters.  Even though you’ll find different instructors from different shooting disciplines will have different:

A.  definitions of words,

B.  opinions,

C.   likes and dislikes,

D.  explanations of principals,

E.   Emphasis, etc.

F.   Because trainers come from different backgrounds.

G.   And have different interests and skills

H.  They can have opposing viewpoints and be very adamant about it.

I.     So take MY definitions of words, etc. here today, because they are correct in this presentation.

J.     Get training from different places or instructors is usually good. I have got my money back on one training that wasn’t as advertised. Also have taken some that seemed very overpriced.

K.  Then try out all the ways you learn and use what works out best for your situation. Only you know what your physical, mental and equipment limitations are.

 

In this outline are my own opinions and not legal advice. Talk to your lawyer to get the legal advice on firearms and self defense.

 

9.              Just a Few Standard Definitions; so everyone understands.

A.  Frame – the part of the gun that everything else is attached to.

B.  Muzzle – The end of the barrel the bullet shoots out of.

C.   Chamber – At the rear end of the barrel where the cartridge is inserted ready to fire.

D.  Cartridge – Or “round” consisting of a case that holds the other components. A primer that gets hit by the firing pin that ignites the gun powder and bullet is then shot down the barrel and down range. Most people use the term “bullet” to describe a “cartridge” which is fine but really is not true and can cause confusion. Rim fire has the priming compound smeared inside the base of the case; center fire has a primer pressed into the middle of the base.

E.   Bullet is the same as the projectile.

F.   Slide – The upper part of a semi auto pistol that slides back ejecting the empty case and moves forward again inserting a live cartridge.

G.   Strong side – the primary hand and side you normally fire the gun with.

H.  Support side – the other hand and side that does not normally do the firing, just supports the action of firing the gun.

I.     Semi auto – a gun that automatically ejects the empty case and loads another live cartridge after each time the gun fires. And it takes another trigger pull to fire the gun again.

J.     Action – Is the moving parts of a gun that load, fire and unload the gun. With the action open you can see into the chamber and see whether it has a live cartridge in it or not. Mostly when we talk about action open it means the slide (or bolt) is locked open.

K.  Chamber Flag – same as a Safety Flag. They show everyone including you; the gun cannot fire by being inserted into the chamber or blocking the slide or bolt from closing.

10.     Safe Gun Handling Skills

A.  Firearm accidents happen from ignorance or carelessness.

B.  After reading this presentation or taking this class from me you will not be able to use “ignorance” as an excuse any more.

C.   You will have a positive learning attitude here today. If you don’t I would give you a failing grade.

D.  You will have a start, in getting a good knowledge, but you will need to keep on learning and practice these skills after you leave this class.

E.   I always tell students to read this outline before and after a class with me. This has turned out to be more of a study guide than just an outline.

F.   As you practice these skills we talk about, you will have to learn to recognize your own “personal abilities” and “limitations”. And hopefully you will work to improve on them as best as you can.

G.   Learn to NOT to be afraid of guns.

H.  Learn to NOT be over confident or arrogant (thinking you are better than you are) with guns.

I.     Too timid or too arrogant can be very dangerous.

J.     Have a good learning attitude, BE THINKING, BE RESPONSIBLE and ALWAYS STAY IN CONTROL.

K.  We need to respect guns. Know what guns CAN do and what they can NOT do.

L.   And everybody, please don’t ever get tired of hearing about safety. I could talk for hours about people getting hurt or killed by people being unsafe.

11.     The 3 fundamental rules of firearm safety

A lot of gun classes you will hear the first rule is “All guns are always loaded” but these three are what to do about it.

1.   MUZZLE AWARENESS – Always keep the gun pointed in the safest direction. (shooting range, class room, home)

2.   TRIGGER FINGER AWARENESS – Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.

A.  Keeping trigger finger ABOVE the trigger guard lets everyone see your finger is not on the trigger.

B.  Also if your finger is always on the trigger it is way too easy to have a negligent discharge.

C.   So, if sights are on target, finger on the trigger.

D.  Sights off target – finger off trigger

3.   Always keep the ACTION OPEN AND UNLOADED until you are ready to shoot. That means ALWAYS pull the magazine out, open the action and make sure the gun has no ammo in it whenever you:

A.  Take hold of a gun

B.  Before you let go of a gun. Whenever you set a gun down, make sure the action is open so everyone can see into the chamber and see it has no ammo in it. It’s always good to put a chamber or safety flag into the chamber to easily show everyone, including you, that the gun CANNOT fire.

C.    When you are finished shooting a target or stage

D.  Get in the “HABIT” of being safe. Take time and PRACTICE safety skills.  Just like practicing any sport, practice, practice, practice. It just may save a life.

12.     More Safety Skills

A.  Always stay in complete control. Never handle a firearm while influenced by ANY drugs, alcohol or emotional state like anger or depression.

B.  Whenever carrying a gun do not ever pull you gun out of the holster unless it is to save a life.

C.   When you have to carry a gun from one place to another that is not in a case or holster, ALWAYS carry a gun pointed straight up by the barrel or fore end.

D.  Always know your target and what is beyond.

E.   It may be legal to shoot on BLM or National Forest land, etc. but you are responsible to know where that bullet can travel. I have given several court ordered gun safety classes to individuals who negligently fired a gun toward people or property not being able to see where their bullets were landing.

F.   On a shooting range always follow all the range rules. Besides the rules we just talked about, when a cease fire is called, step back away from the firing line. If you are down range changing your target and look back and see someone handling their firearm, you will know why this is a rule.

G.   Always “SLOWLY” and “CALMLY” holster a loaded gun. There is NEVER any reason to be in a hurry and keep your finger on the trigger and shoot yourself in the leg, which has happened way too many times to people

H.  If you carry a gun, NEVER pull your gun out of the holster unless it is to save a life.

I.     Storage – Keep all guns INACCESSIBLE to ALL unauthorized persons, such as KIDS, burglars, friends, friends of friends, etc.

J.     Don’t believe anything you see about guns on TV, including sticking a gun in your waist band.

K.  Always keep a gun in a holster that covers the trigger guard. Because when you grab something, you grab with your trigger finger too. This includes having a gun in your vehicle.

L.   Keep guns and ammo stored separately in a cool dry place and locked up.

M. For your carry gun, it depends on your situation. Who will have access to that gun when you don’t have it on you. How fast can you access it. A lot to think about here.

N.  Know the difference between real guns and fake guns and know how to you can use fake guns where you CAN NOT use real guns.

O.  When you start carrying a concealed gun, carry it unloaded for days: WHY?

1) To make sure the gun is going to stay in place and not fall out.

2) Do all the activities and movements that you normally do. Then things you don’t normally do to make sure that gun stays in place.

3) That it does not get in the way of activities.

4) Keep the gun on you so you don’t forget it somewhere. Rest rooms come to mind here. Practice in your own bathroom at home.

5) Dress the different ways you need or want to dress.

6) Make sure it always stays concealed. Keep the bad guys guessing.

7) A concealed gun means nobody knows you have it and it’s harder for someone to grab it if it is covered up.

8) A lot of police get shot with their own guns because they are out in the open.

9) Also someone cannot falsely claim you are threatening or brandishing your gun if they cannot see it.

10)      Also carrying it unloaded for a while will get your brain used to the idea of carrying a gun.  Also carrying a gun with a round in the chamber.

13.     Operation of Firearms

A.  If you need help with how your gun operates, ask the store where you bought it, read your owner’s manual or ask in a firearms class.

B.  In the class room we will let you use plastic ammo to load, dry fire and unload these guns, learning the operation of them.

C.   Classes on the shooting range you can use live ammo operating the guns.

D.  Your gun will have the name of a cartridge stamped on it that it uses. Only use that cartridge in your gun. Watch this very closely.

E.   A 380 auto (9mm Kurz) will fit into a 9mm Luger (Parabellum) but will not fire half of the time. A 380 is just a little shorter than a 9 mm.

F.   Make sure your rifle is built for a 5.56 NATO round and not just for a .223 Remington round. They look the same.

G.   The only common round that you can shoot in a different caliber gun is a .38 special round can be shot in a .357 Magnum gun.

H.  Get a cleaning kit.

I.     Your owner’s manual should show you how to field strip your gun. Taking it apart enough to clean and lubricate your gun.

J.     Other books are available to completely take your gun apart for deep cleaning. If that’s not something you want to get into, just take it too a gunsmith.

14.     Concealing the gun

A.  Only you can decide what kind of gun, where and how to conceal it.

B.  Depending on where you are going, how you can or need to dress.

C.   What you will be doing.

D.  Most people need to buy more than one holster.

E.   Even more than one gun, depending on variables above.

F.   Look at gun shows and on line to get ideas of how and where to conceal a gun.

G.    Inside the waist band  (IWB)……

H.  Outside the waist band  (OWB)……

I.     Either side

J.     Appendix carry

K.  Shoulder

L.   Ankle

M. Belly band

N.  Thigh

O.  Bra

P.   Pocket

Q.  Vest

R.  Belt-fanny pack

S.    Shoulder pack

T.   purse

U.  Always consider where that gun is pointed when you are drawing or holstering the gun. (Keep your finger out away from the gun.)

V.   Also can that pack or purse be left somewhere?

W.       Think of how many times you have left your phone, keys or wallet somewhere.

15.     Sights

A.   Notch and post metallic

B.  Night sights

C.   Dot scopes

D.  Other scopes

E.   Laser

F.   I’ll talk here mostly about semi auto pistols with notch and post metallic sights.

G.   There are advantages with laser sights, night sights, dot scopes and lighted reticles.

H.  Just that you should try all those out in bright sun light and very low light, as well as  normal light inside and outside. 

I.     Because lasers get drowned out in bright sun light and illuminated sights drown out the target in very low light.

16.     Grip

A.  Grip a pistol as high on the grip of the gun as it is made for.

B.  Put support hand fingers over top of the strong side fingers with support trigger finger up against the bottom of the trigger guard. If the front part of the trigger guard is flat with ribs, you can put your finger on that.

C.   You need no pressure on the sides of the pistol grip. The top of the rear of the grip and bottom of the front of the grip is where the pressure needs to be to manage the recoil of the gun.

D.  Put thumbs to the side.

E.   Grip of both hands, wrists and arms should be just firm enough to manage the recoil of the gun.

F.   After you fire the gun you will find out if it was firm enough. The gun should spring right back to being aimed to the point of impact.

G.   This is recoil management.

H.  Having it spring back on target should make the semi-auto cycle correctly too. The gun needs that resistance to operate correctly, ejecting the case and chambering a new cartridge.

I.     When you figure out a grip that works, memorize it so you can grip the gun exactly the same every time you take hold of the gun.

J.     Also you can practice shooting with strong side hand only and support side hand only. Grip hard enough and keep wrist stiff enough to manage the recoil.

K.  You can grip your gun fairly tight as long as it is not so tight you are shaking. Also with long strings of fire you will get tired or weaker but you still have to grip strong enough. You just have to regulate your shooting process to have the best performance.

L.   Also gripping the gun tighter will keep the trigger finger movement from moving the gun so much.

17.     Draw Stroke

A.  Practice uncovering you gun with your support hand so you can draw it with your strong side. Also uncover and draw gun hand with the strong hand only.

B.  Most of the time with a concealed carry gun, you can’t get a perfect grip on the gun with it still concealed.

C.   As you start to pull it out of the holster, practice finishing gripping the gun.

D.  Always stick your trigger finger out away from the gun straight, so you don’t inadvertently pull the trigger when gripping the gun. People have shot their self in the leg or foot drawing their gun.

E.   Always stick your trigger finger out away from the gun straight when holstering your gun also. Many people have shot their self in the leg or foot when holstering their gun.

F.   Practice drawing and holstering your gun with your trigger finger extended, one or two dozen times a day a few times a week and in a few months you will be getting in the HABIT of NOT GRABBING THE TRIGGER, WITH YOUR TRIGGER FINGER, WHEN THE REST OF YOUR HAND IS GRABBING FOR THE GUN.

G.   This is very important to keep your finger off the trigger in a self defense situation. Because of the situation around you, the gun muzzle may need to pass close by other people before you are aimed at the bad guy, and then you can put your finger on the trigger.

H.  Exactly where you put your finger when it is not on the trigger is very debatable.

I.     Pressed up against the front of the trigger guard or outside of the trigger guard all together.

J.     It is where ever you practice keeping it. And practice under stressful conditions like a lot of movement, multiple targets mixed with good people, fast shooting, etc. You can practice with dry fire at home.

K.  Because in a panic or just stressful situation people will clench their fists not intending to pull the trigger. People do that enough when they are on a shooting range and not being under stress.

L.   Holsters with or without retention? Your choice. Be safe, be practicing.

M. Also practice moving while drawing the gun.

18.     Sight Alignment

A.  Most hand guns have post and notch sights. When aiming, the front sight post needs to be in the center of the notch of the rear sight. The top of both sights need to be even across the top.

19.     Sight Picture

A.  This is your eye seeing the rear sight, front sight and target all lined up.

B.  From whatever position you are shooting from, speed you are shooting and distance you are shooting from, you will have different size groups of bullet holes in your paper target.

C.   This is your aiming area for that speed and distance.

D.  Your front sight in this aiming area with sights aligned is a good sight picture.

E.   Of course as you refine your shooting process the aiming area should get smaller.

20. Natural Point of Aim

1. I put a lot of emphasis on natural point of aim for more than one reason. Most shots fired in a gun fight miss their target. In gun fights or panic situations, people lose concentration and focus. Motor skills, vision and thinking skills deteriorate. Some of these skills can become nonexistent.   

2. So in a gun fight, being able to bring the gun up and automatically have it pointing at where you want the bullet to land (natural point of aim) is very important and can save a life.

3. Most people will call this point shooting. Like you point your finger at a target and the gun points at the target.

4. That’s ok but I go through a more systematic way to learn this to be a lot more efficient or accurate.

5. Depending on the gun and angle of the grip of the gun, your finger may not be pointing to where you want the bullet to land.

6. Also I have a different definition of the term “natural point of aim” here in this presentation than I (we) used at the U of U marksmanship classes or other classes you can take. But mine is correct in this presentation.

7. Of course if the target is only a few feet away and you have to engage the target fast because it is attacking you, it doesn’t matter to be off a few inches.

8.  At the U if you close your eyes and bring the gun up to your shooting position and the sights are not aligned and pointing at the bullseye, you move your body parts until you can bring it up and you are pointing at your target.

9. In practical shooting like I'm teaching, you look at your target and bring the gun up and have sights aligned pointing at your target.

10. Start out slowly bringing the gun up so the sights are aligned. Do this many times until you bring the gun up and  you can see the front sight inside the notch of the rear sight every time.

11. ok ok, if you have a dot sight, be able to bring the gun up so you see the dot every time.

12. You will probably be able to do this sooner than you think but you have to keep practicing so that it becomes a habit.

13. Then practice bringing the gun up with sights aligned right on the target. Do this until it becomes a habit.

14. Accomplish this and you will have a good natural point of aim.

15.  You should spend a lot of time going through this process so you can accurately hit the bad guy as quickly as possible. You can practice at home with an unloaded gun with a chamber flag inserted.

16. Now after you learn this concept of natural point of aim for extreme accuracy, work on getting the gun to point at the target from different positions. Like in a practical situation, like in a gun fight.

17. Also practice different angles left and right, up and down.

18. Practice at home (with a chamber flag inserted) pointing at door knobs, light switch plates, pictures on the wall, etc.

19. I  Most of the time in a gun fight very few rounds hit their target. This is a good reason to get a good natural point of aim. Right?

20.  Another reason is because in low light situations you may not be able to see your sights.

21. And another reason is because in a panic situation people don’t look at their sights anyway and shoot with both eyes open too. That’s why most shots miss their target in a gun fight.

22. So the only way you can hit your target is using the “HABIT” of “Natural Point of Aim.”

23. When you think you are good at bringing the gun up with sights aligned, close your eyes before you bring the gun up.

24. Open eyes, after the gun us up, are the sights aligned. Keep working on this until they are aligned bringing them up with eyes closed from a low ready position and from the holster.

25. Everybody’s hands are different size and shape and every gun is different size and shape. So you have to just practice,  keep changing the grip and angle of your wrists so the sights are aligned every time you bring the gun up.

26. Another exercise is close your eyes after the gun is up and pointing at your target. Close your eyes for like 10 seconds. Open them, are you still pointing at the target.

27. Also look at the target before you close your eyes, then bring the gun up. It’s amazing how close you can come to the middle of the target when you open your eyes, with some practice.

28. Now let it be said that this definition of the term of “natural point of aim” where you are shooting from many different positions or “practical shooting”, is different than it is used in air rifle, bulls eye, NRA style of competitions where you are shooting from the exact same position all the time.

29. Yes you can call this point shooting but try it and you will see you will need to go through the process of natural point of aim I just described to be able to hit the target in your aiming area with any speed and from different positions.

30. So maybe if someone comes up with a better different name for this way of shooting I will change the name here.

31. Always start out these shooting exercises with slow perfect moves with no wasted movement until you can do them really well. Then you can speed up and use different positions but keep hitting in your aiming area. You can push your limits until you can’t hit your aiming area but then end your practice session by slowing down and or using less awkward positions to be able to be hitting in your aiming area again.

32. Also if you can use a way to get instant feedback when you are practicing firing in a gun fight, like a laser on you gun or air soft gun try shooting several different targets. With practice you can go faster and faster and still hit your targets in your aiming area. You will notice the better you get, the less you will be using your sights. You will be using your natural point of aim. You can do this on a shooting range with real ammo by putting up a target that has several bulls’ eyes on it. Make sure it’s ok with the range to shoot faster than one shot per second. And remember we all have to always stay in control.

21.     Breathing

A.  I have heard nationally ranked shooters teach, stop breathing;

1) at the bottom of your breathing cycle,

2) after you breathe in, let a little air out

3) and after you breath out take a little air in.

4) So try them all and see what works out best for you.

B.  I taught rifle marksmanship at the University of Utah for about 5 years. We taught out of the text book “With Winning in Mind”. This Olympic gold medalist said he liked to breathe in just a little after the bottom of the breathing cycle.

C.    But this was all VERY slow aimed fire, air rifle competition shooting.

D.  In a practical situation, you can stop breathing anytime you have enough time to stop breathing to fire the gun.

E.   Obviously breathing has a tendency to move the gun somewhat. But if you are in a gun fight, JUST KEEP BREATHING.

F.   Practice shooting while moving and breathing while firing the gun.

G.   I have taken several classes from combat veterans who have been in gun fights. They are scary situations. They were taught and practiced breathing slowly and deeply.

H.  Breathing in, count to yourself or even out loud, 1,2,3. (Take 3 or 5 seconds depending on how fast you count), hold your breath for 3 seconds, breath out for 3 seconds, hold your breath 3 seconds.

I.     Then start the cycle over again. Breath in, hold, out, hold.

J.     This calms your mind. It gives your mind something else to do besides being scared, frustrated, in pain, etc. Do this until you can think clearly again.

K.  My wife said that’s what she was taught in a child birthing class.

22.     Trigger Control

A.  Practice moving the trigger directly to the rear without disturbing the sight alignment. This takes practice. Watch the sight alignment very carefully when pulling the trigger. I’ve heard firearms instructors call this many things. Pull the trigger, mash, press, squeeze, etc. I think we all agree it shouldn’t be called jerk the trigger.

B.  It doesn’t matter what you call it, just don’t disturb the sight alignment or sight picture.

C.   Isolate the trigger finger movement.

D.  Start out moving the trigger slowly and maybe having to change where you place your finger on the trigger and maybe having to change direction of the movement of your trigger finger. Because every gun is different and each person’s hand is different, you have to figure this out for yourself.

E.   Also you can try pulling the trigger as fast as you can, as you would in a panic, defending your life situation. Have you practiced enough so your trigger control is a habit? If the front sight was moving around off your target, you need to practice more. Keep slowing down, then pushing your limits of speed. Then keep the front sight on your target again (or laser on your target) working on your natural point of aim.

F.   Another drill that is amazing is holding your hand out like you have a pistol in your hand. Not a clenched fist. Fingers just curved like curved around a pistol grip. Trigger finger extended like it is on a trigger.

G.   Now jerk your trigger finger like you are jerking a trigger. Did the rest of your fingers move? Do this several times.

H.  Now hold your hand out the same way and move your trigger finger very slowly. Like take 3 seconds to move it back. Did the rest of your fingers move? I don’t think so.

I.     After doing this with hundreds of students I think I can count on one hand the number of students that could keep the rest of their fingers from moving when jerking their trigger finger.

J.     When the rest of your fingers move, it moves the whole gun. Not a good thing.

K.  Now one of the hardest things for students to learn, usually the ones that have had shooting experience before, is to slow down enough to be able to hit their target.  They just want to shoot fast.

L.   I teach them as I count to take 3 seconds to pull the trigger back, hold it back for 1 second and take 3 seconds to move the trigger forward. Some people are so arrogant they are proud to be pulling the trigger faster than I am counting. And don’t shoot any more accurate than before.

M.  Not all, but most all students that slow down and move the trigger as I count shoot noticeably more accurate. Then I have them do the counting their selves.

23.     Recoil Management

A.  It is important to have the gun spring right back on target after a shot is fired, so you can be ready for a fast follow up shot and you are still looking right at where the bullet landed, maybe you can see it hit. So keep your grip with wrists just stiff enough to do this.

B.  To check to see if you are doing this correctly. Try double taps. That’s firing two shots very quickly. Like in about a half second.

C.   If you were getting 2 or 3 inch groups at 5 yards in a paper target with slow aimed fire, work on control enough to get at least down to 4 to 6 inch groups with double taps.

D.  Work on keeping your eyes open and not blinking when the gun fires. Shoot at something you can see the bullet hole or splatter appear AS THE BULLET HITS.

24.     Follow Through

A.  There are a lot of definitions of follow through. Here is a combination of them.

B.  Take your time; assess the whole shot process you just performed.

C.   When firing with the front sight coming right back down on your point of impact, keep looking at that spot.

D.  Where the front sight was when the shot was fired, that’s where the bullet landed. (calling your shot)

E.   Many students when starting out drop the gun down as soon as it fires to see where the bullet is going to hit. It already hit by the time they drop the gun.

F.   You are lucky to have the muzzle back down out of the way depending on how much recoil you have.

G.   If you have a scope on your gun, if it has magnification like on a rifle, you can see the impact a lot better through the scope. It’s very important to know where the bullet landed. Either seeing it land or knowing where the front sight was when the shot was fired.

H.  I usually say that shooting just to watch the dirt fly is not good practice but; work on NOT blinking, keeping your eyes open, watch for the impact of the dirt, steel or paper target.

I.     Also after you fire and see for sure you neutralized the target, you should look around 360 degrees, looking for any other threats. Do this while still keeping the gun pointed where you just fired.

25.     Balance

A.  Adjust your stance or position so you have good balance to absorb the recoil of your gun for the rate of fire and stay balanced while moving.

B.  Usually the support side foot is forward, knees a little bent, hips a little back, and shoulders a little forward.

C.   Use this squatting position while moving and shooting, and keep your head and gun level with the ground.

D.  Start moving slowly and move faster as you can keep the front sight on target.

E.   As you progress in your shooting skills you can work on off balance and awkward positions or movement.

F.   Just keep a GOOD sight picture.

26.     Shooting Positions

A.  How fast you need to fire your gun and how accurate you need to shoot, will probably determine what position you can shoot from. Always get the most support available for whatever time you have to fire.

B.  From free standing with no support, which is probably the most common, to bench rest; your gun having a front and rear rest so the sight alignment is perfectly still and not moving at all on your target. (This is the hold you use sighting your gun in too)

C.   And anywhere in-between. You can always try to hold your gun, hand, arm or your body on or against something to steady yourself to get a more accurate shot off.

D.  Because there is no set way to hold a gun or position to shoot from, in PRACTICAL OR SELF DEFENCE SITUATIONS. It is whatever works best at the time.

E.   If the bad guy is within arm’s length and a lethal threat, you don’t want to fully extend you arms to shoot. Shoot from your side just after you get your gun pulled from the holster.

F.   We usually teach to keep your support hand close to your chest as you draw your gun. But with the bad guy this close trying to kill you or do serious bodily harm, you are going to use that support hand to get distance from the threat and or block a weapon, so you can draw your gun and shoot.

G.   You can stand facing the target, feet perpendicular to target. Or a more squatting position with strong foot back like a boxer stance. This gives you more balance when shooting a lot more ammo and or moving while shooting. This stance helps you keep upright while getting bumped by someone or tripping while moving.

27.     Dry Fire

A.  Dry fire usually means cocking the gun and pulling the trigger and having it go CLICK. This gives you practice with the weight of the trigger. But you have to rack the slide or cock the gun every time you dry fire. I just got tired of doing that so I just put pressure on the trigger to simulate trigger pull.

B.  Any fake gun will have a different trigger pull too, so you’ll just have to go to the gun range and practice once in a while. It’s not too hard to get used to it again. You’ll have to get use to recoil and noise anyway.

C.   There is so much to practice while dry firing; it is still the best practice you can do. Besides not having the cost of ammo, range fees and travel.

D.  You can do it at home in your spare time.

E.   Laser, air soft or paint ball have a great advantage of giving you instant feedback of how your marksmanship skills are progressing.

F.   With guns that do not fire anything you have to watch the sight alignment very carefully to see where the bullet would have hit. This is calling your shot. Which you should be doing with live fire too.

G.   Yes, you can use your real gun at home to dry fire as long as you follow these strict rules:

1) Rule #1 – Carefully UNLOAD all ammo out of your gun and move it out of the area you will be practicing in.

2) Rule #2 – Put a SAFETY FLAG or chamber flag in the gun. Use something that sticks at least out of the chamber and probably the muzzle too. Weed whacker string, 550 cord or some other kind of string, etc. will also let you holster the gun for practice drawing the gun. Heavy plastic chamber flags are good showing the gun cannot fire but they won’t let you holster the gun.

3) Rule #3 – after you are done practicing you can take the chamber flag out but immediately handle it like it has live ammo in it. If you are not going to be carrying it just leave the chamber flag in it.

H.  When dry firing to getting muscle memory, exercise your eyes too. Move them along with your gun far right and left, far up and down and very near to very far. They will appreciate getting exercised too.

I.     Usually when we are aiming we tell shooters to focus on the front sight. That’s how you learn to get a good sight alignment and picture. Eye, rear sight, front sight and target all lined up.

J.     As you get better at natural point of aim where you don’t have to watch the front sight so close, you can watch the target more closely (natural point of aim, remember?).

K.  Remember it is easier when shooting multiple targets to move your eyes just ahead of the gun. It’s easier to stop the gun on the target that way.

L.   When doing dry fire, practice the draw stroke, natural point of aim and trigger control. Do all this faster and faster as you can keep a good sight picture. Then push the limits and then come back to making all hits on the target.

M. Air soft guns are one of the most economical ways to dry fire. 

28.     Less Lethal Defense

A.  When a situation is not to the life threatening degree yet, you may want to use non-lethal tools.

B.  Always try to de-escalate a situation. Situations escalate very fast sometimes from verbal to physical. Try to verbally calm everybody down nicely. If that doesn’t work raise your voice, then threatening voice, threaten with non lethal tools and then use of non lethal tools.

C.   Try to be aware ahead of time enough to have your hand on a non-lethal tool and or get distance between you and the threat.

D.  Tools like stun gun, pepper spray, pen, pencil, etc.

E.   You can use less lethal tools too to give you a chance to escape or get to your gun for a lethal encounter.

F.   Move sideways as you brush his weapon to the side as you try to escape or get to your gun.

G.   We won’t get into martial arts here but trying to escape or fighting to your gun you can hit a perpetrator to stun them, palm heel to under chin or side of head.

H.  Fingers to eyes or knee to groin can get you time to escape or get to your gun. Do any or all of these while letting out a blood curdling yell, with no mercy.

I.     I had a karate instructor tell us if you come up to five guys with knives….RUN.  And you won that fight.

29.     Practice

A.  Each person has to practice with whatever tools and equipment they have and to what their physical limits are of strength and agility.

B.  Adapt these practice principles to your situation

C.   With any of these marksmanship skills, start out with slow, smooth, meticulous moves. Get the moves down perfectly right.

D.  Think through the shot process. Rehearse those perfect moves in your mind. Don’t do wasted moves.

E.   Go faster as long as you stay with those perfect meticulous moves. Because missed shots, never win gun fights.

F.   How accurate do you need to be? As accurate as possible. When I teach students I usually put the targets out 5 yards. The targets we get at the Bountiful Range have 5- 2” squares on them. I figure if a student can get 5 shots in a 2” square, they are doing good with slow aimed fire.

G.   Just think if you needed to shoot a longer distance in a self defense situation. It can happen.  

H.  2” at 5 yards translates into 14” (torso size) at 35 yards. It would be nice to be able to shoot ½” size groups at 5 yards.

I.     That’s very possible with concentration and smooth trigger control to not disturb the sight alignment.

J.     If you shoot out that far, practice compensating for bullet drop for each distance by keeping the front sight on the target where you want the impact and lowering the rear sight compared to the front sight.

K.  If you try to shoot 50, 100, 200 yards or whatever, you will understand why I stress accuracy so hard and heavy.

L.   Practice making decisions of shoot – no shoot targets.

M. With live fire you need eye and ear protection, practice recoil management and the need to be on the shooting range. Otherwise you can practice about everything else, in dry fire mode, at home in your spare time.

N.  80% – 90% of practice should be dry fire because you can concentrate better on developing the movement of each of the skills we talked about up to now, without dealing with recoil and noise.

O.  Get that muscle memory set in stone.

P.   Because if the shooting starts and you decide to engage the bad guy, ACCURACY AND SPEED, will be what matters most.

Q.  Laser, air soft and paint ball are GREAT training guns because they give instant feedback of natural point of aim, sight picture and trigger control. 

R.  Air soft is probably the most economical. Think out some realistic scenarios and practice.  You can set up a whole shooting gallery of paper cups, swinging targets, etc.

S.    Practice moving before or as you draw your gun. If the shooting has already started, you may need to be moving a lot. Try finding some cover, out of sight of the shooter.  That may give you time to draw your gun and assess the situation of who is the bad guy.

T.   Dry firing all other guns that don’t have projectiles or laser, you have to watch the sight picture very close to see where the bullet would land, which is what we should be doing anyway, even with live fire.

U.  Start out slow with perfect movements, and then move faster as you can keep perfect movements. (at least very good movements)

V.   When you start to practice live fire, if you can, start with smaller caliber guns and work your way to bigger caliber.

W.       Watch very carefully if the front sight dips down when you fire (or the bullets are hitting low). Have someone watch really close to see if you are flinching or trying to hold the gun from recoiling.

X.   Or put some dummy rounds in the magazine or skip some chambers in a revolver. These things make flinching show up really good.

Y.   If you are flinching, go back to smaller caliber or dry firing.

Z.   Flinching is, or has been, a bad habit for most shooters. It needs to be fixed NOW. Don’t keep doing it.

AA.    You don’t need to hold the recoil back. The gun is going to recoil whether you like it or not. Don’t try to hold it back. You can’t hold it back. Let it recoil. Just manage it. Remember grip the gun so it springs back to where it was just pointing.

BB.    I have had big macho guys flinch just like small non-muscular people flinch. It’s a matter of managing it.

CC.      Another thing I found that helps with flinching is have a student dry fire a double action hand gun. Where it is a long trigger pull that cocks the gun or firing pin and also fires the gun in one trigger pull.’

DD.   It takes so long to pull the trigger that they do not know when it is going to go off, which doesn’t let them flinch.

EE.     I say to students “do not care if the guns is going to go off or not”.

FF.      Don’t be afraid of guns, manage guns. Make them do what you want.

GG.    Yes, you need to be on a shooting range to practice recoil management and trigger pull of your carry gun. But the rest of these skills you can do anywhere you dry fire. Always start out slow and accurately to get the muscle memory. Then go faster and faster. Push the limits until you are missing the target. Then always go back and make all hits as fast as you can.

HH.   Practice :

1) Drawing the gun out of a holster, especially from a concealed position.

2) Sight alignment – sight picture

3) Natural point of aim. With eyes closed, bring the gun up. Do this until the sights are always aligned and on the target.

4) Trigger control

5) Multiple and different types of targets

6) From multiple positions

7) Shooting while moving

8) Draw the gun while moving

9) Shooting moving targets

10)           Multiple distances

11)           When you think you are getting good try these:

12)           Moving different directions and speed

13)           Looking for concealment

14)           Move gun from side to side passing over target, pulling trigger as it passes over the middle of the target. Start out very slow and work your way faster only as you can hit the middle of the target. This teaches you to pull the trigger faster while keeping the sight picture and this helps engaging moving targets too.

15)           Pick a target size – a piece of copy paper 8 ½ X 11 is a good size for the center of mass shot of a person. Since in a high stress situation you won’t be shooting as good, try to keep the group of bullet holes within a 4 or 6” or even 2” by 3”.

16)           Start with slow aimed fire at 5 yards. That’s a good self defense distance. If any rounds land out of your predetermined area, reshoot.

17)           Watching the sights real carefully, you can do this with dry fire.

18)           To progress, try rapid aimed fire. Then point shooting.

19)           When you can point shoot at 5 yards and keep your hits within 4“, show me.

20)           Dry fire practicing of these skills just 5 or 10 minutes a day a few times a week, you will be amazed at your progress within weeks.

21)           Practice the best moves you know smoothly, without wasted movement, getting them to become a habit is the fastest way to learn to be fast.

22)           Remember stay away from bad practice to stay away from bad habits.

II.  Any of the principals we have talked about are basic shooting skills. If you ever miss your aiming area, you need to practice one or more of these basic skills. And that is why we practice, to learn are limits and increase our skills.

JJ.  I designed a course of fire for a group of S.W.A.T. Snipers many years ago. They each had their own computer controlled target. I told them they would not know when or how long their target would face them. I set the time for the first time the targets faced them for one half second. Nobody got a shot off. I said you failed……… but that you learn more from failing than succeeding. It was not meant as an insult but a learning moment. I was pretty brave saying that to a group of guys that had loaded guns, but they agreed with me.

KK.    So keep on learning and practicing.

LL.      Every aspect of shooting accurately, fast or shooting a bad guy, needs to be REHEARSED, VISUALIZED AND CONDITIONED into the brain…….

MM.                    Don’t think of it as killing a person, but a target that is trying to murder someone. Shoot with no mercy or regrets.  JUST LIKE SWATTING A MOSKITO.

NN.    Make practice fun, so you practice enough so your brain actually gets conditioned. 

OO.   Chances are you will need to engage a bad person at the spur of the moment. Are you practicing your automatic natural point of aim???

PP.    Reward yourself for reaching a goal of speed or accuracy.

QQ.   At Home:

1) Make sure anyone else at your home where you practice, always knows exactly what you are doing. Hopefully they will want to learn dry fire drills too.

2) Teach kids and anyone else that will listen how to do dry fire drills and why you do them.

3) Teach them everything you know that is good. Take them to the range and live fire when they want to shoot real guns.

4) Teach kids, big kids too, there is a difference between real guns and fake guns. And that laser, air soft and paint ball should be handled like real guns. And BB and pellet or air guns are real guns. They can kill.

5) There is no age requirement to teach kids. Whenever they are curious. Be there for them. Fake guns are for practicing how to handle a real gun. As well as specialized times when you can point totally inert guns  at each other.

6) I have seen preteens handle and shoot just as good as most adults. They had some good training.

7) Teach kids that when they come across a gun anywhere to: Stop, Don’t Touch, Leave the Area, and tell YOU about it.

8) To help you practice enough, make a game, a fun game out of practice. Keep track of your progress.

9) If there is someone you can practice with or compete with. That would be a good thing.

30.     Advanced Practice – Self Defense

A.  You can always work on being more accurate and faster. Also practice more movement and odd positions. Always making sure you are hitting the 2,4 or 6” target at whatever distance you pick. If you can’t hit the target with every shot, get closer or shoot slower.

B.  Take video of your self practicing or watching in a mirror gives great feedback of how you are progressing.

C.   Break down the shot process, take each step separately. Get it down good, and then add the next step. Add - practice, add - practice, add - practice.

D.  You can do all these things in A and B with dry fire practice, at home, in your spare time, do it often. At home, by yourself, so you don’t feel self conscious or have someone thinking you are crazy. Practice slowly until you get good habits, then keep speeding up until you are real aggressive and still being accurate.

E.   Plan and stick to a plan. What, when and how long to practice.

F.   When you think you are doing well, INTRODUCE STRESS. Things like:

1) Competitions

2) Force on force- with proper safety gear, you can use air soft or paint ball and get someone to do simulated gun fights.

3) Do shots off balance, around corners, from support side.

4) Distractions or someone causing distractions.

5) Manage stress, focus on each shot, let everything else go, and don’t worry about anything else.

6) After the shot, then assess the shot and the environment.

7) In practice, take some time to relax every part of your body. After you do this dozens of times you will get a lot faster at it.  And get in the habit of relaxing and focusing on each shot.

8) Then, distractions are good.

When I was teaching Rifle Marksmanship Class at the U of U, I would go down the gun range a hour or so early to get the guns we would be using and most of the time there would be a student from the school pistol team practicing on the range. One time I went in the door and a lady was concentrating on her next shot, she heard me open the door and she turned and I whispered that I would be very quiet so to not distract her. She said “distractions are good”. I looked at her and said “you have been trained very well”. The pistol team WAS trained very good, I saw Lexey (sp) down there many times. She shot in the Tokyo Olympics.

9) Always concentrate on the immediate process or shot, not the shot before or after.

10)             Practice starting to move and drawing the gun at the same time.

11)             And move as fast as you can. As you would need to do as if the bullets started flying your way all of a sudden.

12)             How fast can you move while keeping your shots on target?

13)             In all your practice drills, start out with slow, smooth, meticulous moves. Get them perfect with no wasted movement. Then speed up as you keep those perfect moves. Then push the limits of speed, accuracy, movement and awkward positions to find out your limits. Always end up practicing perfect moves within your limits.

14)             Print out letters and or numbers on paper and use them as targets. Shooting letters in order to form words or a series of numbers and letters. Someone calling out random numbers or letters.  Record a series of you calling out numbers or letters. You can use pictures of anything especially good guys and bad guys. Spread the items out so you have to really look and think to hit the correct items.

15)             All these things teach you to be thinking. Thinking of who, what, where, when and how. When you make the decision to shoot, then you can use your natural point of aim and fire. You should have practiced enough you can do this automatically without thinking.

16)             Always start out these drills slowly and get the moves down correctly. Hit the target every time. Then you can speed up. Then push your limits, and then go back to hitting every time.

G.   After you fire, always assess whether the shot hit the target and practice another shot or three.

H.  Malfunctions – follow all safety rules

1) Case didn’t eject or round won’t chamber – hold slide back, tilt gun to side, let loose case or round fall out.

2) If they don’t fall out, drop magazine out, rack slide a couple time to clear the gun, insert magazine, chamber round.

3) If round does not fire, NRA training says; wait 30 seconds; eject round and chamber new round. I have never seen anyone do this. They just rack the slide, chambering a new round and keep shooting. I am not saying to not wait 30 seconds.

I.     In a self defense situation, one shot hardly ever stops a threat instantly. So you always have to assess and keep shooting until there is no threat anymore.

J.     After you neutralize the threat, always look around you to see if there are any more threats and tell any witnesses to call 911.

K.Sometimes it is better to think twice before you act, such as in hostage situations or many people standing around.

L.  Think real hard if there is anything you can do besides firing your gun.

M. After you shoot to defend a life, act like a bystander and tell witnesses to point the bad guys first. And you are the good guy and point you out last if at all………

N.  Make sure there is a deadly threat before you pull your gun out.

O.  Know your limits especially under stress.

P.   If the threat stops being a threat, like starts running away, don’t shoot them the back.

Q.  Use less lethal tools if you can.

R.  Put your gun away if possible before the cops show up. Act like a bystander and tell witnesses you are the good guy and point you out last.

S.    It would be good to give a minimum amount of information to police, tell them you need to contact your lawyer. In court, the prosecution will twist anything you say trying to make you out as the bad guy.

T.   “SLOW” down to learn the PROCESS of accurate shooting and what I call “Natural Point of Aim” because most shots in a gun fight miss their target. Whether it is a good guy or bad guy, most miss more often than not.

U.  Learn “EFFECTIVE” practice techniques. Because it does no good to keep missing the target, that creates bad habits.

V.   One of the hardest things for someone who has been shooting already is to slow down so they can hit the target.

 

31.     Most Important Skills:

 

-Situational Awareness

 

-“MAKING THE DECISION” of whether to pull your gun out of the holster and use deadly force.

 

-You must reasonably believe, as any reasonable person would, that you will be stopping a murder from happening (or serious permanent bodily injury).

 

-Decide if you should you get involved, or not!!

-Are you likely to get hurt or killed?

 

 

-Make positive sure you KNOW what is REALLY going on?

 

-You MUST POSITIVELY IDENTIFY who are the GOOD guys and who are the BAD guys.

 

-YOU HAVE TO KNOW FOR SURE,

       Or don’t even pull your gun out of the holster.

-THINK; because EVERY situation can and will be different.

 

-Call the police as soon as you can.

 

32.     Some laws to remember

A.            There is nothing in Utah law that restricts how many or what kind of gun you can conceal.

B.            Just make sure it is legal for you to carry whatever guns you have on you.

C.             And I don’t think it’s a good idea to open carry a gun even though it is legal in Utah, unless you look like you are supposed to be carrying a gun. Police have been called on people who have a gun perfectly legal and it creates big messy law suits.

D.            This is right out of the Utah CFP curriculum:

E.                (a) A person is justified in threatening or using force against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that force or a threat of force is necessary to defend the person or a third person against another person's imminent use of unlawful force.

(b) A person is justified in using force intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily injury only if the person reasonably believes that force is necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury to the person or a third person as a result of another person's imminent use of unlawful force, or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

F.                 (c) forcible felony includes aggravated assault, mayhem, aggravated murder, murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, and aggravated kidnapping, rape, forcible sodomy, rape of a child, object rape, object rape of a child, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated sexual abuse of a child, and aggravated sexual assault as defined in Title 76, Chapter 5   

G.             14 to 17 year olds need parent or guardian permission to have gun in their passion.

H.            Under 14 need the adult with them.

I.               Class B misdemeanor for letting a minor be in possession of a gun without your permission.

J.               You can not threaten with a gun when there is no threat of serious bodily injury (permanent injury) or death or use a gun if you agree to a fight.

K.            Defense of habitation – reasonable belief or fear of imminent peril; of entry with violent, tumultuous, or stealth, for purpose of assault, personal violence or commission of felony.

L.             Only use as much force as necessary to stop a crime.

M.           Prohibited areas:

1) Secure areas of airports, post offices, courts, jails, correctional and mental health facilities.

2) Federal buildings

3) All places that notify by verbal or a posted sign or on BCI website for churches.

N.            Police encounters; keep your hands visible and cooperate fully. If they ask if you have a weapon, tell them the truth.

O.            If you are not found guilty in a criminal court you can still be sued by the family of the person you injured or killed in a civil court.

33.     Situational Awareness

A.  We have different levels of awareness depending on where we are and what we are doing. From being at home with the doors locked asleep or watching TV, up to, being caught in a riot down town.

B.  Thank goodness here in Utah, normally so far, we don’t have to be dressed and carry gear like Special Forces or S.W.A.T. Officers. We need to carry on with our normal lives.

C.   Try to “assess” an area when you first enter it. Be aware of anything OUT of the ORDINARY.

D.  A good example is driving a car. Most of the time while driving, we are driving at a subconscious level, but be conscious enough so the instant something out of the ordinary happens like someone cuts us off, we react by trying to not get hit.

E.   We automatically stop at red lights and go at green lights.

F.   Same thing with self defense. Most of the time we are fairly good at being aware of our surrounding. But there are times when people just didn’t see or hear something that caused them harm.

G.   So if we can just practice a little more of being aware of anything out of the ordinary.

H.  Consciously do these things for a while, then you can start doing them subconsciously, just like driving a car.

I.     Or especially riding a motorcycle.

J.     Practice being aware of people.

1) Scan all around you when you feel the need

2) Always make situational awareness your top priority, not your phone call or talking to someone.

3) What are people doing

4) Are they looking at you

5) Watch their hands

6) Are they coming toward you

7) Are they getting too close for comfort

8) What are they saying

9) How much effort you use to do these things depends on where you are

10)           Practice these things until you can do them automatically without thinking just like driving a car

11)           Make a game out of being aware with someone else.

12)           Don’t worry about trying to remember all these things immediately. It all boils down to watching for anything out of the ordinary. You probably do most of this subconsciously already.

K.  THINK of what your options are, before and during, different situations, it is your choice to:

1) Avoid problems

2) You can put your hand on a defensive tool even before there is a threat. It can save very valuable time.

3) Create distance between you and the problem

4) Move left or right

5) Finding a barricade

6) Hiding

7) Escape the problems

8) Retreat

9) Remember, Stay in control with no emotions

10)        Verbalize

11)        De-escalate a confrontation

12)        Disrupt their plan of attack

13)        Use rude and authoritative language

14)        Posture (act like King Kong)

15)        Threaten

16)        Have your hand on a defensive tool by now

17)        Turn fear into attack mode

18)        Stay in control, thinking of what you can do until the habits you created by practicing self defense skills kick in.

19)        Use less than lethal force

20)        Warning shots?????? Or just pulling your gun out of the holster without being lethally threatened, you can be charged as being the aggressor.

21)         Only use lethal force to save a life

22)        Of course if the shooting is already started you can skip to the last one on this list to save a life.

34.     Mind Conditioning - Mind Set

A.  People need to work on “MIND CONDITIONING” or “MIND SET” so they can shoot accurately, automatically without thinking and to give them a better chance of actually fighting back or pulling the trigger on a perpetrator to be able to save a life.

B.  In a self defense situation, HAVE A SURVIVAL MIND SET.

C.   DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO SURVIVE

D.  TAKE THE ATTITUDE - YOU WILL SURVIVE

E.   Think through what you would do in a self defense situation and REHEARSE this all you can, of what you can and would do. Do this many, many times. 

F.   Never handle a gun while under the influence of any drugs, depression or suicidal thoughts.

G.   Learn to shoot more accurate than you would need to in a self defense situation.

H.  I know of many news articles that say very few shots hit their target between a good guy and a bad guy.

I.     Unless you are only a few feet away; always shoot for the center of mass. The chest area. It’s the easiest place to hit with vital organs. Because people are almost never standing perfectly still.

J.     If they are close enough, and you know you can hit them in the head, that is a vital organ.

K.  Don’t try to shoot the gun out of their hand or shoot them in the leg.

L.   It’s not only a waste of time and ammo to miss the target; you are accountable for any misses. Stray bullets are a real problem.

M. Also hitting the perpetrator slows the bullet down significantly which saves on stray bullets.

N.  Bad joke of the day, with the price of ammo these days, make all hits.

O.  In a high stress or panic situation, peoples thinking, vision, talking and motor skills deteriorate. People lose concentration and focus in these situations.  People do things that are not good, illogical and just plain wrong.

P.   Don’t be so anxious to be a hero that you do something really stupid. Be thinking.

Q.  Don’t be a dead hero. It’s better to be a good witness.

R.  That’s why it is so important to avoid the situation, de-escalate the situation or get back out of these situations as fast as possible.

S.    Even though you can feel justified in a situation there is a lot of grey area in the law and there will be someone in court trying to make you out to be the bad guy. You will have to justify yourself in court.

T.   Probably the biggest challenge for a student that has some experience in shooting is learning to slow down. It does no good to practice if you keep missing the target. That creates bad habits.

U.  Learn accuracy first, and then hitting the target faster becomes natural.

V.   Until it becomes a conditioned response, a reflex, so that you can perform accurately and fast enough during extreme stress without having to think about it.

W.               A person’s shooting habits, shooting automatically or shooting subconsciously, is about the only way a person can shoot accurately enough to get through a panic situation.

X.   Another way of saying this is:  Do perfect practice until it becomes a habit and you can do it automatically without thinking.

Y.   Remember to never pull your gun out of the holster unless it is to save a life.

Z.   Also you do not try to kill someone; you try to stop a murder from happening……..

35.      Mind Conditioning #2…more things to consider

A.  A lot of people will not pull the trigger on someone. Even a few Special Forces or S.W.A.T. trained persons can’t shoot someone either. People freeze or run.

B.  People do that. Don’t worry yourself sick over it. You can still try to escape, de-escalate the threat, use posturing like yelling at them with authority threatening them. Make them realize it is not worth committing the crime.

C.   Be ready. You can try to already have your hand on a non-lethal weapon or your gun depending on the situation. It will save a lot of valuable time.

D.  If someone is getting too close for comfort or they want money or something, you say “I don’t have any money”, “I can’t help you” and or yell “BACK OFF”.

E.   If it’s getting to be a life threatening situation, use non-lethal or even threaten with lethal force.

F.   Turn fear into attack mode. But use lethal force, only if it is a lethal threat.

G.   When you can’t hit a lethal attacker to stop it, BREATH and THINK through what you trained to do.

H.  Practice visualizing what you would do in a self defense situation. Think through different situations in different places under different circumstances, over and over until you don’t have to wonder what you would do anymore.

I.     Another way of saying this is to “rehearse” what you would do in your mind. From drawing your non-lethal or lethal weapon to natural point of aim to shooting until the threat is stopped to scanning for more threats to calling the police.

J.     Visualize that you are shooting a real target that is attempting to murder someone and detach your emotions from the situation. You will be saving a life.

K.  Remember: Stay calm, assess the situation, make sure you are doing the right thing, then do it, WITH NO MERCY

L.   USE AS MUCH MERCY AS YOU DO WHEN SWATTING A MOSQUITO. 

M. So nobody really knows whether they can really shoot someone else even in a life threatening situation until that time comes. If you can’t, that’s ok, a lot of people can’t.

N.  I haven’t shot anyone myself, but I always say I would like that option available to me.

O.  We not only have a legal right to self defense but a responsibility to save our own or family’s life.

36.     Gun Maintenance

·      If you ask 5 people how to clean a gun, you’ll get 10 different answers. Every gun is different.

·      If it looks dirty or malfunctions, clean it. Learn to clean it before it looks dirty or malfunctions to keep those two things from happening.

·      Use your owner’s manual to field strip, clean and lubricate your gun. There are other books for taking your gun totally apart for deep cleaning. If you are not into guns that much, just take it to a gunsmith.

37.     Suicide Prevention

This is a quote from CFP curriculum;

A.  {   Who’s at Risk of Suicide? • People who struggle with depression, substance abuse, or other mental health problems, especially if they’re also facing a painful crisis like a relationship break-up, arrest, trouble at work, or financial crises – problems that make you feel hopeless and trapped.

B.  Teens at Home? Teens that die by suicide may show few or no warning signs. A wise precaution: store all guns locked if you have children at home- especially teenagers.

C.   Having access to a firearm during a suicidal crisis increases the odds that an attempter will die. • We can protect one another. Be alert to signs of suicide in friends and family. • It’s like holding on to a friend’s keys when they’re drunk. • If someone is at risk, help keep guns from them until they recover.   }

 

D.  I actually have a friend who asked his in-laws to hold his guns because after many surgeries he was still in so much pain he was very depressed. After he finally got the pain under control and got his guns back, he is doing very well now. I am proud to know this person. I was proud to know him even before his thoughts of suicide. He happens to be one of the best competition shooters I have ever known.  And I have known, worked with and shot with many nationally ranked shooters.

E.   Letting someone hold your guns or keys OR holding them for someone else, can really work.

 

PARTING THOUGHTS

38.     Always do anything you can to get out of a fight situation

39.     Always Stay Safe and

       Stay “Responsible”

40.     Dry fire practice these skills just 5 or 10 minutes a day a few times a week and you will make great progress.

41.     Take video of yourself practicing or watching in a mirror gives great feedback of how you are progressing.

42.     Safe and responsible ownership of firearms helps keep us independent. Dictators, wanna be dictators and deceived people hate this concept. They want power and control over us.

43.     We should always work to stay as independent as possible.

44.     And being RESPONSIBLE with firearms is the biggest part of being independent.

45.     And one more thing, try to have a lot of fun practicing so that you practice enough. By yourself or with a friend.

46.     If you have questions or comments contact me,

Clint Simon

801 599 1574

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.utahshootouts.com

47.     Excellent Reading material and websites with tons more in depth information about these skills:

To anyone who has taken a Utah Concealed Firearm Permit Class from me, here is the link to the required curriculum I have to give you.

BCI website – curriculum for Utah Concealed Firearm Permit Instructors.    

  https://bci.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/08/Minimum-Training-Curriculm.pdf   

Utah Shooting Sports Council - https://utahshootingsportscouncil.org/   Get on USSC email list for updates on Utah laws that the Utah Legislature is working on.

Gun Owners of America - https://www.gunowners.org/

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership  http://www.jpfo.org

Real World Gunfight Training – Mike (Ox) Ochsner

Firing Back – Erick Pratt

With Winning in Mind – Lanny Bassham

On Killing – Dave Grossman

How to Shoot Like a Navy Seal – Chris Sajnog

Practical Shooters Guide – Marcus Blanchard

Dry Fire Training Cards – Mike Ox - https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/

Tactics and Preparedness - https://tacticsandpreparedness.com/

Warriorlife - https://warriorlife.com/

JPFO - Reason to fight against gun controls:   http://jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/deathgc.htm#chart

And last but not least,     www.utahshootouts.com