Practical Observation Post

Regular practice: How often should you practice a skill to consider it regular practice? In Illinois we have an interesting system where every five years you are required to re-qualify for your concealed carry permit. The amount of people who have not shot for the last five years is amazing. Typically I have around ten percent of any given class that has not practiced at all. If you received your driving license five years ago and have not driven since would you believe you were a safe driver? At the end of each class I give a renewal survey that analyzes a number of different factors including how often do they do live fire training and how often they do dry fire training. The survey is totally anonymous and it is an easy correlation between the practiced vs. unpracticed shooters.   Looking at the shooters that make the statement they get in practice a few times a year. They are typically fairly good shooters and have some small shooting errors but nothing major and ...

Hammer Syndrome as an Instructor and an owner of a retail firearms store I have noticed a trend with some concealed carriers. I like to call it hammer syndrome. Hammer syndrome is where the person believes that the firearm they carry is the answer to all issues that they encounter. Some comments from the person that suffers from hammer syndrome would be something like, “Just shoot them”, “All I need is this gun for any situation”, “I would rather be judged by twelve than carried by six”, or “All I need to do after I shoot the person I feel was threatening me is say that I was in fear for my life”. These statements could not be further from the truth. An analogy that could be thought of is the carpenter. If the only tool the carpenter has is a hammer then everything they encounter is a nail. Which, carrying only a firearm could be easily compared to. The amount of people encountered where the only defensive tool they have ever thought about carrying was a gun is astounding. I...