What's My "Background"

As I sit here typing this, I have just thrown a load of laundry in to wash and am in the process of packing for a weekend trip to South Carolina to train with John Lovell of the Warrior Poet Society.  Its getting more difficult for me to get to training courses.  These days I spend much more time teaching than training.  Still, I don't like for a year to go by without me getting into some kind of training course and sometimes it is easier to do that if I just plan a trip.

As an Instructor, I am blessed to work as a part of a team of pretty impressive guys.  Often I am asked by students, "so what is your background"?   That's a fair question.  Obviously, I am not close to being the guys I work with.  I often joke that I am a 50-something year old grandmother who found herself thrown in with a bunch of Special Operations Military Guys and SWAT cops wondering how exactly that happened.  And yes, that can be pretty intimidating, however, I do believe I bring certain gifts to the organization that they do not.  I have my place, and they have their's and together we make a pretty good team. 

I have no Military or Law Enforcement background.  I am not a super Ninja Tactical dude.  I am not a lot of things.  I do have a background in teaching and leadership.  I've spend the past 30 years or more working in that capacity.  I've lead mission teams for a number of years.  As far as education, I have studied as a graphic designer and my major at Miami University was in Psychology.

For the past 6 years I have led the North Cincinnati Chapter of TWAW Shooting Chapters.  I was one of those leaders who have been there pretty much since the beginning of that organization.  I've served as the State Leader for that organization and was selected as the Regional Trainer, overseeing the training of the Instructors in Kentucky and Ohio.  I had to reluctantly step down from that position because I simply don't have the time to do everything I would like to do.  A lot of us are like that - we like to do everything and then realize we have limited amount of time.

Those who know me well know that I'm a firm believer in training.  I don't train because its my job.  I train for the same reason many others train - to be as ready as I possibly can be if I am ever faced with having to defend myself or my family from a violent attack. Yes, I've done some Instructor Training to be able to be the best Instructor I possibly can be, but the majority of my training is for my own personal benefit.   I've made it a priority to train with the best I can find and afford, even if it means loading up the truck and heading across country on my own. It has paid off!  I have been very blessed to learn from some truly amazing and talented people.   Among the folks I've leaned from and classes taken are:

• OPOTA Private Security 
• NRA Basic Pistol Instructor
• NRA Personal Protection Inside the Home Instructor
• NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home Instructor
• NRA Defensive Pistol
• NRA Chief Range Safety Officer
• TWAW Certified Instructor (which focuses on the different learning styles of men and women)
• UTM (Ultimate Training Munitions) Instructor 
• Gabby Franco - Olympic shooter and competition shooter who appeared on Top Shot.
• Massad Ayoob 
• Defensive Knife with Greg Ellifritz
• Contextual Handgun: The Armed Parent/Guardian with Melody Lauer and John Johnston
• Unthinkable: Understanding the Criminal Mindset with William Aprill 

• Defensive Pistol classes (I've forgotten how many) with Rick Wright, an OPOTA Instructor and Retired Law Enforcement Officer
• FASTER - a training program for armed school staff at the Tactical Defense Institute 
• Gunsite Academy
• Battleline Tactical - Kris "Tanto" Paronto and Dave "Boon" Benton were two of the CIA security contractors who was part of the CIA annex security team during the 2012 terrorist attack on the US Ambassador to Libya and the CIA Compound in Behghazi.   
• OTOA Combat Pistol with Russ Lyons

• And of course, multiple courses with 88 Tactical of OH with Phil Chaney, a retired Marine CWO3 and Special Operations Instructor in the Marine Corps and SWAT Instructor..  

As you can see, I don't have that much of a "background", but I do work hard to be prepared to defend myself and those I love.  I hope you are doing the same.  

Stack the Deck

Last night I had the pleasure of teaching a group of 8 women. During the class, we discussed briefly why we recommend a larger gun over a smaller gun.  I admitted that I had at one point purchased one  of the smaller semi-automatic handguns, a Sig Sauer p328 to be exact.

It was my "pretty" gun.  And it was indeed pretty.  I loved it!  But I didn't feel confident in using it for self-defense.  I never carried it.  Not even once.

Let me tell you my story....

I grew up in southern Indian where everybody is pretty much expected to own a gun.  I grew up around them but never had much interest in them.  Guns were not good or bad, they just were part of life.

When I married my husband, he had grown up in northern California and had no exposure to guns at all and was not a fan.  His position was that, "we will have no guns in our home".   For me, that was an odd way to think, but it wasn't an issue because I didn't feel a need to own a gun.  I live in a nice neighborhood.  I have good neighbors who do a good job of looking out for each other.  I am married, so there is a man around the house.  The police station is just a few streets over from my house.  I raised two boys, so there were 3 males around the house for a time.  One of those boys grew up to be a police officer so for a while, a cop lived at our house.  I don't go to dangerous places and I don't hang out with dangerous people, so I was the lady who always felt safe ... until I didn't.

Some years ago a man started attending our church who had a really nasty criminal past.  We had to set some pretty firm limits with him in order to protect our congregation, particularly our children.  He did not take very kindly to that.  In fact, he became so enraged that a man in our church had to identify himself as a police officer and escort him off the property.  This man was very, very angry .. at my husband.

And I began to wonder ... what would I do if he came to our house sometime when my husband wasn't around?  I thought I would feel better if I had some way to defend myself if I had to.  So my husband who had always said we would not have guns in our home, looked at me and said, "You should feel safe in your own home, go buy a gun."   And I did.

I bought a Smith & Wesson .38 special, snub nose revolver. 

I knew that now that I was a gun owner I needed to take a class and learn how to be responsible with it.  Going to the range and shooting is one thing, owning the gun and being responsible for it is another. 

I signed up for a class and quickly realized that I had bought the wrong gun.  I shot well with it, but had not taken into account a few very important considerations.

1. Under duress, in a deadly force encounter, I may miss. I'm a decent shot but in under those circumstances I will be experiencing lots of adrenaline rushing through my body, I will likely have a moving target, and I will have to make life and death decisions in just a few seconds of time. 
2. I may have to shoot my attacker more than once to make him stop.  While it is never our intention to kill, very often one shot, even when well placed, does not stop the attack.  If the attacker is cranking on some kind of drug, he may not even realize he has been shot. 
3. Bad guys don't always come by themselves.  Sometimes they bring friends. 

I looked at my 5-shot revolver and knew I needed something more.  My next purchase was a GLOCK.

The small Sig Sauer p238 was not ever my "carry gun".  It was purchased to be my "pretty gun" that I treated myself to. 

Why was it not my carry gun when it is clearly smaller and easier to conceal?

• Smaller guns tend to malfunction more frequently than larger guns.  We see that all the time on the range.
• Smaller guns do not hold as many rounds as larger guns.  In a gunfight, no one wishes for fewer rounds. 
• Smaller guns are generally harder to manipulate.  Very often people struggle with them. 
• Smaller guns are not as accurate as larger guns.  In a gunfight I am going to lose accuracy for all of the reasons mentioned above.  I do not want to lose accuracy because I have a gun that is less accurate.  

My advice is to stack the deck in  your favor as much as you can.  There are a lot of things we do not have control over.  We don't have control over when we will have a car accident.  We don't have control over when we will have a heart attack.  And we don't have control over when a criminal will choose to try to make us his next victim.  You do have control over what tool you use to fight with and how much training you acquire to use that tool effectively.  Stack the deck in YOUR favor.