The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to join the training staff at the Tactical Defense Institute. I jumped at the chance. This past weekend, I helped out with the Final Intense Scenario Training (FIST) class. This two day class is mostly scenario based with an hour or so of range “warm up” time each morning. This weekend we started with 13 students and finished with 12. Unfortunately, one student injured his foot (he had a pre-existing foot issue) on TD1 and had to head home. If you haven’t been to TDI, you should look into the classes they offer. TDI is kind of unique amongst non-.gov facilities – they have 3 different live fire houses and a 2 story force on force scenario house. To attend the FIST course, one must attend all 6 pistol level courses that TDI offers (a total of 10 training days). Which means these students were committed to training.
I’ve been participating in scenario based training (SBT) – as a student or instructor – for 25 years, but this training was a bit different. It was the first time I’d done SBT for non-law enforcement folks that wasn’t part of an active shooter program. This past weekend, I helped with the scenarios that were done in the force on force scenario house. We did 3 different scenarios per student each day in the scenario house for a total of 72 scenarios. And that’s just half of the story. We broke the students into 2 groups, half in the scenario house and half on another range doing scenarios outside. So we ran roughly 150 force on force scenarios over the weekend. Which didn’t include the force on paper scenarios in the live fire shoot houses. It was a busy weekend. On the way home after day 2, I was thinking about how the students did over the weekend and I thought I’d talk about some observations I made.
First and foremost, it is imperative that anyone who is interested in protecting themselves study self-defense law. Sub-second draws to first shot and black belts in BJJ mean absolutely nothing if you don’t know when you’re legally allowed to defend yourself and to what extent you’re legally allowed to defend yourself. Self-defense law understanding should be considered another skill that self-defense minded people need to master. With that in mind, prior to starting the scenarios on TD1, I reviewed self-defense law specific to Ohio with the students (all but two were Buckeyes). Legal concepts of deadly force, non-deadly force, defense of 3rd parties and the often misunderstood “Castle Doctrine” were covered so that it was fresh in their mind when they went into the scenarios. All of those concepts would come into play during the scenarios. When asked, most of the students did not carry some sort of non-lethal option on a regular basis. We talked about why this was important and we discussed some of the different options available to them. My preferences are pepper spray/OC and the Taser. Had one of the scenarios happened in real life, pepper spray or a Taser would have been a very good thing for the students to have.
Second, if you’re participating in SBT, don’t try to “game” the scenario. Here’s what I mean – react how you know you will react or how you think you would react in real life. If you wouldn’t stick around to get involved or see the end of what was going on in real life, then LEAVE. I had at least two students say something like “I wouldn’t have really done that in real life” during the debrief. My response was usually “then why did you do it here?” For example, during one of the scenarios one of the students gave his property to the “bad guy” in an attempt to resolve the situation without using force. When I asked if he’d do that in real life he said “no”. If you do something like that during SBT, you are wasting time and money attending the SBT. SBT is about testing yourself, your mindset, your pre-planning, your training and learning from any mistakes you make. SBT is not about doing what you think the instructors may want. Good SBT scenarios have a variety of “successful” outcomes. Good SBT training should include a debrief of some sort where the instructor may challenge your decisions using a pseudo-Socratic method of question and answer. Defending your decision may get uncomfortable and you may end up realizing that you made a mistake or, although you successfully completed the scenario, you may realize there were better options you could have chosen.
Third, give yourself permission to be rude or offend people. LOL, what?!?! Here’s what I mean – people who have been raised right have been taught from a very young age to be polite to everyone, regardless of who they are. And for the most part, it would be a better world if more people took that to heart. However, there are times where I believe it’s ok to be what some people might consider “rude”. For example, if you are walking down the street and, since you are a self-defense minded person, you see a person or group of persons up the street a ways that give some cause for concern, what do you do? If you’re smart, you cross the street and then continue on your way on the opposite side of the street. But I’ve talked to people who saw the person/group and were concerned, but continued on their way and walked close enough to the person or group and have ended up being victimized. When asked why they did that, they said they were afraid they would offend the person or group by crossing the street. Really?!?! I know it’s a crazy thought – but who cares what they think? How about aggressive panhandlers? How do you handle them? Obviously, we all have to make decisions on when (or if) we help people who are down on their luck. But my suggestion is to avoid giving anything to people who walk up to you asking for help. Because once you do that, quite often they ask for more. And more. And more. And some get aggressive about it. We used to have a homeless person in town who, instead of being grateful, got very indignant and aggressive with people who tried to help them. Bring them food? They wanted money and were unhappy when they didn’t get it. This person eventually got banned from just about every business in town. My advice? Don’t engage with them other than to say you don’t have anything for them. Keep walking. If they get too close after you’ve told them you don’t have anything for them, ask them to back off. If that doesn’t work, get loud and make it very clear they need to back off. If it gets to this point you need to be ready for it to get physical.
Fourth, test your home defense plan to the extent that you can. Several of the scenarios I ran were home defense scenarios. Since the scenario house was obviously not the student’s actual residence, I gave them 5 or 10 minutes to walk the floor plan of their “house” so they would have a good idea of the layout before going into the scenario. Based on what I saw, here are some things to consider about home defense plans:
- Lighting issue #1 – a couple of the students had some interesting ideas about lighting options with their flashlights; however, those ideas fell apart due to poor execution and became a hindrance rather than a benefit. If you have ideas about lighting options, look at them from your perspective AND the bad guys perspective to see if it really is a good idea.
- Lighting issue #2 – when do you need your flashlight? Have you ever walked around your house at 2am when it is lighted by whatever ambient lighting there is at that time of the morning? Is there enough light to see, identify friend from foe and accurately engage any foe you may encounter? If not, what’s your light plan?
- Calling 911 – when is the proper time to call 911? During the scenarios, the students were given a phone and told to call 911 when/if they would. I, of course, as the controller acted as dispatch and asked them questions. Sometimes the student spent too much time answering questions and this slowed down their initiation of their home defense plan. Remember that (in many, if not most cases) dialing 911 and leaving an open line is going to start the process of getting officers started your way to investigate the 911 open line. Remember the W-I-N principle – “What’s Important Now”? Sometimes, initiating your home defense plan may be more important than dialing 911.
And finally, have you spent any time thinking about how you’re going to avoid getting shot by the police when they show up? You don’t want to end up like Johnny Hurley. Johnny was a true hero who ran to the sound of the gunfire, killed a bad guy who had just murdered a police officer and was then tragically killed by the police when he was mistaken for the bad guy. While it’s ok to hope that the officer(s) responding to your incident are steely eyed veterans who are cool headed and calm when they show up, you should be prepared to deal with the rookie who is brand new and nervous as hell. After 29 years on the job and 20 years of teaching cops, the best advice I can give you? Don’t have a gun in your hand when the cops show up because even level headed veteran officers make mistakes.
(they also have a 400 yard range)
There were a lot more lessons learned and more observations that I made over the two day class, but those are the highlights. If you’re interested in testing yourself, I’d seriously consider setting yourself up so you can attend the FIST class. I’ve got some new ideas I’m gonna pitch to the boss for the next class. I hope to see you there.
