Personal Protection Firearm Training

Joy and I just spent 11 hours this week in an NRA-sponsored Personal Protection class. We learned about gun safety, different handguns and ammunition, legal concerns (a full 3 hours just on this), basic shooting skills, and had personal responsibility and safety drilled in throughout each portion. We each shot about 100 rounds. This was Joy's first time in her life ever touching a real gun, and she did great. We waited 2 months to get into the class, because they keep small class sizes. We've now met the requirements to apply for a concealed carry permit for handguns in Colorado. We still have a lot of reading, thinking, talking, and practicing to do before we decide whether or not to carry concealed, and we've got an equal amount of work to do before we actually place guns in our home for the purposes of self defense, in the unlikely event of a home invasion. Of course, total safety is our highest priority (which is why we want guns in the first place), but it's also a priority once we decide to put a gun in our home. We're humbled by the awesome responsibility that being gun owners will be, but we're thankful for this freedom and are ready to exercise our right.

This class was exactly what two citified people who have never owned a gun needed in order to learn more about self-defense (including the many ways to avoid conflict and defuse a volatile situation without the display or use of deadly force) and allow us to begin the educational process of becoming resonsible gun owners. One thing we know we have to have down 100% before we ever bring a gun home is to ensure we have a plan for complete and total positive control of the weapons at all times, because of our young children. But this class gave us the tools and knowledge we need to be able to make smart choices and keep our family safer than if we did not have guns in the home.

If you have guns at home for self-defense, or for sport, we'd love to hear from you so we can continue learning. Why do you have guns for self-defense, how do you secure them, do you carry them with you outside the home, do you carry them concealed, have you or someone you know ever been in a situation where you had a gun and needed it, or were you in a situation that a gun would have made a difference? What are your thoughts on how to carry concealed for men and women and in what circumstances? What type of ammunition do you prefer for defense?

Our longer-term goal is to have our entire family become experts in other forms of self-defense, particularly a common martial art. When I (Ben) started Tae Kwondo classes a couple years ago, I was disappointed that I had to be in close contact with other women taking self defense classes and I thought they didn't belong there. Now, I have changed my mind. Knowing how sexualized and violent our society has become, I absolutely want to be able to equip my wife and children with as many skills as possible that allow them to protect and defend their lives if necessary. I believe that with the proliferation of sexual media on the internet over the last few years, there is likely to be a significant spike in violent, especially sexual, crime in the next 10 years or less. As children who have grown up exposed and addicted to prolific amounts of pornography from a very young age continue to percolate in their bedrooms and dorm rooms, I fully expect more of them to act out their corrupted fantasies on real people. I hope and believe odds are still low that something will happen to my loved ones, but I want all of us to be prepared so that we will not become victims and statistics. So we'll begin the martial arts phase at some point. We're not paranoid in the least - we believe we're just being realistic. We are confident that odds are that we'll not ever become victims of a violent act; however, in the unlikely event that we are, and especially if our lives depend on being able to respond properly in a critical situation, we want to be prepared. Please let us know what you think if you'd like to share your thoughts on this. We need to engage with others who have also thought through this in order to sharpen and refine our skills and knowledge in this important area.

Here's how we found our class, if you're interested.
NRA safety course finder: http://www.nrahq.org/education/training/find.asp
Our next class is going to be a 12-hour pistol use class, where we can have the opportunity to develop our skills more, and where we can learn from experienced people who can help us establish good habits from the beginning.