Actually, yes. Yes, you do.
But what skills exactly?
Let's talk about the handgun. The most common CCW tool utilized by persons seeking to enhance their personal security. And, we believe personal security is a personal responsibility.
First, we should understand the role of the handgun. It is convenient. The handgun is the firearm we carry for the gunfight we are not expecting. IF we knew we were going to a gunfight we would being a long gun and all of friends with long guns. But, the handgun is convenient and, despite not being a long gun (a rifle), is a force multiplier.
So, being that we don't normally spend our lives wearing body armor and carrying a rifle to go buy sugar at the grocery store, we carry a handgun.
And this presents us with some interesting concepts to understand. The handgun is convenient, but this convenience comes at a cost. Namely, effectiveness and ease of use. What does that mean?
Well, a full, live-fire course on defensive use of a handgun better explains, but let's simplify the meanings as follows:
Effectiveness: a handgun round, despite caliber, is still a handgun round. The ability to stop a threat is greatly enhanced by accurate fire, but ultimately it is a small pill. And that, accurate fire, leads us to the next: ease of use.
This can seem contradictory: ease of use being confused with convenience of carry. A rifle or other long gun is far easier to shoot accurately fast, especially at distance, than the handgun, but is far less convenient to carry. Consider this: a rifle is a shoulder mounted, generally 3-anchor point weapon with a long, forgiving sight radius.
A handgun is far more susceptible to input error by the shooter with a far shorter and less forgiving sight radius for accurate distance shooting.
A handgun is what we carry. Everyday. Everywhere. So, we should be proficient enough to make the shots that count in the moments that matter. That takes skill. But which handgun skills?
First of all, in regards to protecting your life or the life of a loved one: ONLY HITS COUNT. You cannot miss fast enough to catch up. And, you want to be the first one to make accurate hits.
So, fast, first, accurate handgun skills:
Getting the gun into the fight.
Making accurate first and fast hits.
There are others as well, movement, use of cover/concealment, re-functions (getting the gun back into action after a malfunction), low-light/no-light tactics, and other auxiliary skills that serve very important purposes, but, get your gun into the fight and make fast, accurate hits first.
Realistically, the way to get these skills is by finding an instructor to teach you, to observe you, and to provide feedback and help you achieve your goals.
There are, in fact, more ways to accomplish a goal, but there are, in fact, more efficient ways as well.
Mindset and physical skills. Both of these are needed.
We do not pick the date, time, or location when someone wants to try to do us harm. The only thing we have 100% control over is the amount of preparation we make.
Train accordingly.
Richard
Saguaro Training and Solutions Group
Keep checking www.stsgroupaz.com for updates regarding EDC C.O.RE. Critical Handgun Skills live-fire courses coming soon.