Some people like to volunteer at their local church or food pantry. Several people in my family have volunteered their time at local museums. It is a way to stay engaged with society and help people, especially for older folks or other people who do not want a job. My “retirement job” is teaching firearms, and I am paid for it, just like any other job. I am only willing to teach a limited number of classes each year, which means there are large groups of people who I will never get a chance to train with. Some of these groups will never take a class from any other private sector instructor either, for various reasons.
My career in law enforcement spanned 27 years and covered some of the biggest and busiest agencies in the U.S. I benefited tremendously from my time in those agencies, often getting to do things for work that I would have paid to do, if it were even possible to pay for that priviledge. As a way of giving back to the profession, I am offering free instructor development training sessions for LE agencies that want them.
There is a caveat or two, of course. I am able to provide free training by minimizing my travel costs. Since I have to travel around the country at various times of the year for other reasons, I am offering classes to agencies who are in the area I am already travelling to. That means there are parts of the country I am unlikely to visit regularly, or even at all.
The training consists of 2-3 hours of dry practice, in a train the trainer format. Unlike my live fire classes, which require a certain level of shooting ability to take, these dry practrice classes are perfect for anyone, at any skill level, as long as they have made it though a police academy. Firearms instructors, SWAT guys, patrol, and every other armed LE position is welcome to attend, and there is almost no limit to the number of students who can be in a class.
Correct dry practice has long been recognized as the key to developing shooting ability. It costs nothing, but to make the most progress, it must be used in conjunction with some relatively regular live fire. Modern dry practice can be fun, and it is hard work, but it does work incredibly well, on everyone from recruits in the academy, to seasoned instructors and SWAT guys.
A training room that allows for dry fire is all that is needed, and certainly a range is also an ideal place to use. Red dots and irons are equally welcome, but red dot shooters will benefit even more since much of the focus will involve building a correct index. You should never have a problem “finding your dot” after this. This class is not your traditional dry fire class, where we stand around balancing coins on our front site and bending spoons with our minds. It is a modern, practical approach to training, and it will get your heart rate and temperature up a little.
If any LE guys reading this are interested, just drop me a line at [email protected], and I will see about getting out your way.
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