Damning with faint praise

[Baeleron]

I usually remember I have other things to do when they trot out Adam Winkler as their expert.

[Don Nguyen]

People will say anything these days.

[Grakken]

Are we talking "training" in using a weapon, or "training" in actually reacting to and acting in a high stress situation where a firearm is necessary?

Two very different things folks.

Let's not confuse the two and over-congratulate ourselves on our own perceived skill set.

A.W.D.

100%

Shooting at paper, and shooting while your actual life is in jeopardy are so vastly different, most people here will never know that feeling. Ive seen real good people completely miss at distances less than 10 feet.

IMHO, your average beat cop is only slightly better at handling that kind of stress than your average joe. You just cant simulate these scenarios fully in training.

[jeremiah12]

Ultimately, what does training have to do with the RBKA? People who bring up the training argument are often the same people who are searching for any reason to put a limit on the 2A.

Should a person's right to self-defense be limited because the person is not taking tactical train classes on a regular basis? That would leave out all of the elderly and those with various disabilities, the people that need a gun the most. Access to a gun for SD does not guarantee one will be successful in defending one self, but it certainly improves the odds and makes the BG think twice. It is better than nothing.

For those of us that are enthusiasts and shoot regularly, we definitely have an advantage.

I liken the situation to cars. How many people that are licensed to drive have taken anything more than the basic driver's training in high school or from a private company that is required to get the basic license? After that, who gets advanced training in car handling or evasive driving? What about severe weather driving?

We do not make drivers qualify to drive in rain, snow, or ice? I know people that would slide off a snowy road driving 20 mph and others that could handle driving 45 mph in the same conditions driving the same vehicle.

Our right to bear arms for self-defense is a natural right not to be infringed upon yet some of us are buying the argument that in order to get a CCW a person should be trained.

Yet, to get a driver's license, to do something that is not Constitutionally protected, we only require the minimal amount of training and as long as you can drive a couple of miles on the freeway and on the city streets without getting into an accident or hitting anybody, you get your license. You do not need to have any real driving skills. There is no requirement to get continual training to keep the license.

Imagine if you had to show proficiency in driving each vehicle you wanted to list on your license and you could only list a maximum of 3? Forget making any modifications like replacing tires with ones of a different size or body or suspension lifts.

The fact is, every day average people successfully use guns for self-defense. Focus on those stories. Many of the ones I read are by people who have not taken combat or tactical gun classes. Some have rarely shot their gun before.

I do not recommend getting a gun and not practicing with it. The more training and practice one does, the better the odds one has in surviving a SD situation.

[Mitch]

100%

Shooting at paper, and shooting while your actual life is in jeopardy are so vastly different, most people here will never know that feeling. Ive seen real good people completely miss at distances less than 10 feet.

Your point is of course completely valid, but we have also seen trained police officers miss at 10 feet too.

There is no magic in the badge.

[Accounting_mom]

I don't worry about being trained as well as the average LEO, they aren't my adversaries.
I just want to be better (faster/more accurate) than the criminal who attacks me.

[CessnaDriver]

Plenty of examples of LEOs not trained well.
Plenty of examples of civies that nailed it.
One is a job and duty, one is self defense. So it's apples and oranges isn't it with
overlap of certain aspects.

And then there is the old lady that takes the dusty rusty revolver out of the night stand that her late husband kept with rounds from the sixties that defends herself just fine.