Sheepdogs

I try to cycle this through my blogs at least once a year.  It's an article by Lt. Dave Grossman and highly regarded by both the military and law enforcement.  Please take the time to read it.  Even if you don't agree with the message, it will give you a better understanding of why sheepdogs do what they do.

It's Semi-Official

I took, and passed, my NRA Instructor's classes for Basic Instructor Training, Home Safety and Basic Pistol.  The reason it's semi-official?  It'll be four to six weeks before I actually get my stuff from the NRA and can start teaching.

My friend Tara and I have been talking about getting instructor certified for a while now so that we can teach classes to women.  Not that we couldn't without the credentials, but people really want that piece of paper saying that we know what we're doing.

Besides, the classes were a good excuse to take a couple of days off work and go to the range.

Only In Shooting Sports...

...can you say things like:

• limp-wrist
• short-stroke
• swinger
• bobber
• popper
• half-cock 
• full-cock
• negligent discharge
• accidental discharge
• mount
• pump

And not be a total pervert (*cough* Mr. Daddy *coughcough*)

Zombie Killing Day

I love the Defensive Pistol matches, but have been known to skip them now and again.  Okay, okay, so I went almost a full year without attending a monthly match.  But there is one match that I try my darnedest to never miss and it's the Zombie match.  I love killing Zombies.  There's something very satisfying about blasting them in the head (Rule #2 when dealing with Zombies).  You know, "two to the head makes them dead(er)".

So, for you viewing pleasure are a couple of Zombie-killing clips (even if one does have a clear violation of Rule #4).




Maybe for the next video, we need to add a new rule, Rule #33 (did you know there were already 32 other rules?).  Anyway, Rule #33: Don't short-stroke the shotgun.




Here's a shooting buddy of mine protecting the little trick-or-treaters...



And I killed all those Zombies without chipping my nail polish (had to get dressed up for Zombie Killing Day).

I'm Not Crazy Afterall

It was subtle.

A hesitation here.

A snag there.

Then nothing for a while.

Again, a hesitation.

"Honey, here, shoot this, it's not right."

Bang!  Bang!  Bang!

"Babe, there's nothing wrong with it."

Okay, maybe I'm crazy.

But...

A hesitation.

A snag.

Then, nothing.  A perfect run through ten rounds.

Suddenly, she quits going into battery.

Slam!  The base of my palm hits the back of her slide and she chambers the round.

Bang!  Bang!

Slam!  Again, the base of my palm hits the back of her slide and she chambers the round.

More frequent.  Bang!  Slam!  Bang!  Slam!  Bang!  Slam!  Slam!  "Damn!"  Slam!  Bang!

Finally.

"Maybe it's your magazines."

"How long's it been since you cleaned your gun?"

"Maybe it's your recoil spring."

"Maybe you're limp-wristing it."

Maybe...maybe...maybe...

So I cleaned my magazines.

And I cleaned my gun.

Still...a hesitation. 

A snag.

She won't chamber a round.  Can't be the magazines - they're spit-shined.

Can't be she's dirty - she's been spit-shined.

Off to the gunsmith we go.  Maybe a new recoil spring.  Who knows?

"Boss, she's not playing nice."

"How's she not playing nice."

"She won't go into battery.  I've cleaned the magazines.  I've cleaned her.  She still won't go into battery.  She's not playing nice."

"Let me see."  A quick function test.  A grimace.  "Who's been in your gun?"

"No one."

"Your trigger's all jacked up.  Where's your sear?"

"What do you mean, where's my sear?"

"Didn't you notice it was missing when you were resetting your trigger?"

"I thought I was imagining it."

"No.  It's not there."

"I'm not imagining it?"

"No.  It's not there."

A wave of relief.  It wasn't my imagination.  She has been acting up.

Off to the operating table bench.  Slowly, piece by piece, Boss Man takes her apart.

Exploratory surgery reveals a lot of little problems.  A hook on the extractor - file it off.  Sear spring out of shape - re-shape it.  Compressed spring here - replace it.  Nasty crud there - scrape it off.  Boss Man's big hands moving smoothly and surely, nip and tuck.  Pretty soon she's reassembled and sparkling clean.

Boss Man, "How's this feel?"

"A little heavy."

"Want me to lighten it up?"

"Yeah, she was set to 2 3/4 pounds before.  This is heavier."

Measured out to be over three pounds.  Still a light trigger, but heavier that she used to be.

A quick adjustment, "try this."

"Love it."

Into the trap...Bang!  Bang!  Bang! *Big grin*  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!

No hesitations.

No snags.

No slapping the rear of the slide.

Bang-bang!  Bang-bang!

I love my gun.

What I Learned From FATS

You know, with a nickname like GunDiva, people kinda expect me to know one end of a gun from the other and, you know, be able to shoot said gun(s).  And I can.  Unless it's FATS training and both Jeffery Deaver and Lee Lofland are in the room watching my group.

I can honestly say, though, that once the scenarios started I forgot they were there.

Everything Mrs Mom's DH (Anonymous) wrote in the comments section of yesterday's pop quiz is true. 

• The whole losing 50% of your fine motor skills.  Check.  Lost some fine motor skills. 
• The whole shooting until the threat is stopped.  Check.  Did that - of course, the scenario didn't end until the bad guy was neutralized. 
• The whole attitude is everything.  Check.  I can grip and present a gun with the best of them.  Couldn't hit anything, but, man, if attitude would have taken down the bad guys, I wouldn't have ever needed to squeeze the trigger.

I've shot Defensive Pistol off and on for a long time; I've been under pressure from the clock and other competitors.  But that didn't do much to prepare me for FATS.  I had a hard time interacting with the screen - screaming alpha commands at it just wasn't working for me.  Lucky for me, one of the girls in my group had that down pat.  In Defensive Pistol, it's just one person killing all the bad guys.  Makes for a bad team player when grouped with others.  So, #1 and #4, I apologize for being a bit scattered.

I did okay with most scenarios, but there was one that raised my frustration level like you wouldn't believe.  The scenario was that we were called to a wholesale warehouse (like Sam's Club or CostCo) where a man with a shotgun was confronting an employee.  My frustration came when we couldn't get the person who called to shut up and get out of the way, then we were moved through the aisles until we came to the end of one.  I found myself peeking around the corner just like I would in a match, but the camera took us into full view of the bad guy.  #1 killed him dead; I followed a shot or two behind.

I was completely disoriented by the camera movement; in matches, we're expected to move around the course, standing still and being moved by the camera view was just plain weird.  By the end of our eight million scenarios, I'd adapted to the camera movement and was doing better.

The other thing that frustrated me about FATS training was the lack of immediate feedback when firing.  I squeezed the trigger and had no idea where my bullet went.  I know that sounds horrible, and it was horrible.  Any time a gun is fired, the shooter should know where the bullet went.  I thought I had my sight picture lined up and I know I wasn't jerking the trigger, but I consistently was a little high on playback. 

Despite my disorientation with the camera movement and my frustration with not knowing where my bullets were going, I loved FATS training.  It was excellent for shoot/no shoot training and made me really analyze what I was doing and why.  There were people that I didn't shoot (and correctly, it turns out) because they didn't feel like a threat, but I couldn't articulate why I chose not to shoot them.  However, I can absolutely understand why people would shoot them; their actions could absolutely be interpreted as aggressive or dangerous.

In the half hour we had with FATS, we must have shot seven or eight scenarios.  I can happily say that I did get better with every scenario and that I had an *amazing* head shot on a bad guy holding a baby in a car seat in one arm and swinging a machete with the other.  I fired one round and killed him dead.  I am also thrilled to say that no one in my group was killed or shot an innocent.

I thought we were going to get to see Jeffery Deaver shoot - apparently, he's quite the competitive shooter - but we moved onto the next round of simulation training, the VirTra simulator.

With the VirTra simulator, we all got to shoot individually and I LOVED IT!  It may be that we got to start off shooting steel poppers.  I love shooting steel poppers.  Doing so gave me a chance to get to know my weapon and gain confidence.  Again, I had trouble giving alpha commands to a screen, but I had a blast shooting the bad guys.

One scenario completely threw me for a loop.  I was called to remove an employee who had been fired, but was refusing to leave the building.  He was standing at his former desk, with a cardboard box of his belongings on the desk and he was flat-out refusing to leave the premises.  The problem was that I was giggling because all I could think of was the movie "Office Space" - I just wanted to give him his red Swingline stapler and usher him out the door.  Instead, he reached in the box and pulled out a Glock.  I knew he was going to eat lead a split second before he did.  I hesitated, not wanting to shoot him and be involved in a "suicide by cop" situation.  In the moment of my hesitation, he shot himself.  "Oh Shit," was all I could say.  That scenario was set up for failure - either I shot him to neutralize the threat or I let him shoot himself - either way he ended up dead.

F.A.T.S. Training

In less than two weeks, I'm headed to the Writer's Police Academy in North Carolina.  One of the additional things I signed up for was FATS Training (Firearms Training Simulator).  Friday, I received this in my inbox...

Greetings, Recruits GunDiva and OtherRecruit. You have been assigned to a violent crimes task force. The officer in charge of this assignment is Commander JC, a certified Firearms Training Simulator instructor.


You both are commanded to appear at the entrance to the FATS training room (GTCC campus) on Saturday September 25, 2010 at precisely 10:15 a.m. You must present your FATS pass to the officer guarding the perimeter before entering (passes are included in the WPA registration packet). No pass, no entry. You will remain on deck as an observer of the preceding team until your shoot time of 11:00 a.m.

Remember, all suspects inside the FATS training area are considered armed and extremely dangerous, and they are not afraid of law enforcement. You are authorized to use deadly force to save your life and/or the life of others. The decisions are yours to make, but please spare the innocent. Not everyone is a bad guy! You'll have a split second to decide to shoot, or not, so use that time wisely.

--Lee Lofland

Being the GunDiva, I saw the FATS training as an option when I registered and signed up without even knowing what it is.  I saw the words "firearms training" and immediately thought simmunitions training (NLTA - non-lethal training ammunition); it wasn't until I got the email that it dawned on me that the last word was "simulator".

I looked up FATS and it is, indeed, simulation utilizing a giant screen and real guns loaded with computer chips that interact with the software.  At first I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to "really" shoot someone with NLTA, but then I breathed a sigh of relief, because it also meant that even if the bad guy shoots at me, I'm not going to end up with welts and ouchies from the impact of the round.  I think I'm going to have a ball with FATS.

Has anyone ever utilized FATS training, and if so, what did you think about it?