There’s something wrong with my piano! A few years back, my wife and I purchased a piano for our then five-year-old daughter. We brought it into the house, set it up in the dining room, and got ready for our daughter to become the next Chopin. Each day I would walk by it. Some days I’d lean against it… Once I actually sat down and tinkled the old ivories. Alas, I could not play it; only noise. I was sure I had gotten a defective piano. I thought about asking my buddy for my money back but then I realized that he had given it to us for free so he could get it out of his dining room. I was had!
Then I read a quote by legendary firearms trainer Colonel Jeff Cooper of Gunsite fame. Cooper stated, “Owning a gun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a piano makes you a musician.” Baseball great, Yogi Bera may have stated it more succinctly, “I didn’t know that I didn’t know.”
And then it hit me… You wouldn’t dream of throwing your son or daughter the keys to the F-150 on their sixteenth birthday and saying, “Have a good time. Oh, and pick up your friends, along the way. They’ll want to celebrate with you!” Yet, that’s just about what we do as firearm owners. We look around at just how screwed up the world has gotten and, with a little age, begin to get a little scared. We tell ourselves that we need a gun and that will solve our problem. Off to the sporting goods store or the local hunting shop we go and we buy our first weapon, convinced that this will make us safe. We trust a person whom we have never met to sell us, possibly, the most important piece of equipment we may ever own. We bring it home. Maybe we load it, maybe we don’t. We stick it in the drawer or nightstand and we’re good to go! Safe. Ready. Sound familiar?
Not so fast. I carried a concealed weapon for 24 years, fairly regularly. I thought I knew, but Yogi was right. I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Hunting does not prepare you to carry a firearm. Coming from a shooting family does not prepare you to employ a weapon. Owning camouflage will not bail you out in a gunfight. Simply possessing a weapon is not the answer. The answer is training. Colonel Cooper imparted his wisdom in the maxim, “You will not rise to the occasion but rather fall to your lowest level of training.” How much training have you had?
I received a scholarship to the prestigious Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona. In case you are not familiar with Gunsite, it is one of the largest, and arguably most comprehensive training facilities for self-defense, in the world. It was there that my epiphany took place. My eyes were opened to the fact that in practical shooting reality, I didn’t know very much. Gunsite fixed that and started me on my journey to becoming an instructor and later, a police officer. Training made me safer. Through training, I became more confident, more familiar and more competent with my weapon. Notice I did not use the word expert. This quest for knowledge does not end with a thirty-minute infomercial or by borrowing a book from the library.
I find this absence of training knowledge in most, if not all, of the hundreds of individuals I have trained at my shooting school. Early in the training day, at the first hint of any pressure, and quite often before the pressure is applied, most students fumble with their gun. They fail to handle it safely. They prove that they do not know how to load, unload, fire and fix the associated problems that accompany firearms handling. Sheepishly, they look at me, and I tell them, “We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Five hours later, I tend to find a fairly safe gun handler standing where a neophyte was present, earlier in the day. That is the beginning of the journey.
Whether you just got that new gun for Christmas or yours is laying in a forgotten drawer from a long-ago purchase, it might be time to think about some firearms training. There are many competent firearms training venues in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find a reputable range, get in touch with a competent instructor and schedule some training time, sooner than later. It just might make all the difference.
Dave Bates is the owner of Alpha Omega Shooting Solutions, LLC in Khedive, Pennsylvania. Dave is an NRA certified instructor, a teacher, coach and police officer with nearly 40 years of experience. If you have questions or are interested in learning more about firearms training, contact Dave. via email: alphaomegashootingsolutions@gmail.com or by phone at 724-966-7011.