Above & Beyond: Your NRA At Work

[BamBams]

Above & Beyond

People become acquainted with the National Rifle Association from many different angles. Most folks are familiar with the NRA's legal battles, their position on protecting the 2nd Amendment, and the "American Rifleman" magazine that comes each month, but I find that even though there are about 40,000 NRA Certified Instructors, plenty of people don't seem to catch a glimpse of the NRA's involvement in training thousands of people a year with firearms.  What follows is a glimpse into last month's NRA Basic Pistol Course taught in Colorado Springs, CO.



As part of a team of NRA certified pistol instructors, I have the privilege of teaching students the proper knowledge, skills, and attitude to safely own and shoot a handgun. The course we teach includes, obviously, the requirements that are set forth by the NRA, but we also go way above and beyond that.  We take what is normally a 10 hour course, and make it into a rich, 24 hour program of instruction.  For example; we have an attorney that discusses concealed carry laws and advises the students on how to behave following a self-defense shooting.

All of this takes a great deal of preparation beforehand, and I wouldn't consider us the most efficient group of folks you'll ever meet. The classroom must be set up, the other instructors have to be rounded up, students must be registered and their fees paid.  The ammo and guns are provided for those students who haven’t provided their own.  And then there is “range day.”

Now, range day takes the most preparation of all that we do. Each instructor attempts to pitch in to make things click smoothly and on schedule.  Our range is located in a desolate, mountain area called “Badger Flats.”  It is a high altitude place that is cold and snowy in the winter, hot in the summer, and there aren't any seasons in between. It's also about an hour’s drive from where we conduct our classroom sessions.  We always strive to have one instructor available per student at the range.  This not only makes the range events safer and more supervised, but it also affords more individual attention for each student.  We bring along about 20 firearms of our own – ranging in calibers .22 rimfire to .50 BMG, and we permit the students to fire a few rounds from each one of them.  We've even got a guy who does a muzzle loader demonstration. The students shoot everything from UZI's to lever action rifles. We call this our “round robbin” event.  

This month however, “range day” went anything but smooth. It had been snowing the night before, and there was an estimated 4 inches of snow on the ground.  We drive up a motor home to provide refuge from the cold and to make lots of coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks for everyone. Late in the evening before “range day,” we had learned that, “Bob,” who normally drives up the motor home in the morning,  had other pressing commitments, so I was volunteered to perform this task instead.  The plan was that I’d procure the motor home, drive up to the range with my kids, camp out at the range the night before, and have everything ready to go when the students showed up the following morning. It sure seemed like a fun plan to me!

Class lasted until 11 p.m., so the kids and I arrived at Bob’s house at midnight to pick up the motor home. Bob conducted me around the motor home pointing out each of the controls and compartments, when he looked and me and remarked,”Gee Emmett, it looks like the right front tire is flat.  Sure enough, it’s flatter than Farrah Fawcett, I thought, so now what? Well golly, I’ve got to go to the 24 hour “Walmart” anyway to get some grub for breakfast, so I might as well pick up a couple cans of “Fix-A-Flat” and maybe that will help seal the tire?  Well folks, let me tell you that “Wal-Mart” is certainly a creepy place at 1 a.m. in the morning. Everyone, including the store clerks, were meandering around the place like zombies, so I guess we fit right in?

So now it's 2 a.m. and we’re back at Bob’s house.  Two cans of “Fix-A-Flat” barely raised the tire, so now we’re hooking up one of those tiny, portable compressors that run off a cigarette light plug.  I wonder if the compressor will burn out before the tire has 20 psi in it? Well that compressor didn't burn up, but it’s 2:30 a.m. and we’re on our way to a gas station to fill up the tire with the proper 65 psi.  It sure is hard to dodge deer on the road with a heavy motor home that has its front tire almost flat - especially a motor home I've never driven before.

It's 3:00 a.m. and we’re finally on our way, or so I think?  Driving along in the warm motor home, I am relieved to be making some progress toward our destination, but I'm getting quite sleepy now.  My house is located at the halfway point between our point of departure and the shooting range, so I decided we’d make a quick stop, get the dog, some more pillows and blankets, and a nice, warm shower before we headed out to “Badger Flats.” A smelly instructor wouldn’t be good for the students.

(........to be continued)

[BamBams]

After a long day of work, followed by a long evening of class, followed by walking around shopping, followed by the ordeal in the cold with the tire, it sure felt good to finally park that motor home in my driveway and walk across the threshold of my cozy home for some rest and a shower at 3:30 a.m.  Well, I’m drying myself off now, and I look at the clock.  It’s about 4 a.m and Range Day starts at 9 a.m., so I think I’ll forego trying to drive the motor home on snowy trails in the dark and just tell the kids we are going to sleep at home for a few hours then drive into Badger Flats around 8 a.m.  We all fell asleep in the comfort of our own beds in a matter of minutes.

I awoke to sound of my children’s alarm at 7 a.m.  As usual, I was the only one that it actually got out of bed.  Once I was sure that the kids were, indeed, awake, I grabbed the keys to the motor home and went outside to warm it up for the rest of the journey.  Guess what?  The tire was still full of air!  The problem, this time, was that another tire was totally flat!  So now what?  While I am scratching my head, and looking at my watch every 3 minutes, a neighbor offered to loan me his compressor. What a guy!  I love people like this.

It’s now 8 a.m. and finally we are on our way, again, to Badger Flats with our newest addition – “Dakota.”  She is half Akita and half Chow, and affectionately called “Fuzzy Wuzz.”  One small stop to fill up with gas, and we’re pulling into Badger Flats at 8:30 a.m. Thank God!  Getting the motor home through the snow turned out to be uneventful. I found a good place to park where the students can have easy access to use the bathroom and grab some warm coffee and snacks.

I’m thinking, “All is well now.”  No such luck.  I can’t get the generator started. Dang! No coffee!  No oatmeal! Rats! Okay, so Bob said this might happen.  He also gave me instructions to open up the generator compartment with the key and start it from there.
The problem is that the key won’t work in the locks.  They are full of road grime and just won’t turn without bending the key.  I give up and decide to wait until the rest of the gang shows up and let them try, since I don’t own the motor home anyway and don’t want to make matters worse.  I leave the engine running and take a nap on the sofa.

Finally people start showing up.  Paul, my training counselor, who also owns the motor home, comes in and wakes me up.  I hand him the keys and he leaves.  I can hear him cussing outside. Soon he is accompanied by some others and now they’re all out there trying to get the generator started.  I feel like I’ve had enough already, but I throw on a coat anyway and join them outside.  Finally, one of our more mechanically inclined instructor’s figures out there is a problem with the choke on the generator and fixes it. The girls immediately begin to make some hot coffee and I start really feeling the need for some more sleep, but I decided to get out the rake and start raking away snow from the firing line so the student’s toes won’t freeze.

Now we always advise the students to dress warm for range day.  We get specific about it with them since the majority of them are flatlanders and don’t really comprehend the difference in temperature at this altitude.  We tell them to wear at least three layers of clothes, two pairs of socks, warm boots, gloves, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
Wouldn’t you know it?  I look down the hill, and there is a green Corvette spinning its tires in the snow. We’ve got an instructor with a 4x4, diesel Dodge Ram, so getting people unstuck isn’t going to be a problem today, but here walks the Corvette guy.  He’s wearing penny loafers and a thin, unzipped leather bomber jacket!  The worst part about it is that he is an instructor!  Yup, he’s one of those guys who will show up once a year to “help” so he can keep his NRA certificate hanging on the wall.  Now, I don’t mind actual help, but in this case, I just stuff him in the motor home and have the girls feed him milk and cookies all day while we tow his car.

Well lookie there! Now we’ve got a Fiat down the hill spinning tires.  So this guy comes walking up also.  Oh, it’s Brian! He’s properly dressed for work, and a very welcome sight to see also, for he always brings the cigars.  I hand him a rake! Well the sun is coming up now. All the students have arrived.  After about 3 cups of coffee, I am actually ready to start teaching.  Our first event is a shotgun demonstration.  We fire a 12 gauge from 10 feet at one target, and again from 25 feet to demonstrate shotgun patterning to the students.  “Ewwww”  and “Ahhhhhh” and it’s over and uneventful.  This is good.

Now it’s time for the “Hydrostatic Shock” demonstration.  We take two, one gallon water jugs.  One is empty and the other full.  Then we shoot them both with a .357 Magnum. Obviously the full jug explodes really nice, and the empty one will just have a hole in it. We then explain how hard it would be to fix the exploded jug in a hospital emergency room.  So here comes, Jim.  This is his first time putting on the hydrostatic shock demo. He’s got a “Smith & Wesson” .357 Magnum with a 2 inch barrel.  Bang! Bang!  I’m thinking, “Hey, the jug didn’t explode?”  Did he miss?  Nope. He forgot to use hollow points. Sheeeeeesh! Okay, I go and get two more jugs while he reloads. Bang! Jim stops firing after the first shot then he raises up his gun in the air.  I’m thinking, “Hey, where is the barrel?  There is no barrel on that pistol!”  So where is it?  We go and look.  Oh, it’s 10 feet down range.  Sheeeeeeesh.  Roundabout this time, our training counselor steps up with his Colt Python and completes the demo. I’m thinking to myself, “Holy cow, I almost sold that pistol last week at the store.”  




(..........to be continued)

[BamBams]

Okay, we’re making some progress with Range Day now.  The instructors, for the most part are in a good mood, and the students got to see the barrel fly off a Smith & Wesson revolver.  It’s now time for the “Round Robbin” event, and I volunteered to do the “one handed standing position with a .22 Ruger Single Six – both strong and weak hand. This should be easy, and boy am I looking forward to “easy” today.  Well, here comes my first customer.  I load six rounds, explain the position and remind him of the safety rules, then I hand him the pistol.  It was perfect, he did well and no catastrophes.  The problem NOW is, the dang loading gate won’t open on the pistol.  I try and try, but it won’t open. I even pulled out the cylinder pin, and nope, won’t come open.  So now what?

Well, lucky for me, the instructor doing “Bench Rest,” just happened to bring along his Ruger Single Six, but he’s only got the magnum cylinder for it.  Oh goodie.  So now we’re shooting .22 Magnums and we’ve only got about 100 of them, so each student only gets to perform this position twice – once with each hand, but at least things are now moving along. I manage to get through all the students pretty smoothly. I’m the second position out of about 20, so I’ve got some idle time.  I get another cup of coffee, and take out my 1911 and start making some holes to help pass the time while the students are finishing up down range with the big bores and the muzzle loader.

The events and demonstrations are now over.  It’s time to get serious and time for the students to qualify at the range with their handguns of choice.  I am assigned an 18 year old female to work with.  She had a .40 Glock, and is the daughter of a former, Turkish intelligence officer who I became friends with a couple months ago.  I didn’t have to teach her much.  She had great position, a great grip, and her groups were quite decent. When it comes time for the students to shoot for qualification scores, we give them the option the either have their instructor present, or to do it alone. She wanted to fly solo, so I got another break.  Now as tired as I was, I can’t walk away from watching the students shoot.  I become totally taken in, and simply cannot pry myself away. I started walking the firing line and observing for unsafe practices and so forth.



After the students had fired about 50 rounds, I noticed that the targets were exceptional. In fact, I’ve never, ever seen a class, as a whole; perform as well as these 15 individuals. I had to smile and start praising them every chance I could. I think the biggest group I saw was no larger than about six inches. I began to forget about all that had happened previously for us to get this far and I focused solely on the positives.  I was proud of the excellence of our instruction on the days prior, and even more proud of the students who had braved the cold, the inconvenience, and the mishaps of this day.  My brain was filled with one single thought, “It’s worth it!”  I’d go through it all again next month, and indeed I shall.  We’re giving people confidence in themselves, we making the world safer, and preventing some truly wonderful folks from becoming victims in a violent crime.  Yup, “It’s worth it – flat tires and all.”

[VTDW]

Bams,

This is the first chance I have had to read your post.  I am very impressed with what you do.  I have never been to any type of firearms training and think I will go the first chance I get.  I figure that everyone has a purpose in this life and it looks like your are fulfilling yours.  Wonder what is next?  Great story!

Dave :-)

[BamBams]

Hey Dave,

I'm just hoping that THIS month's class goes a heck of a lot smoother than the one you just read about!  *smiles*

Oh, and things are already looking dismal!  My Kimber is still at Kimber being re-Kimbered. l feel nekked without my Kimber!  :roll: