The case for the Second Amendment was once again made manifest with the latest Good Guy with a Gun (#GGwaG) this week at the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana. While the Media and the Political Left are trying to snuff the news story out of its news cycle, I've already begun to see sample stages for defensive pistol shooting modeling the incident report.
I think it's very important we in the Second Amendment Community keep this news at the forefront and boost the many other GGwaG reports so concerned citizens know Legal Concealed Carriers are out among them. More importantly, I believe we must also continue to practice these possible scenarios in our training. I know from talking to many of our LASR Customers who are instructors many new gun owners aren't training because finding the time and ammo for range trips to practice are just one obstacle to training. There is also a false notion that a permit or license means you're ready to handle yourself.
At LASR, we are about removing the obstacles and excuses to train with your firearm. With LASR Dynamic Dryfire, you can get the same 80% - 90% of effective practice without the immediate need to go to a live range. That's a large portion of your training but nothing ultimately replaces a qualified instructor and the need to shoot live ammo. However, you can get every bit of practice using LASR and dry fire in the privacy of your own home.
Let's look at what happened in the Greenwood Mall and how to set up the scenario in a small 10' x 10' space with common items and LASR.
I'm using LASR X in the post and a SIRT Pistol, but you can use either LASR X or LASR Classic. I also picked some common household/office items you probably have lying around. To represent the shooter's upper body, I chose--
a business card
a playing card, and
If you have a little more room
a 3" x 5" index card.
The proportions are similar to a full frontal human silhouette (we use IPSC METRIC/IDPA targets to model this on the range).
Now to get your target's perspective and size similar to what Elisjsha likely saw, you'll want to stand back at certain distances depending on the target you use. If you have the--
Business card stand back 10'
Playing Card stand back 10'
3" x 5" index card stand back 14'
I let LASR X use its machine learning to identify the targets. You don't have to, but I've set my Shot Time setting to give me a 2-3 second delay after I press start and a 15-second par time to get off ten (10) shots. After LASR X locks in the target, you are ready to practice.
Once you do that, click the shooting button on the top right and then click the Start/Restart button.
Remember that what you practice for 15 seconds may seem like a lot of time at first, but Elisjsha was at least 40 Yards; he (i) identified the threat, (ii) got into a position to shoot, (iii) drew his gun from concealment, (iv) made sure of his target and what was in and beyond his line of fire under stress situation people screaming/shots fired and (v) got ten shots with eight stopping the threat.
If you've got room, try moving to or from cover and concealment as you shoot. Elisjsha is the #GGwaG
Training shouldn't require a lot of time, crazy set-up's and room to be effective. You can find LASR X and LASR Classic in our store, and if you're looking for an instructor in your local area you can talk to, check out this list of customers who are also instructors who understand the effective use of Dryfire as part of training.