Observations and Comments on the NRA's new "Personal Protection in the Home" course.
Written by Randy Mays, Chief Instructor, Piedmont NRA Instructors, Warrenton, VA.
Sometimes it's good to be in the right place at the right time and say the right thing. When our instructor group learned that the new NRA Personal Protection Courses were being finalized, we offered to conduct a test running so that the NRA training staff could get a look at how an above average group of active local instructors would present the course, how long lessons would take, and what, if any, material could be dropped, moved to handouts, or modified to make the course more effective. We were in the right place because Warrenton, Virginia is on the same side of Washington, DC at NRA headquarters and we have access to several shooting facilities. In this instance, we lucked out big time by being able to teach the course at a range owned by some of the best shooters in the world, the United States Marines. They have a "more than adequate" range at a place called Quantico. On Saturday February 20th we had a classroom, our regular instructor cadre plus an instructor from West Virginia, thirteen students ready to learn, and access to the International Pistol Range on the base. We had couple of weeks to prepare and needed every bit of it, because the new material is more complicated, but it is also what we need to be teaching.
There are going to be two new Personal Protection Courses. The difference is that the first, the one we taught, is about personal protection in the home. The second, which will be even more challenging, will focus on situations outside the home and involve learning to draw and fire from a holster rather than a ready position. The new courses have a pre-requisite: the students must be able to exhibit safe handling of firearms, shoot a group, center the group, and know how to clean and store the firearm. These will be the learning objectives of the new Basic Pistol Course and provide the skills needed to build upon in the Personal Protection courses to follow.
The first lesson of the new course has to do with "mindset." Right away the student begins to appreciate that defensive shooting is different from basic marksmanship. Terms like "tunnel vision" and "auditory exclusion" are introduced. The second lesson is a lengthy range session. Because of the weather, we got the lessons out of order on the 20th. We jumped from lesson one to lesson three which covers the law. This lesson may be taught by a police officer with "intermediate level POST certification" and does not have to be taught by an attorney. At our class on February 20th, this lesson was taught by the general counsel for the NRA.
The legal lesson was followed by one on "selecting a handgun and ammunition for personal defense." This lesson should take about 20 minutes to present. By then it was time for lunch. We asked the students to bring their lunches so we could save time. We went to the range next. The 200 round range session may be changed a little from what we did, to cover the same material, but with fewer rounds fired (and less time needed to complete). Students learned about the "flash sight picture" and fired from behind cover. There were reloading drills. It was easy to see the influence of schools like "Gunsite" on the lesson plans. The students had a great time on the range.
We went back to the classroom and had two more lessons, one which covered personal defense strategies, including what to do before, during and after a possible shooting incident, and another lesson on post-course opportunities for additional training and practice. By then it was getting pretty late in the day. Instead of doing "Lesson Seven - The Test," Larry Quandahl, the NRA's National Instructor Trainer, solicited comments from the students. After the students left, Larry conducted a post-course session with the instructors.
This past week, the Piedmont NRA Instructors received a note of thanks from NRA Headquarters. All of us are looking forward to seeing the final version of the course, and were glad to have a chance to participate in this test running. For the first time, we are teaching practical shooting and talking about real world situations. Ideas like "tunnel vision" introduced in the first lesson are reinforced on the range when the students fire, then lower the gun and check the area to break their tunnel vision. We talked about "auditory exclusion" and then taught the students to shout commands while visualizing the targets as something other than paper. The new course works.