It’s always a fun day on the range until…It’s not.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing right in front of me.  I was literally within inches of him as he rotated the muzzle of the cocked 9mm pistol up under his chin with his finger on the trigger.  I found myself reaching in with my left hand pushing the gun away from under his chin and grabbing it with my thumb in-between the hammer and the slide.  I’m not sure if he was resisting or not but I ended up hitting him on the top of his right wrist to break his grip on the pistol.  I now had complete control of the weapon and with it back in a safe direction I quickly made it safe.  All the while this was going on, my shooter had no reaction or expression on his face and my thoughts were turning towards my loaded sidearm in my holster.  Thankfully he either didn’t think about it or he thought better of wrestling with me for my own gun.  Either way, I was truly lucky! Continue reading →

Just a fun day at the range with non-shooters having fun and bonding.

As a firearms instructor for a large academy, I tend to see a lot of people from all walks of life and with a broad range of experience and skill.  Some come to us having never touched a firearm in their lives.  Others have had quite a bit of professional of training and they just want to learn the latest and greatest techniques.  Those people are there by choice and typically are pretty well balanced and focused on safely learning.  Sometimes we host events for corporate demonstrations or team building.  It is at this point where the people we see start to vary widely.  Many are not gun people, some have little experience and a few are well trained and safe.  Every once in a while we run across the unpredictable variable.  This recount is about one of those variables. Continue reading →