Getting Started ...
FAS-2 Class Review
By Kathy Jackson
The following class review was originally written in May, 2000.
I was a brand-new handgun shooter, and although I was already fairly familiar
with my handgun I probably should have started with a more basic class.
I had fun though, and learned a lot. I'm posting it here mostly as a bit
of self-indulgent nostalgia ... and because it's an excellent opportunity
to say "thank you" to Gila and Marty Hayes, who have given so
much to so many shooters over the years. I count myself to be incredibly
blessed to have met these folks.
There have been a lot of changes at FAS since this article
was written. FAS-2 doesn't truly even exist anymore; it has been replaced
with a class named Defensive Handgun, and a great deal of the curricula
has been reworked and rewritten. The class remains appropriate for intermediate-
beginners (or beginning-intermediates), and continues to provide an excellent
value for those interested in learning more about firearms safety, defensive
handgunning, and the legal limits of lethal force.
You can find the website for the Firearms Academy of Seattle at
www.firearmsacademy.com
~ Kathy
This past weekend, I took FAS-2 from the
Firearms Academy of Seattle. The course was taught by Marty and
Gila Hayes, both long-time firearms instructors, and was well worth the
instruction fee.1
As a fairly new shooter -- I've been shooting handguns for a little less
than a year now -- I found this course moved quickly and thoroughly through
a lot of material that was foundational to good marksmanship and (more
important) foundational to good self defense skills.
While originally I signed up for the course primarily to improve my shooting
skills, I found I was most appreciative of the legal aspects of the training.
After completing the course, I went home with my class notebook filled
with notes in my own handwriting which detailed my understanding of the
rules governing the use of deadly force.
Also included in my class notebook were notes taken while we watched police
training videos. One of those videos, a re-enactment of an incident that
took place in Baton Rouge back in the 70's, was truly hair-raising and
provided a lot of material for class discussion as well as for serious
thought.2
After covering the basics of range safety
in the classroom, we moved to the range to work on shooting skills. I
have to note here that the entire weekend was a very safe weekend and
at no time did I believe that the instructors were unaware of safety considerations.
We started on the basics of marksmanship, starting with a good
stance. Marty emphasized that each of us should be able to use
any of the stances (Weaver, Chapman, Isosceles) with skill, since in any
encounter we would not be able to dictate the circumstances and might
not be able to choose our favored stance. That said, I discovered that
my favorite stance is the Isosceles, the choice of most women. A friend
who took the class with me told me that he much preferred the Weaver and
shot best in that stance; personally I had a hard time hitting anything
from that contorted and awkward position. Since he felt the same about
the Isosceles, I guess if we do what we were taught, in order to become
well-balanced shooters, I'll be practicing Weaver and he'll be practicing
Isosceles for awhile now.3
Once the class had mastered single shot drills from each of the basic
stances, concentrating on sight picture,
smooth trigger pull, and follow through,
we moved on to one hand shooting, multiple shot drills, and other positions
-- speed squat, high kneeling, and low kneeling. I found I shot well from
high and low kneeling but speed squat was difficult and awkward for me
(free advice: if you want to learn to shoot speed squat well, put your
gun away for awhile and practice deep knee bends!).
By the end of the class, we were working on low-light shooting, shooting
multiple targets, and shooting while moving. I'm told all of these, plus
tactical considerations, are covered more fully in FAS-3 and I fully intend
to take that next course as soon as I've scraped enough money out of the
grocery budget to do it.
It was a great weekend and definitely worth the money spent. We lucked
out on getting weather that was as close to perfect as you'll ever see
in this part of the world and that was definitely a plus. Good instruction,
good shooting, good friends, and good weather -- does a weekend get any
better than this?
And, to top all this off: Yesterday I took my first shooting buddy out
to show him what I'd learned in the class. He's the man who got me started
shooting handguns. He owns a homemade IPSC-style target stand and the
last time we shot together I put a few holes through the wood slats on
the outer edges, which he'd ribbed me about quite a bit. Yesterday we
each shot off 100 rounds. I walked through the 60 round qualifier which
finishes off FAS-2, and then shot 10 rounds or so while step-dragging/backing
away from the target. The sneak loaded some snap caps in my mag for that
one so I had to clear a "malfunction" while backing away. The
rest of the ammo was shot off in various stances at distances ranging
from 30 to 60 feet. At the end of the afternoon, all my shots had been
on the 8 1/2 x 11 paper! Most of the groups looked pretty good, but even
the ones that didn't, didn't have any real flyers. As we were packing
up to go home, my buddy was examining his stand sourly and mock-complaining,
"Hmph. The girl can shoot..."
