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Rereading the “Annie, Get Your Gear” blog post, I’m really struck by something I hardly even noticed the first time around. That is, the people I quoted both assumed that they would only take one class, or “one or two classes.” They had no expectation of needing more, wanting more, learning more.
That’s interesting. I wonder what it means?
(Note: I wrote this last Thursday morning. Then never had time to post it, what with one thing and another. Here it is now though!)
As I write this, I’m sitting on an airplane. Doing a lot of that these days, hanging in the sky on my way from one place to another. It was an early flight today, 6 am takeoff out of Seattle, which means I’ve been up since 3:15 or so. Yes, I suppose that’s technically morning, but some folks would say it’s still the middle of the night. *yawn.*
Because of who I am and what I do, I always bring at least two handguns with me when I fly. I also bring holsters, blue dummy guns, inert training rounds, and all sorts of other raise-an-eyebrow goodies for the TSA to wonder about. So you can take it from me when I say this: it really is not a big deal to fly with your gun. You simply follow the rules provided by the TSA.
First, the rules. Here’s a link to the offical TSA info about them: Traveling with Firearms
Here’s a link to the actual wording of the federal law that applies when flying with a gun: 49 CFR 1544.203
In a nutshell, if you want to bring your handgun with you when you fly, you must put it inside your checked luggage. (Not in the carry-on, natch!) Your suitcase must shut with a TSA-approved lock. Inside the suitcase, you’ll put a small, hard-sided lockbox that holds the unloaded gun.
The key or combination to the inner lockbox must stay only with you, which means the inner lock should not be TSA-approved (see section f.2.iii of the federal law linked above). Some airport layouts make following that particular law a little sticky. It’s up to you how hardnosed you want to be about encouraging them to follow the law, or about maintaining the security of your firearm. 1
One thing that’s helped me stay more relaxed about my gun’s security: I run a cable lock through the spine of the suitcase (behind the inner lining) and attach it to my gun case with a non-TSA lock. That way, if someone in the airport wants to take my firearm, they’ll need to take the entire suitcase. Not impossible, but much less likely.
You may wonder why I’m making such a big deal about TSA locks vs. non-TSA locks. It’s really rather simple: TSA locks aren’t exactly secure. They are accessible by anyone with access to the luggage and a master key — and those master keys aren’t all that hard to obtain, no matter what the official claim about that might be. For that reason, I use TSA locks only where required for compliance, and choose more secure locks otherwise. This goes doubly or even triply for the lockbox that actually holds the gun, since federal law does require that “only the individual checking the baggage retains the key or combination.”
Airlines have different rules about ammunition. In general, you can fly with enough ammo to fill a magazine or two. Ammo needs to remain in its original packaging, and the original packaging should hold the rounds separately so they don’t jostle all together during the flight. How much ammunition you can pack, and whether it goes inside or outside the lockbox, is up to the individual airline. So here’s the tip: hop online and check your airlines’ specific rule before you fly.
Some TSA agents get nervous if the ammo box has a few empty spots in it. I once waited nearly 45 minutes for the agents to completely disassemble and reassemble a friend’s luggage, looking for the “missing” rounds from a partially-used box. Since then, if I need to travel with a less-than-full box, I always write the actual round count on the top of the ammo box with a sharpie before I get to the airport. It seems to help, and several have thanked me for it.
Whether or not you intend to fly with your firearm, you should always empty your carry on completely – all the pockets, everything! – before you pack it for your trip. That’s because one stray round can cause a lot of trouble. So can a forgotten pocketknife or (heaven forbid!) the tiny little backup gun you thought you’d put back in the gun safe after your last trip.
Happy travels.
Notes:
Conversation with my mother on Monday night…
Mom: “I hadn’t thought about putting the gun in the holster being so dangerous.”
Kat, teasing: “What, you only just got around to reading my blog post from last week?!”
Mom: “No, honey, I’ve been re-reading the same posts over and over all week long, just like everyone else!”
(New material coming soon. I promise! Been a busy few days.)
This post is mostly for new instructors, but the rest of you can read it too. 😉
Sooner or later, most new defensive firearms instructors come to a startling realization: some people are really, really stupid. I’m talking monumental stupid. Epic stupid. Stupid beyond stupid. Black holes of stupid that actually suck all the stupid from the surrounding environment and collapse it into one gigantic pulsating ball of superconcentrated stupid. Stupid!
Unfortunately, some instructors never get over that phase. They never learn to respect their students for who they are, what they’ve learned in life, or where they are in their personal journeys. In the most unfortunate cases, they even graduate to thinking everyone is that level of stupid.
Don’t be that guy.
Look at your students and realize that every single one of them is an adult human being who ended up in your class because they wanted to learn how to do things better and more safely. Even the slowest among them is smarter than you about something. Maybe a lot of things. Even the ones who flounder, who are clearly out of their element, are smarter than the ones who stayed at home on the couch. Even the ones who have to be reminded over and over to keep their fingers off the trigger are better off than the guys posting on the internet about how they don’t need to learn anything from anyone.
Every single one of your students is on a personal journey that you know nothing about, and each of them has trusted you to help them on that journey. When you think about it, that’s freaking amazing. That trust deserves your respect and sometimes even your awe.
If you don’t treat your students with professionalism and respect, your students will not respect you. How could they? Your lack of respect for them shows that you don’t understand the awesome responsibility they’ve entrusted to you.
If you don’t trust your own teaching skills, neither will your students. Trusting your teaching skills means that you give them the information, model it, let them do it and tell them how they’re doing — then let it go. It’s theirs now. They have to make it their own in order to grow. If you don’t trust that process, neither will they. You have to let them grow.
Trust is hard. It’s especially hard when you have a student who seems tough to reach.
But that’s when it’s most essential.
A few days ago on Facebook, I posted a question about why there aren’t as many women as men in midlevel or advanced firearms training classes. There were a lot of answers. 1 One of the things that came up was that many people are reluctant to buy range-specific holsters.
One person expressed it very well when she wrote, “[The Cornered Cat] course requries a holster type I have no intention of ever using. So that means even more money spent on a holster and clothing that would only be used the days of the class.”
Another person wrote something similar: “I’d have to invest in pants with belt loops, belt, and holster that I would probably never use again just to take one or two classes.”
Please understand I’m not picking on either one of these people, because those are very valid concerns. None of us wants to waste money on gear we can’t use or on holsters we won’t wear. Personally, I carry on the belt with a hard-sided holster about two-thirds of the time. The rest of the time, I often use the type of holsters that I wouldn’t usually allow on the range in my own classes. Yup, I’m a hypocrite… so let me explain the rationale for the class rules, and see if it makes a little more sense to people.
To build the foundation for everything else I’ll have to say on this one, let me start with a little-known but unpleasant truth:
Putting a loaded gun into a holster is the single most dangerous thing anyone ever does in a professional firearms training class.
It’s the dirty little secret of the defensive handgun training industry: using a holster creates more opportunities for carnage than anything else taught in good classes. If you get a group of trainers together in the same room and keep your ears open, you will soon discover that every trainer has a horror story about a student who did not listen to the safety briefing. Nearly all of these stories involve students shooting themselves in the leg as they put the gun into its holster with their fingers on the trigger. Although it’s very rare for students to get hurt at all, when they do get hurt, this is the single most common way it happens.
Because there have been so many shootings like this, reputable trainers are all quite cautious when they teach people how to use a holster. Typically, they will start with simple dry fire exercises. They’ll have people dry fire from low ready rather than from the holster, bringing the gun up to the target each time, dry firing, then bringing the gun down off target every time. The stated (and real) purpose of this drill is to help people develop good trigger control so they can shoot more accurately. The unstated but equally real purpose that goes alongside it is that the trainer needs to watch how each student’s trigger finger behaves, seeing that the trigger finger always comes off the trigger before the gun comes off target. The students need to ingrain this good trigger finger habit before anyone ever gets near a holster. Dry firing from the ready position helps the trainer make sure the students’ trigger fingers are on board with the program.
Once the trainer has seen how the students’ trigger fingers behave, the next step is showing them how to put the gun safely into the holster. The holster isn’t concealed yet, because the trainer needs to see what each student is doing throughout the entire process. The class will usually start out with unloaded guns going into an unconcealed holster, and the trainer will watch very carefully to be sure everyone’s trigger finger behaves properly. The trainer will also watch muzzle direction very carefully, correcting it as needed to keep the students as safe as possible. Because holstering is so risky, a good trainer will often have the students work with unconcealed holsters and dry fire drawstrokes for a long time before anyone ever loads a gun or puts on a cover garment. 2
This slow buildup to using a concealed holster is the equivalent of starting a beginning driver in the parking lot rather than on the freeway.
So that leads us to equipment selection. Every trainer has specific rules about which holsters can come to class. Almost without exception, these rules are designed to reduce the likelihood of a student shooting herself during the class, or (in the worst case) to reduce the seriousness of the injury if she does.
When I teach a class, I want to be sure every student is as safe as I can keep her. So until I have first taught the student how to safely use the holster and have helped her ingrain some good habits, I have to see what her trigger finger is doing every time she holsters the gun. That’s one reason I don’t allow belly bands or purse holsters on the range, because these carry methods hide the students’ trigger fingers and hand placement from my view.
There’s another thing about belly bands and other types of squishy holsters. When students use collapsible holsters, it’s very hard for them to avoid passing the muzzle over the top of the non-shooting hand when they put the gun away. That’s because they’re holding the holster mouth open with the non-shooting hand. Not long ago, I heard an instructor tell me about a shooting he witnessed where a woman literally blew off one of her own fingers doing this. It does happen. We have safety protocols, and we enforce safety protocols, but some students just don’t follow the rules no matter how hard the trainer works at keeping them safe. When the protocols aren’t followed, people get hurt. Sometimes badly hurt. So this rule both helps me prevent mistakes in the first place, and it also reduces the severity of any possible injuries. 3
This is the equivalent of starting a new driver out with an automatic transmission, rather than a stick shift and a clutch.
By this point, some people are thinking, “Wait, wait, you teach intermediate classes!” That’s true; I do. But even though the classes I teach are intermediate to advanced level, I still get many students who have never used a holster on the range. These students need and deserve the very safest introduction to holster use that I can give them. Among the students who have used a holster before, many have not learned the safest methods. As an instructor, I would be failing these students if I didn’t help them rebuild better habits from the ground up – and that means starting at the beginning with solid protocols designed to get them there as safely as possible. Finally, I also have very advanced students who are or who will be teaching others. These students absolutely need to see and have modeled for them the safest way to introduce holster use to a class. Again, this means starting at the foundation and working our way up. For all these reasons, Cornered Cat classes follow the safety protocols appropriate for teaching basic holster use.
So here we are back at the individual student who does not see a reason to buy a hard-sided, non-collapsible belt holster since she doesn’t carry that way. If you’re in that boat, I hope you understand a little better now why I ask you to bring that kind of holster to class. But I’m not going to leave you there, because I know that’s not how you really carry. I know you want to drive a stick shift, not an automatic.
Here’s where we go from there.
Our range work begins the process of ingraining safe behavior related to holsters. By the end of the weekend, your trigger finger and gun hand will be quite reliable at working safely around the holster you brought to class. This simple motor program will transfer over to other types of holsters as long as you practice appropriately. I help you do that by demonstrating each type of draw for you during the class. Whether it’s a shoulder holster, an ankle holster, a purse or pack or bag, or some other carry method, I can and do show you how to use it safely. Even though we won’t use the alternate carry methods on the range, I do encourage you to bring your own carry gear so we can demonstrate and discuss the safest ways to use it. By the time class is over, you will be able to take your own gear and teach yourself how to use it without me standing over you nagging you about every little detail. That’s the goal.
Closely related to this, the other reason I like to see students with their own safe range holsters is because I do want you to practice on a regular basis. Having that holster opens some doors that would otherwise be closed to you. For example, many ranges won’t allow people to work from the holster, but of those that do, they all require a belt-carried holster. Formal shooting competitions always require this type of holster. For those who continue learning (as I encourage all my students to do), the advantage of having this type of holster available to you is that they’re required in almost every other class from reputable trainers.
Bottom line: Yes, there’s an up-front investment, but it’s an investment that pays off even though it might not be your preferred carry method. It allows me to keep you safe during the class. It allows you to build good habits from the ground up, habits that will carry over to other types of holsters. And it opens doors for you by making it possible for you to practice, compete, and continue your training.
Notes:
With the cost of ammunition right now, it’s amazing anyone can afford to practice without getting some good coaching first to be sure they’re practicing the right things.
According to Schmidt in Motor Learning and Performance, it takes roughly 300 to 500 repetitions to ingrain a motor program to the point you no longer need to slowly think your way through it every time you do it. However, to erase a previously-learned program and replace it with a new one takes 3000 to 5000 reps — literally ten times as much work! Also, the number of required repetitions goes up dramatically when the earlier program has been “overlearned,” that is, when it has been trained to the point of true automaticity. The rule is, the more thoroughly you have learned the first program, the more work you have to do to erase that old program and get yourself up to speed with a new one.
Let me put that in more familiar terms. Think about driving a car: you put your foot on the brake, turn the key in the ignition, work the gear shift, and take your foot off the brake to get the car rolling. This simple sequence of behaviors is a “motor program,” and you’ve literally done it thousands if not hundreds of thousands of times in your life. When you first learned to do it, you had to think your way through it (as anyone who’s ever coached a teenage driver knows). But now? Now you just think, “Time to back out of the driveway,” and your body runs through the skills without much conscious oversight from your brain. You’re probably thinking about what’s going on at the office, or the conversation you had with your kid before you left for work, or whether you should stop for coffee on your way there. That’s automaticity.
Now, if your car is in the shop and you borrow an unfamiliar one, the first time you get behind the wheel, you would check out the location of the gear shift. Is it on the steering column or between the seats? If your own car has a gear shift on the steering column, but the new car has one between the seats, I can guarantee that at some point, you’ll be thinking about other things and will reach for the non-existent gear shift on the column. Why? Because you have a motor program that says that’s where the gear shift is. Even though your conscious mind knows where the new gear shift is, you don’t usually use your conscious mind when you grab the gear shift. You let the motor program handle it.
What does this have to do with shooting? Simple: when we practice using a gun for self-defense, the goal is to ingrain a motor program that lets us run the gun while we think about other things – just as the goal in the driver’s seat is to think about the road ahead of us rather than focusing on how to use the knobs and levers that make the car go. We need that good motor program because if we are ever attacked, we want our minds free to think about solving the criminal problem, and we don’t want to tie up brain cells thinking about the mechanics of making the gun work. This is why practice is important, and why it’s important to practice the right things.
It’s also why I’m amazed to see so many people blowing through ammunition on the range without a plan or a purpose, and without first learning the most efficient ways to do things. If you practice doing things inefficiently, you will build an inefficient motor program. That means you will do those things in that same inefficient way when your life is in danger, even if your conscious mind knows better. That’s just not a good thing at all.
The ideal is this: first learn the most efficient way to do things, and then practice doing things that way until you have ingrained that program to the point of automaticity. Then you will be able to solve your criminal problem much more easily.
Talking to a woman awhile back, she told me that she doesn’t want to take a class because it costs so much money and she really can’t justify spending money on herself. She’d rather spend her money on her family, because spending that much money and taking that much time away from her family feels very selfish.
Boy howdy, do I understand that one! Like most busy moms, when I took my first class, I felt guilty for taking time away from the kids on the weekend. Add in the financial investment (which was absolutely huge for us with our limited resources), and the “feeling selfish” aspect of things nearly overwhelmed me.
But … I signed up for the next class anyway. And by then, I did not feel guilty anymore. I was determined to learn as much as I possibly could about safely defending myself and my loved ones, and that meant I needed those classes. I could enjoy the classes – which I did! – but I wasn’t taking those classes for fun. I was taking them as an investment in my family’s safety, and that meant it was worth making them a financial and time priority.
What flipped the switch for me was talking to the other shooters at the range. When I started shooting in 1999, I didn’t often bump into other women when I went shooting. But of course there were guys, and many of those guys would come up and talk to me. During that time (and even still today), I would often have guys come up to me to tell me how much they wished their wives would learn to shoot.
I’ll never forget one guy who just about broke my heart when he told me his story. He had some kind of dangerous job, and had several people threaten his life over the past few years. 1 Some of those people had also threatened his family. “My wife still won’t carry a gun or learn to protect herself,” he told me. “That’s fine, she’s an adult, but I’m scared silly for my children! They’re with her most of the time, and she’s not able to protect them. She doesn’t know how.”
That conversation and others like it were what flipped the switch for me. I don’t know if those guys were talking to their wives or not, but the pure raw emotion I saw on some of their faces really drove it home for me. These guys were afraid for their children’s lives. They were afraid of raising kids without a mom. And they were afraid of spending their lives without the woman they loved. I couldn’t do a thing about them, but I could make sure that I was prepared to protect my family from that kind of heartbreak.
Notes:
This weekend, I’m hanging at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. Soooo much good stuff here, with presentations from some of the best serious gun trainers in the industry. There are over 20 professional instructors here, each presenting a 2-hour block of instruction, with classes going all weekend long. Best kept little secret out there.
Anyway, Claude Werner taught one block I attended yesterday. Claude’s subject was family safety plans. He had a lot to say about that, and maybe I will write more about this later — but for now, let me ask you a question:
When was the last time you did a fire alarm drill with your family? How did it go?
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