I Tell You Things. And On Occasion, I Am Correct.
Back in April, I warned you about an increase in demand for preparedness food supplies. This evening, 12 of 25 bulk food items sold by Emergency Essentials are on back order. Check it out for yourself.
It's hard to discern the precise reason for the uptick in demand. I can speculate that it's driven by a number of factors. Let me take this opportunity to once again ask you to start working towards some level of self sufficiency - where you can take care of yourself and your family for a period of time after a major storm, power outage, loss of a job, or some sort of market collapse.
Revamping How We Train
I had a great CHL class yesterday. Everyone passed, which is always nice.
I used the class as an opportunity to use a training technique known as force on force. In its simplest form, it's role playing. Each student is given an individual script. Some are innocent bystanders who freak out when the action starts, others are CHL holders minding their own business. Of course, there's a bad guy or two thrown in to see how people react.
In yesterday's class, we had three different scenarios - a convenience store, a restaurant, and at a gas station. We used my pick up truck in the driveway as the scene for the third one; my neighbors walking up and down the sidewalks added a sense of realism.
It was interesting to see the decision making process evolve for the students as we went through the scenarios. Initially, the actor playing the role of the CHL holder wants to pull out their toy gun and shoot the bad guy. As we debrief each session, we discuss why that's most often the wrong answer: unless your life is in danger, it's best to pull back, take a defensive position, call 911 and be a good witness. By the end of the force on force training, the CHL holders were making good decisions - utilizing cover, calling 911, defusing situations with nonviolent means.
I don't know how many CHL instructors are utilizing force on force in their classes. I found it to be a very effective tool, and the students appreciated the opportunity to get more involved in the training rather than listen to me in a classroom setting.
Most CHL instructors aren't using FoF because most of them have never taken any FoF training, and/or lack the experience and knowledge to run FoF training. The skills required to run FoF are totally different from those required to teach the mechanics of shooting or set up and run any type of live fire training.
ReplyDeleteAlso very different from the skills needed to regurgitate a list of state laws and state developed curriculum. The CHL instructors who have never had any formal training other than the week long DPS class could not ever begin to offer this much service to their customers.
ReplyDeleteI'm seriously considering adding more FoF scenarios to the class. They seem to understand the concepts I'm teaching in class far better than when I just go through the power point.
ReplyDeleteNow that House Bill 47 has been filed (reducing the classroom time from 10 hours to 4 hours, amont other things), it will be interesting to see if it passes and how that will affect the curricula of the CHL instructor cadre.