KR TRAINING JULY-AUGUST 2013 NEWS
FALL CLASSES
Our fall schedule is here. All of our fall dates are now online, including the October 19 triple combination of Defensive Pistol Skills 2, AT-2 Force on Force Scenarios and Low Light Shooting. These 3 courses fit together very well to provide 11 hours of training covering shooting skills and tactics in day and night situations. We only offer this combo twice a year, and we expect the courses to fill up quickly.
BEYOND THE BASICS - COMPETITION PISTOL
Every spring and fall, we offer Beyond the Basics and Competition Pistol 1 on the same day. This fall those courses are on September 21. These two courses fit together very well, covering material not included in any of the Defensive Pistol series of classes. The Beyond the Basics course teaches skills essential to doing well in competition: increasing speed and accuracy on targets in the 5-15 yard zone. The Competition Pistol 1 course explains the basic similarities and differences between IPSC, USPSA, IDPA, Steel Challenge, GSSF and other locally available matches, and participants get to run a 4 stage mini match with samples of 4 different common pistol sports.
CHL TRAINING CHANGES
Instructors statewide are waiting for official guidance from DPS, but it appears that the passage of HB 48, which goes into effect Sept 1, means that renewal training for CHL will no longer be required. We have updated our schedule to show only CHL "new permit" courses. Tom Schaefer will be offering a CHL new permit course that uses all 6 hours of the allowed classroom time, plus lunch, and the shooting and written test, starting in September.
The amount of material to be taught has not been reduced. Covering it in 6 hours, instead of 10-15 hours, is a challenge for instructors. Some, who no doubt will market their courses as the "shortest and cheapest", will just teach the answers to the test and little else. Our goal is to teach you what you need to know to be prepared for the real world, and we will continue to do so, within the bounds of what is allowed under Texas law.
-- IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MINIMUM
Anyone that has a CHL believes that someday they might need to use a firearm to save their life, or the lives of others they care about. If they didn't, why bother getting a carry permit? Unfortunately a lot of people mistake the minimum required by the government, which was only intended to ensure that those carrying in public were not a danger to others, with a realistic level of training that might give someone a reasonable chance of survival in an armed encounter. It's not about the minimum. It's not even about the average. If you are average, your odds of losing are 50-50, which doesn't sound that good when losing means that you are dead.
-- THREE SECONDS OR LESS
If the CHL shooting test isn't the standard, what is? More than two decades of study of armed incidents and review of what other schools teach (and how their graduates perform) have helped us define a practical standard in the form of our Three Seconds or Less drill. Now that the state's CHL requirement is gone, we suggest an alternative: shoot the Three Seconds or Less test at least once a year, and set a goal of shooting 80 points or higher. It's 20 rounds - same as the number of rounds in a box of quality self-defense ammo. Shoot your real carry ammo on the test, and reload your mags with new carry ammo. Hold yourself to a standard that might keep you alive, not because the government makes you, but because it's the right thing to do.
BEN STOEGER BOOKS AND PODCASTS
We hosted IPSC Grand Master/IDPA Master Ben Stoeger for a class earlier this year. After the class I got copies of all 3 of his books, and the drills and methods in the books have been my main focus in practice. The dry fire book (Volume 2) is particularly useful since it teaches you how to practice effectively at home without ammo or a range. We've added his books to the KR Training Amazon Store. The links are here for print and ebook:
- Practical Pistol Fundamentals and Skills (print) (ebook)
- Champion Shooting: A Proven Process for Success at Any Level (print) (ebook)
- Champion Shooting Volume 2 : Guaranteed Results in 15 Minutes a Day (print) (ebook)
Ben also puts out a short weekly podcast (10-15 minutes) where he answers listener-submitted questions about shooting and training. The archives are on his website. He's blunt and uses R-rated language, but he offers some excellent insight into how to improve as a shooter.
BLOG-O-RAMA (so much content, so little time...)
- Don Kates on firearm stopping power
- Force Science News on active shooter responses
- FBI: all shoots are good shoots (or are they?)
- Thinking critically on safe gun handling
- CDC study on gun violence, results mostly pro-gun
- Claude Werner's excellent presentation on self defense shooting types
- The State Bar of Texas is hosting a continuing education seminar entitled "What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know About Firearms Law" on September 27 in Fort Worth.
- Houston homeowner shoots 2 home invaders
- A different Houston homeowner, forced into closet by intruder, gets his gun and shoots them
- gunfight AAR from Alexandria, VA police shooting
- Castle Doctrine does not increase violent crime
- New ruling on guns in post office parking lot
- More controversy about cops shooting dogs
- The ammo drought explained
- Gang shooting - analysis from Greg Ellifritz
- The danger of fists
- Houston clerk wins gunfight against armed robber (video)
- New gun control study from UC Irvine
- Nice animation of 1911/2011 pistol operating cycle from STI
- Texas man shoots 2 who kidnapped him & his wife
- AR-15 rifle maintenance tips
John "Hsoi" Daub blog highlights
- Firearms violence 1993-2011
- An analysis of gun violence in Austin (2010-2012)
- AAR 6-22-2013 Defensive Pistol Skills 1
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - an introduction
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - definition
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - sub minimal
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - is this minimal?
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - what we don't need
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - do we have a definition?
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - what to do about it?
- Is your Austin neighborhood a high crime spot?
- Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol - summary
- Training young shooters
ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENTS
- Hank Fleming won 2nd overall in the Kansas Glock Shooting Sports Foundation state match
- Dave Reichek won a local IDPA match shooting his M&P compact
- Lawrence Person placed 2nd overall in the annual Bulwer-Lytton "bad writing" contest
2014 SCHEDULE
We have already confirmed several dates for our 2014 schedule, including the Suburban Dad Survivalist conference and NRA instructor training in January, the Polite Society conference in February, and Tom Givens Combative Pistol 1 in April. We are talking with several top-tier instructors about spring classes that we hope to announce very soon!
We look forward to training you!
Karl, Penny and the KR Training crew