I'm not talking even about needing to shoot. Just if you ever needed to draw your weapon.
Just trying to wrap my head around what I see as a relatively rare need of using a CCW and training sites that are teaching you to clear rooms, shoot from cars, carry backup weapons, etc. It seems that there is a disconnect between what an average person needs to know and what an average training course teaches.
As others have said, it would be extremely rare for the average concealed carrier. Our duty is to protect ourself and family, when possible, create distance - which many interpret as "retreat in cowardice" and that is where things go sideways. We are not under any obligation to escalate unless lethat force is being displayed. At that point it has to be asked, how did we blunder into it? Wrong place wrong time.
IE, Motel knock on door. No, you do NOT open the door. That is the #1 method of home intrusion - most of the victims opened the door (being nice) and it created more risk and made the opportunity easier. It has taken awhile to learn not to - and my spouse still has that inclination, but not at motels anymore.Yet, female cleaning crews at condos are immediatly let in. Oh well.
As for ADVANCED training, yes, higher tier skills are available to those who should be prequalified to even attend, but money talks. Any graduate of Infantry or MP training should be more than familiar with how to clear a room, shoot from or near vehicles, carry of backup weapons, etc. Benning and Leonard Wood do this all day long. Thousands of graduates become veterans and move into civilian life.
Now, a disconnect between what CIVILIANS know and what courses teach, yes, and no. Most civilian concealed carriers get their initial course training if required by their state and after 8 hours in class over the legal consequences and a test on marksmanship they are "graduates" and go pay their fees. Are they actually go to go? Did we not have to learn more about driving a car than sitting in the seat and starting the engine? Do some go so far as to pursue and gain an SCCA license, or compete in rallies, drag racing, road racing, land speed record attempts? Lots of shooters go to matches that require moving while shooting, and actually use targets which picture human beings, too. All advanced training in the military seems to use targets that appear as enemy troops, not tiny bullseyes.
What "average" people do is something entirely different from what skilled and educated people do. What average people most often to is equate the ownership of a firearm with the ability to use it, and I would say that they should darn well know better from their experience learning how to drive a car. They weren't comfortable with it for at least a year and even then still learned things never before experienced. Like, when our local metro started installing the dreaded and confusing "roundabouts." Yet, deaths are down and congestion reduced by over 80% IMHO.
Yet, new to roundabout drivers still enter into them, then stop in the traffic circle despite the signs stating all others must yield to them, and the honking and waving start, just before the squealing brakes and cursing.
We have average gun owners, too, as one post recently on this board explained, homeowner heard a noise, got up, retrieved firearm, started clearing the house, was shot dead and later was found to have had an empty chamber and magazine. How do we train homeowners in the better procedure when there is no further legal requirement after licensing to gain more education and skills?
There is our major obstacle - we don't teach enough up front, to prevent restricting our rights, and we don't require further training after, achieving advanced skill levels. With those two things in mind, I don't see any other recourse other than to make the information available to those who are interested, which is a major social battle uphill. This is the cost of freedom, opposing points of view and the protection of our rights first. That it leads to citizens not pursuing more expertise is the cost.
And the perps? They pick the targets who look the least capable of self protection - if that means I am forced to dress in tactical hobo wear while out traveling or whatever, I must bear the cost of being seen and derided by others. We have seen the enemy and he is often us.
