In my mind, and ideal basic training progression for self-protection would look like this: CCW and basic firearm safety. 2 day defensive handgun course. 1-2 day FoF course. This is about a week of training or less total. Then (actually in-conjunction) practice-either on your own or a combination of that and competition. Further training when able (advanced shooting, first aid, H2H etc.)
That's probably a good assessment. I've had four, and those were over a fifty-two year time frame.I'll just come out and say this:
Any non-LEO in the US who has had "numerous" armed encounters in his regular life is either a criminal or has a deficiency that causes him to seek out or create such situations.
This thread is inspired by the "Combat Distance" thread.
Although most encounters are bound to be much closer than 25yds I agree with the idea that "if you can shoot at a distance it makes shooting up close seem like cheating". That makes good sense to me.