LoneGunman ~
The NinjaWannabes rarely make it to professional firearms classes. Part of this is a self-selecting process: NW's are great at bragging online, but don't necessarily enjoy shooting in front of people who really know how to shoot and work with firearms for a living. Further, there's also the tiny little thing in human nature that keeps people who already know everything from trying to learn "more."
More to the point, I think, professional firearms instruction costs money. If you sign up for an LFI class, you are more likely to share the class with doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals than you are to find it populated with losers who still live with their mommies.
LFI is blessedly immune to vast invasions of the NW type for another reason: Ayoob specializes in telling people when they
cannot and
must not use their firearms. This does not go down very well with the chest-thumping types, so they stay away from his classes in droves.
So what does LFI teach? It teaches restraint, good citizenship, and a solid understanding of the law. It discusses the "big picture" surrounding the use of lethal force in self-defense; everything from moral questions that must be faced beforehand, legal issues that must be understood, the tactics and shooting techniques you may need in the situation itself, and the social, emotional, and legal aftermath.
Lots of other schools teach tactics and shooting skills. Most schools touch on various aspects of before and after. But
no one covers the entire "big picture" as well as LFI does, and no one else covers the legal issues in anywhere near as much depth or with as much authority as Ayoob brings to the table.
It's too bad this one was cancelled. If LFI-1 ever comes to your area, you really owe it to yourself to take this class. It could save your life -- not just your physical life, but also all the other bits of your life you'd like to keep, like your freedom and your financial security.
Speaking of financial security, there's one more cool bit about LFI-1: Ayoob offers his services as an expert witness, gratis, to any graduate of LFI who needs it and who, in Ayoob's opinion, was justified in his use of deadly force. That's about the most reasonable bit of legal insurance you're going to find anywhere.
(Grief, I sound like a shill! But no, I'm not on the payroll....)
pax
