Hold on guys, I didnt mean to insult anyone here! My question is legitimate, but I think I put out an attitude with my last post that I didnt mean to put out! I have never been to a class like that, but would love to. One of the main reasons I have not gone is because I was unsure what kind of people would be there. I just don't want to go to a class full of the kind of people I described. I would much rather be in a class of normal people with an interest in self defense.
I didnt mean to imply that anyone who has ever been to that class is the kind of person I described. Sorry.
Who is the intended audience for this class? Someone who has no formal training (like myself), or people that have been to other classes?
No mall ninjas or crazies. Ayoob requires documentation that a prospective student is "one of the good guys": at least a letter from a law enforcement agency or a concealed weapons permit, not your mom or minister, so that he knows that the student has cleared a background check. When a student arrives at the first meeting he completes a brief questionnaire that asks such things as "Why do you want to take this course?" My assumption is that anyone approved to teach that course has the same requirement.
No formal training is required. It's just not that kind of course. The "Judicious Use of Lethal Force" instructor (in my case Ayoob) assumes little or nothing on your part and helps you build what you need to know--and what you damned well ought to know and want to know about your risks and responsibilities when using deadly force in any way.
Don't worry about whether or not you'll "get it": I know lots of LFI graduates and every one of us "got it." And, forgive me for saying what might seem hyperbolic, the world is much better because we've been there and got it. My own opinion is that if Massad Ayoob had accomplished nothing else except create that one course, his life would have been well spent.
I don't remember
all the kinds of people who took the course when I did several years ago but here are some I do remember: a few lawyers, a few doctors, a few cops and other law enforcement agents, a couple of people who worked for the federal government, at least one long distance truck driver, a couple of teachers at various levels, several middle-aged people, mostly men but some women, and one very old guy and his beautiful wife. No mall ninjas, no creeps, no crazies, nobody who wore a tinfoil beanie or mumbled to himself or others about taking people out. About 50 people in the "Judicious Use of Deadly Force" part of LFI I is about what I remember too.
LFI (every course I've taken) is designed to help people succeed, so failure is not even an option. If you don't get it the first time, you can be sure that you will get it before you leave unless (possibly) you're dense beyond my ability to conceive of it.
Something else that's important. Among our fellow students have been young guys, middle aged guys, old guys; guys who were so physically fit that their muscles had muscles, paunchy guys who wheezed. We all got what we needed, the way we needed it.
My wife and I have since attended several other LFI courses. What pleases us very much is what we hadn't anticipated; the friends we've made in them, a variety of people with divergent backgrounds.
Ayoob's books and other writings are no substitute for the LFI I course. The course goes far, far beyond them and in additional directions. It develops the mind and, to a reasonable extent, installs the necessary wiring in it for the right reactions during critical situations. Think about the difference between reading a book about doing physical exercises and working with a trainer. It's smart to read
In the Gravest Extreme, but it doesn't replace the course and I don't think its necessary preparation.
None of the above is hyperbole. In my opinion this is the one course that every gun owner should take. If the Brady Campaign, Michael Bloomberg, and other anti-gun people really wanted to improve the world they would underwrite the proliferation of LFI I courses throughout the country and sponsor free tuition for everyone, which would vastly increase the number of responsible, law-abiding people capable of helping to discourage criminal violence as a growth field.
I hope this helps.
