Rules That May Save Your Life

I have three collections of various “rules” from a variety of places that I use in my CHL classes. The Dry Firing Rules that I covered here last month were from the Texas DPS training academy. The second set of “rules” in one that I cobbled together from articles written by Massad Ayoob and others. I have a third set of “rules” that I have collected from a variety of sources such as psychology texts, first-aid courses, and various fora and mailing lists that I have followed for a long time.

This third set of rules started out as “Five Rules That may Save Your Life”, and gradually grew into “Ten Rules That may Save Your Life.” If and when I come across any more of them (and I welcome reader input), I’ll add them to my list and include them in my CHL class notes (and my NRA “Refuse to be a Victim” course notes, as well). I’ll probably cut it off at twelve or so, or maybe do two or more lists organized into logical sub-categories.

I will be covering the “Ten Rules That may Save Your Life” in the next several blog entries. So that this won’t stretch out for 10 weeks, I will try to post more often than once a week, at least for a while.

Here’s the teaser list:

• Keep it Hidden
• Get Away ASAP
• You Can’t Out-Draw an Already-Drawn Gun
• Lock the Door
• Stay out of That Car
• Listen to Your Fear
• Understand Combat Stress
• You Will Fight the way you Practice
• Clear Your Space
• Break the SEP Field

Extra “points” for anybody who recognizes that last reference. Maybe that would be too easy in the Google Age, so if I do make a contest out of it, I’ll have to find another reference by the same author that is more obscure. And come up with some modest, but meaningful prize. I’ll have to put some thought into what would make a fun contest, and what would make a modest but meaningful prize.

Greater Dallas Republican Fund-Raising Class

I have arranged with the Greater Dallas Republicans to do a fund-raising CHL class for them on May 30. This class got a mention in a news article at Examiner.com, which is nice, but not all that detailed. I really wish they had given me a link.

In order to register for this special class, please go to the GDR website and sign up there. They have not yet posted a deadline for signups, but I would expect that you will need to have your payment received about 5 business days before the class in order to get on the roster. Also, for this class, there will be a limit of 32 students. There are a few other minor details that need correction, e.g., the suite number has changed, because I got a bigger classroom.

My ‘little’ brother, Tom, who is also a CHL instructor, will be coming in to help me with this fundraiser. I’m looking forward to it, and I’m looking forward to working with my brother. I may be doing more co-teaching with Tom, both for CHL and for NRA classes.

The Reason Behind the Dry-Firing Rules

In my last post, I wrote about the rules for dry firing, and hinted about the story behind those rules. Probably the most important of those rules is the one about making a definite mental break after you are done dry firing.

This is the story (to the best of my recollection) I got from the instructor at the DPS CHL instructor’s training:

Back about 10 years ago, there was a young officer with about 7 years on the force who was practicing some dry firing with his .357 Sig one morning as he was getting dressed.

*Click* — the picture of his mother-in-law on the dresser.

*Click* — a squirrel in a tree across the street, visible from the bedroom window.

*Click* — the vase on a shelf in the hallway.

And so forth. After a few minutes of practice, he got bored, stuck the pistol in the holster, and proceeded to finish shaving, brushing his teeth, and getting dressed. Then he had some breakfast. Gathering up stuff to go to his duty shift, he went back to the bedroom. While he was there, he decided to do some more dry firing.

*BAAAM!* — A .357 caliber hole in the forehead of the picture of his mother-in-law. Sometime during the time he was getting dressed, or eating breakfast, or some other part of his morning routine, he had loaded his handgun. And then completely forgotten about it. A .357 Sig has a lot of penetrating power, so it not only went through the picture, but through the wall behind it, and blew a hole in the brick veneer on the side of the house. And then it went… well, it went *somewhere*, but nobody ever found it.

He was very lucky that it did not hurt anyone — In Texas, there is a “Reckless Injury to an Innocent 3rd Party Rule.”

By the time his ears quit ringing, there was a squad car from the local police department parked in front, and two officers, guns drawn, preparing to do a forced entry. You see, the young officer’s next-door neighbor had heard the shot, and since his neighbor knew he was a DPS officer, his neighbor assumed that there was a gunfight going on, and that’s what he told the 911 dispatcher. “Hot home invasion” gets the attention of the local law enforcement like nothing else, especially if it involves another law enforcement officer. This young DPS officer found himself on the front porch having to ‘fess up to a negligent discharge in his own home to these two local cops.

But that wasn’t the end of his troubles. When he reported for his shift, the shift supervisor had already been notified, so he had the experience of being dressed down in front of his fellow officers. In the DPS, a negligent discharge can be a career-limiting event.

Even that wasn’t the end of his troubles.

His mother-in-law was not amused.