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Another avoidable tragedy

A Border Patrol instructor was shot and killed by another instructor on a range in south Florida. There are protocols for avoiding these types of negligent shootings but somebody was not abiding. What a senseless waste of an officer's life through someone's negligence. He leaves a wife and 4 kids.
 
Unfortunately with firearms, a moment of inattention can cost you, or someone else, their life.

A way I fight complacency, especially when a I was an aviator in a previous life; as you gain experience you do not get nervous in dangerous situations that you've done dozens of times before. I tell myself, this is a situation you should be nervous, to ward off the complacency. On a live fire range, we've probably all done it enough, we don't get nervous, but we should be telling ourselves, we should be nervous as we walk up to the line.
 
A Border Patrol instructor was shot and killed by another instructor on a range in south Florida. There are protocols for avoiding these types of negligent shootings but somebody was not abiding. What a senseless waste of an officer's life through someone's negligence. He leaves a wife and 4 kids.
Isnt one of those really important protocols not to be doing most drills with live ammunition ? I recently watched some people training for new irs positions and I didnt see anyone I would let behind me or any where around me with a loaded firearm. What Im saying is you can never be too carefull.
 
It was reported on CBS just now that the cause of the shooting was the agent that caused the death of the other agent during a roll playing exercise had mistakenly replaced her non-lethal training gun with her service weapon. ☹️
 
The last thing that was done before the drill was started was check the gun for for drill readiness, This condition was unloaded with empty magazine for a semi auto or a empty revolver with the caps to be loaded. This let the participants know the condition was safe. Prayers for the family as time moves on.
 
The last thing that was done before the drill was started was check the gun for for drill readiness, This condition was unloaded with empty magazine for a semi auto or a empty revolver with the caps to be loaded. This let the participants know the condition was safe. Prayers for the family as time moves on.
When our trainers use a real gun instead of a training gun, they always show us an empty chamber, no mag
 
When our trainers use a real gun instead of a training gun, they always show us an empty chamber, no mag
The protocol is to check and double check by sight and by feel, then have another instructor check and double check. It really should be the procedure for whenever transferring a gun or using a gun in a training setting. About once a year an officer somewhere is killed in a training exercise when someone was too lazy or not trained to follow the protocol, and there is no excuse for it. What a waste. I have encountered enough instructors whose competence was questionable to be wary. I am sure CBP will take a hard look at this and strong discipline is in order. Perhaps criminal charges. It is not an accident. It is negligence, plain and simple.
 
Another sad situation, I simply cannot understand why Officers continue to disregard basic safety procedures during training. I consider myself really fortunate that in the 24 years I served as a range master I never had to experience this. All the years in Special Operations and never had an incident as well. When you consider we were shooting thousands of rounds during training and everyone left the range with the same number of holes that we came with. I have changed the way I train though. When I train, I'm on a range all by myself and out of public view. After going to some ranges and seeing the majority of CCW folks and what they do on the range it was enough for me to alter my training sessions. I think it's great that folks want to be involved in firearms but as I mentioned before I really don't think that most of the shooting public really understands what is required. The amount of dedication and commitment to training and more importantly the proper mindset to actually respond to a deadly force encounter. This is the reason why I no longer train people anymore because I just don't have the patience and energy to deal with all the possible repercussions.
 
Another sad situation, I simply cannot understand why Officers continue to disregard basic safety procedures during training. I consider myself really fortunate that in the 24 years I served as a range master I never had to experience this. All the years in Special Operations and never had an incident as well. When you consider we were shooting thousands of rounds during training and everyone left the range with the same number of holes that we came with. I have changed the way I train though. When I train, I'm on a range all by myself and out of public view. After going to some ranges and seeing the majority of CCW folks and what they do on the range it was enough for me to alter my training sessions. I think it's great that folks want to be involved in firearms but as I mentioned before I really don't think that most of the shooting public really understands what is required. The amount of dedication and commitment to training and more importantly the proper mindset to actually respond to a deadly force encounter. This is the reason why I no longer train people anymore because I just don't have the patience and energy to deal with all the possible repercussions
This is why I want to get into training, especially new shooters. Many people buy a gun and carry it and never really even shoot it, let alone carry it. Someone has to be willing to teach them
 
I have been a firearms trainer of one stripe or another for 51 years. The process of training people to use firearms is far more complex than it appears on the surface. It involves mechanics, physics, psysiology, neural muscular learning, and conditioning. Then you must deal with law and ethics, dynamics of adult learning, mindset, the psychology of use of force, the effects of stress, and critical decision making under pressure. Perhaps the most important skill of the trainer is to understand what your students are seeing and experiencing when using the firearm. To add complexity, every student is different with different capacities for learning. Skills are built with a building block approach done in a logical sequence.

Instructors tend to have pretty big egos. That is not surprising given the nature of firearms training. But we must never forget, training is NOT about the instructor. It IS all about the student and making the student successful with desired outcomes. The cowboy instructor who is "all hat and no cows" can do more harm than good. The best instructors I ever had were extremely competent and experienced but soft spoken, like Carlos Hathcock, Steve Gilcrest, and Kyle Lamb to name a few. They were effective because student success was their focus.

I have met a good number of instructors over the years who managed to get through an instructor course but that's as far as their training went. To be a good insructor you must seek continuing education opportunities to stay current and to develop your effectiveness as an instructor.

Only a small prcentage of your students will take their training to the next level. Most will do the minimum or take one course, which is why we really need to hammer home safety and the fundamentals from the outset. It may be the only formal training they ever get.
 
I really hate it when things like this happen, for both the victim and the careless person. I have a family member who won’t shot at a range because they have seen how careless people are, but insists on shooting where we are the only ones there.

I appreciate instructors like Hayes who forget the braggadocio and focus instead on the students needs. Big egos get in the way of the objective. Thank you Hayes for your efforts.
 
This is why I want to get into training, especially new shooters. Many people buy a gun and carry it and never really even shoot it, let alone carry it. Someone has to be willing to teach them
Good for you PAgunGuy, Being an Instructor can be very rewarding. I greatly enjoyed my time doing so. I wish you the best as you move forward.
 
I take being a Firearms Instructor Trainer very very seriously. My fellow Cops all get bored as hell with my safety briefings and weapons breakdowns well guys and girls it's necessary. I find there are 2 types of cops I train. Ones that are very eager to learn and the others who moan and groan and complain and only wanna do the bare minimun that the state requires. I cannot tell you or even imagine how much of my time and dime I go through on my own seeking out additional training for myself to make me better so I can bring all that I learn back to them. It's an ongoing thing training and learning never end. When I first got my black belt in martial arts many many years ago, one of my Masters told me now the learning begins a black belt is just a white belt who refused to give up. I never forgot that...
 
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