Defensive Firearms for Beginners

I found John Ross' article in the title link to be a helpful treatise for those who are new to shooting and who would like to acquire some defensive shooting skills.

Here are some quotes:

In over 20 years of self-defense firearms training, I have come to believe that proper mindset is the single most important component of the equation, and also the most difficult to teach. It seems that most people who have it have always had it, perhaps since birth. It requires an instinctive assumption that one’s own life and health, and that of his/her family, are of overwhelming importance.

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A depressing number of people, including whole police departments, think they can accessorize themselves to competence. It doesn’t work that way. Buying the gun is like identifying that your company or household has a cash flow problem: It’s 1% of the solution. Practice, like increasing earnings and/or reducing expenses, is the other 99%.

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Diligent practice is necessary for several reasons. The most important one, much more so than absolute pinpoint accuracy, is to acquire familiarity to the point of instinct. If you are shooting for several hours every week or month, you will get to the point where you don’t have to think about how to hold the gun, how to align the sights, how to disengage the safety, how to breathe, and how to squeeze the trigger. It will become automatic.

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Find someone who is known as a competent and safe shooter to help you get started and keep you from learning bad habits, like putting your finger in the triggerguard when you pick up the gun. Call the local NRA office for a list of certified instructors.

For those of you who are thinking about acquiring defensive shooting skills as part of your own disaster preparedness and personal safety, I strongly encourage you to click on the title link and read the full article. I would also like to re-emphasize the part about getting some guidance from a skilled shooting instructor. They don't cost very much, but they will help keep you safe, and will also be tremendously helpful in building good habits that lead to accuracy and speed.