AAR: 3T - Armed Citizen Response to the Active Shooter

[John A Brown]

3 Rivers Tactical Training Solutions, Inc. conducted an Armed Citizen Response to the Active Shooter course on August 23rd and 24th at the Beaver Valley Rifle and Pistol Club.

We had a total of 14 students. 9 were returning students who had attended at least one class with me previously.

This course was not about trying to make heroes our of anyone. It was conceived and taught from the perspective of someone carrying a concealed handgun who happens to find him or herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are all familiar with the well known active shooter incidents - the Aurora, Colorado movie theatre shooting, the LA Fitness shooting in Collier Township here in the Pittsburgh area from a few years back, Virginia Tech, the numerous school shootings we are all familiar with. The list goes on and on unfortunately.

After introductions and the safety and emergency medical briefings, we studied about a half dozen or so well known active shooter incident and discussed the similarities that almost every one of these incidents share. In almost every incident there is a single shooter, they have planned the attack well in advance, they have specifically chosen the location, and they are very heavily armed. Almost all have more than one gun, and all have a serious supply of ammo.

Your typical armed citizen is going to be outgunned. With this in mind we very heavily stressed accuracy with every single round and making every round count.

While it was definitely sunny and hot the whole weekend, for what seems like the first time this year it didn't rain at one of our classes. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever teach a class again without rain.

Gear

The class was dominated by Glocks and Springfield XD's. We also had a Sig P226, a CZ (sorry Tim I don't remember the model) and Ryan's FNS40.

I was more than a little bit surprised that we didn't have any Smith & Wesson M&P's in this class.

Calibers are 9mm, .40, and .45. We didn't have any revolvers.

Anyone who knows me knows that I very strongly recommend weapon mounted lights. Probably 50% of this class had lights mounted on their pistols, and those shooters did significantly better during the night shoot at the end of day 1. No surprise here - this is ALWAYS the case.

Thankfully, and a little surprisingly, we had no holster issues in this class. Trust me - this is the exception and not the norm. Almost all of the students had a Raven Concealment holster and similar type kydex holster. Nobody showed up with an $8.99 nylon Uncle Mikes holster, a nylon piece of garbage airsoft holster, a leather holster that makes re-holstering almost impossible.

Thank you to the students for investing in quality holsters and mag pouches.

We did have one part break on a gun. During the night shoot the trigger spring broke on Tom Sr.'s Glock 22. Shit happens and parts break on any gun. Tom had an after market trigger installed in his pistol which may or may not have contributed to the broken spring. At the start of day 2 we dropped in a new fire control group and off we went. It took about 5 minutes and the gun was back up and running.

Day 1

After discussing several well known active shooter incidents and particulars of each, we talked about concealed carry dos and don'ts, as well as various types of holsters, belts, mag pouches, and what you need to be carrying in addition to a handgun.

We started out the range training by going over the fundamentals of handgun marksmanship and moved into some rhythm drills and non-standard response (NSR) drills, ie. transitioning from the chest to the face. This allowed the students to get a little warmed up and allowed me to get a sense of the skill level for the new students I didn't know.

We spent some time going over some trigger control drills which greatly improved accuracy for the remainder of the course.

Below from left to right are Alan, Tom Sr., Tom C, and Ryan during the initial drills.



We moved onto facing movements and getting students out of the mindset that your threat is always going to be standing directly in front of you. We did threats to the left, right, and rear.

Below are the same 4 guys reacting to a threat to the rear.



Left to right are Doug, Gary, and Chris.



Below left to right are Randy, Jody, and Tim. All have trained with me in the past and have made great strides.



We moved onto to the kneeling and prone positions with the pistol. The prone position was new to a lot of the students, and they picked it up very well. After that we moved onto engaging steel at 50 yards. These are not very big steel targets, but every student was able to get a few hits, including Alan who got several hits with his XD that has a 3.5 inch barrel.

We finished day 1 with the night shoot. We had a small hiccup because the range had installed some lights since the last time I was there in June which has made the usually very dark range very bright. We got the lights turned off and charged on. The night shoot was new to probably half the students. Those who didn't have night sights or a weapon mounted light performed at a much lower level than those who had those items.

Day 2

We started day 2 by debriefing the night shoot. It was definitely an eye-opener for a lot of the students. Very simple things that students have no trouble with during the day time - such as initial loading and re-loading become much more difficult when the dark monster comes out to play.

After fixing Tom Sr.'s G22 we did a short class on malfunction clearing and reloads and malfunction clearing one handed. We also discussed drawing the handgun with your support hand only.

After that we moved right into drawing from concealment. Most of the students wore their cover garments for the rest of the day. Some brought jackets that were just too hot to keep on all day.

Below is Drew on the left and Tom Jr. on right.




After drawing from concealment we moved into strong hand only and support hand only engagements.

From there we moved into the use of cover and concealment, shooting from a chair, and simulated shooting under a barricade or vehicle. Each student got to shoot all of these positions.

Below are Randy and Drew engaging threat from a seated position.



Below is Alan properly utilizing cover, ie. not crowding his cover.



Below is Geno engaging threat while shooting under a barricade or simulated vehicle.



Below is Doug properly utilizing cover.



Below are Tim and Gary from the chairs.



Below is Tom Sr. shooting under the barricade.



Drew below.



Dave below.



Below is Randy properly utilizing cover and shooting around the left side of the barricade. You can't see it in this picture, but Randy transitioned his pistol to his support (left) hand when engaging around the left side of this barricade. He did this on his own and exposed less of his body because of it. It's very rewarding as an instructor to see students begin to figure things out without having to be told to do every single thing. Very well done Randy.



Below is Chris shooting under the barricade. Chris was the only left handed student in the class, so he was automatically my favorite. In all seriousness this was Chris's 4th class with me, and his skill level has increased tremendously.



I used some reactive targets from ID Target Systems for the first time in this course. The targets have a balloon in them and when shot in the correct place the balloon pops and the target falls to the ground. This allows the students to visualize actually shooting at a threat, and demands accuracy because the target will not fall if not shot in the right place. I'll be using these again.



We finished the course with each student running a decision course which wrapped up all the skills taught over the previous two days. I didn't get many pictures during the final exercise because I was going through the course with each student, but below is one of the few pics I did get. Here is Randy at stage 5 engaging the shoot / no shoot targets.

This was a great class filled with just fantastic people. Learning definitely occurred throughout the two days.

A sincere thank you to the students for all of your help in setting up and taking down the targets and other range supplies.

I welcome everyones comments and input.

John
www.3riverstraining.com

[Mtbkski]

My second class with John, and I was again pleased with the class. John gets to the point, and tells you why you are doing what your doing. It isn't for show... it is because it works.

Great group of guys and gals at the class and even I could see how people improved as the class went on.

If you haven't attended one of Johns classes don't be afraid to do so. He puts a lot of heart and effort into his classes (not to forget fun) and that makes the long drive for me (2.5 hours one way) hurt a little less, when you come away knowing that you have learned something and that the trip wasn't a waste of time.

Thanks for a great weekend John. I'll be back for more.

[RaggedEdge]

This was my second class with John. Again I learned so much and had a lot of fun. My personal satisfaction in seeing myself get better AND recognizing things I did wrong is immensely useful for me to improve the skills I learned. John stresses safety first and foremost in the class but the second thing is Time. Every movement is intended to save you time which may save your life.
I highly recommend any of John's classes. Your going to learn something new and useful. I look forward to this coming weekends carbine class, hope to see some of you there!

[2k2wranglerx]

This was my 3rd class with John. And as usual I left feeling like I definitely got my money's worth.

A couple of thoughts from the class.

1. it's not a class that is intended to teach you HOW to shoot. He's not standing next to you for the whole class moving your thumbs or adjusting the way your feet are. Don't get me wrong, he'll correct errors and give you tips along the way. BUT, for a class that is designed to teach you how to fight with your gun, not just shoot it, it was remarkable the difference in accuracy from day 1 to day 2. everyone in the class was putting lead on target faster, and more accurately by the end of day 2. It was an extremely noticeable difference. all 14 of us left there better shooters. I have no doubt.

2. the use of cover. For those of us who usally stand at the range putting holes in paper 20 yards away... These classes give an opportunity to get into a more realistic shooting position. It's amazing how much things change once you're laying, kneeling, behind cover, etc. It's common sense to practice this stuff, but none of us ever do. we just stand at the bench and put holes on paper. It's also amazing how easy it is to be unsafe in these positions. especially moving while prone. It was great having instant feedback while practicing these skills.

3. shooting while moving. This was my first experience shooting on the move. and wow is it harder than you think it's going to be. i can shoot, and i can move, but put the 2 together.... lets just say it's easy to get overwhelmed just by moving and shooting. i noticed i wasn't paying any attention to where i was going and was focusing on my targets. and that was with bullets only going one way!

4. lastly. John pounded home about shooting until the threat is eliminated. It's amazing how much we as non-professionals take away from tv and movies and think that's how things are going to be. We had one reactive target that got hung up and refused to go down and the class shot the shit out of it. It really drove home that just because you're shooting at it, that is still a threat, and you keep engaging.

That also makes me really question my EDC loadout... 13 rounds (7 in the gun, 6 in the spare mag) might just not be enough if I really end up in trouble... Studying these active shooter scenarios one of the things that was fairly common was the shooters took pain meds before acting. this class drove home that switching over to a double stack 9mm from the micro-9 might not be such a bad idea.

overall great class. i'd recommend it to anyone. and i often do.

My wife is taking the women's class next month... AGAIN. she enjoys them that much as well.

[John A Brown]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Ryan,

Shooting a threat to the ground is a new concept for many, but a very important one. This class did pretty well overall.

John
www.3riverstraining.com

[John A Brown]

Below is Randy during the final exercise. Note that he is laying across the table and using it for support. Some students figured this out, some didn't.

Well done Randy.



John
www.3riverstraining.com

[M&P Chris]

This was another great class and I learned so much. You can't put a value on professional training.

This was my 4th class with John and I will continue to keep training. I would like to do 3-4 classes a year.