We reported back to the training facility at 9:00 am Sunday morning for our final day of training. After a brief introduction, it was back to the range for the handgun qualification part of the course.
What does this mean? The proficiency qualification means that a participant had to pass the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) qualification (the same test that Colorado law enforcement officers have to pass annually), plus 2 rounds for a total of 27 rounds on target. And this wasn’t just standing at a line 10 feet away and plinking at the target.
The qualification consisted of 9 stages of firing at the target from various distances from as close as 1 yard to as far as 25 yards, while stepping to the left or right, moving forward or backward, clearing malfunctions and managing ammunition, each stage having a time frame of three to fifteen seconds. For each stage, the targets would turn toward the shooters when the time opened and would turn away when time closed. Commander Gregory ran the qualification while the other instructors watched and monitored for safety.
As I said in Part One, this was not a class for novice shooters, and this was a challenging shooting exercise. Some students in the class qualified during the practice round, others took a few rounds more to finally pass. Your humble author was not in the first group, nor was I in the last group. The most difficult part for me was firing from 25 yards, which I never used to practice.
After we passed the qualification, we were done with the shooting part of the course, and all weapons and ammunition were removed to our vehicles.
We moved back to the classroom, where Columbine survivor Evan Todd told his story. Evan was in the library when the shooting started, and told his harrowing tale of being one of the first students shot. After taking cover, the killers found and taunted him, asking “Why shouldn’t I kill you?” to which Evan responded “Look, I’ve been good to you and everyone else in this school”, after which they left him alone. Evan reinforced what Andy had taught us the day before, that stopping the bleeding was the key, and how all of the survivors had been able to get out of the building to an evacuation point in a nearby neighborhood. As he told his story, the horror of that day was brought back to us all in vivid detail, and reinforces the fact that school safety should be of paramount importance to our society.
But when we talk about “school safety”, we aren’t talking about continuing the “Gun Free Zones” policy which has been proven to fail time and time again. No, what we are talking about is a suite of solutions: uniformed school resource officers, armed staff, securing doors and other access points. Training. Watching for and counseling students who are bullies or their victims. And other things. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for every school in America. It’s up to parents to determine which safety measures are best for their children and to compel school boards to adopt them.
After Evan’s emotional story, Sergeant Dunne led us through a discussion of concealed carry methods, on-body locations, types of weapons and holsters, and retention techniques. It was a lively discussion with a lot of questions and answers. Concealed carry is supposed to be…well…concealed. There are a lot of ways that one can conceal a weapon on their person or in a bag.
After a working lunch, we divided into two groups for Scenario Based Training and the Simulator portion of the training.
For the scenario based training, we went to another building at the location which had been “made up” to resemble a school hallway with offices opening off of it. We used protective face masks and Airsoft pistols to lend some realism to the training (those pellets can be a little painful). Marty conducted this portion of the training, and he asked for volunteers to be the “bad guy”, the “good guy” and the rest of the participants were acting as students.
We ran through four scenarios including one where the right answer was to NOT shoot the bad guy. On a bit more advanced level, we worked through a hostage scenario and discussed some of the ramifications that have to be thought through in such situations.
After this we switched places with the other group and went to the simulator room, where Commander Gregory was putting one person at a time through a simulation where a bad guy comes into a gym and starts shooting. This was my third time in a simulation training, and it is pretty realistic, except the guns aren’t real and the “bad guy” is a video on the wall. The value in simulations is that they provoke thought. Why did you do what you did? Where did your shots land?
For the second simulation, we were in pairs, and the scenario was we were teachers walking into a building to get our paychecks. We hear shooting and screams, and what do we do next? We walk in and are ambushed by a bad guy with a rifle. After that threat is neutralized, we walk down a hall and are attacked by another perpetrator armed with a shotgun.
To cap it off we watched Sergeant Dunne in a bank robbery simulation. Let’s just say I’m glad he’s one of the good guys.
To wrap up the class, we went back to our training room for final remarks from the instructors and from the Executive Director for FASTER Colorado, Laura Carno.
In Carno’s remarks, she talked about how FASTER is an apolitical training class, and we did not talk politics during the class. However, she made the point that politics does matter. There are candidates for public office who are against this type of training, based on a naïve belief in the efficacy of designated “Gun Free Zones”, and that we need to vote for candidates who will support our right of self-defense; and who will support the educator’s right to self-defense and the defense of the children in his or her care.
And with that, our class was over. After 28 intense hours, I had learned some advanced gun combat techniques, reviewed the mindset it takes to be an armed defender, learned the basics of combat triage and first aid, and passed the POST qualification plus two. I had made new friends and forged new alliances.
What was my biggest takeaway from the FASTER training? That it IS necessary. Now. In every state of our country. I’ll talk more about that in Part Four of this series.
By Richard D. Turnquist
August 27, 2018
Link to Part Four – Putting It All Together
