Guns for People Who Hate Them

 

It was ten minutes until nine on a warm Wednesday morning.  My sister-in-law, Becky, was putting on makeup in the back bathroom before leaving for work. For the last 30 seconds or so she had been hearing a loud banging noise coming from the front of the house. Her father had been out back in the garden; “What could he be doing that’s making so much noise?” she thought.  Becky walked to the front of the house to see what all of the ruckus was about, just in time to see the front door latch disintegrate in a shower of small parts and the door fly open.  In that instant, as the door opened and the burglar stepped inside, Becky, who hated guns and was deathly afraid of them, had an epiphany. She realized that, like guns or not, she needed one.

I am no expert on firearms. I have never had, and probably never will get, combat firearms training. I would most likely be totally worthless in a gunfight. I own guns because I like them and because I hunt. I also have handguns and keep one reasonably ready for home defense. So why am I writing this? Because I am like most of the millions and millions of Americans who own firearms; Somewhat knowledgeable and not real prepared, but sometimes called upon to help someone learn about firearms and self-defense simply because I am the only resource readily available. So, am I the best resource? Obviously not, but I was the only resource. There must be thousands and thousands of people, each of whom who have the right to defend themselves and need help, facing the same problem. Here is how I solved it:

  Becky hated guns. They were scary, dangerous, and killed people. So, the problem became, How to arm a person who hates guns?  The first step was to realize that Becky would never “go to the range” for fun. She would not want to learn about jacking a round into the chamber or clearing a stovepipe. If the gun had a safety, she most likely would not remember to use it under stress. A hammer drop to half cock on a live round was completely out of the question. It had to be simple and it had to be foolproof.  

Most likely any need for a weapon would come as a sudden surprise, when something  very unexpected happened, so the gun needed to be instantly available. Any gun for Becky had to be “ready to go”, with no slide to rack, safety to release or magazine to insert. Nothing to remember.  The gun would also need to be carried around sometimes. Her first scary experience had been of a, “run for the gun” nature. However, there are other times when you would like to have a weapon with you, like when you hear a bump in the night or an unexpected loud noise at the door. At these, and other, times you may not want it to be obvious that you are armed

Becky was the first person I ran into who wanted to own a handgun and learn to shoot, but was also afraid of firearms and very uneasy around them. This was a lot different assignment than taking your 13 year old out to blast tin cans. Over the years I’ve had several other people ask for help with a first firearm. People who just wanted to use a gun for self-defense. They were not hunters, they had no interest in becoming proficient beyond the point of minimally protecting themselves and they all were very uneasy about firearms in general. I’ve worked out a method of training that will get them safely started in only a couple of hours. Here is how I get gun haters up to speed and at least reasonably at ease with firearms:

So, What Kind of Gun?

 

Our firearm solution was a snub nosed, two inch barrel, revolver. It is about as foolproof as a firearm can be. The manual of arms is; Point gun, pull trigger. Repeat as necessary. It is easy to understand and use safely.  It can sit untouched for a decade or more and still function perfectly. It can stay hidden in a bathrobe pocket when the knock at the door turns out to only be your neighbor, or it can be fired right through the same bathrobe pocket when you need to surprise the bad guy. A short barrel snub nose may be harder to shoot than a 4 inch barrel revolver, but it is a lot easier to hide, and that was one of the most important criteria in our selection.  The best gun for our gun hater will be the one that requires the least learning. This makes hammerless revolvers, like the Taurus 850, Charter Off Duty hammerless models, Ruger LCR, Smith & Wesson 442 or the Smith & Wesson 38 Bodyguard, among our top choices.

Your Friend the Rubber Bullet

Now that we had selected the gun, it is time to learn to use it. I’ve taught several gun haters how to use a snub nosed revolver and have settled on a four step process that works well in a minimum amount of time.

Step one -- Basic operation and safety, including understanding ammunition and familiarity with handling an empty revolver. Muzzle discipline is the first lesson. This is followed by explaining how a cartridge fires by the hammer striking the primer. Next comes opening and closing the cylinder, working the ejector rod and pulling the trigger.  Without fail, a new shooter will reach up and cock the hammer the first time they hold the gun. I don’t know where or how they learn this. A person who has never held a firearm before will automatically go for the hammer. I train them to never use the hammer. Women will sometimes complain that the trigger is too hard to pull in double action. I counter this by telling them it is okay to use two hands and two fingers if necessary. They need know that, if they have a cocked hammer while under stress, they can, and probably will, fire the gun unintentionally. So, if the snubby has a hammer, we devote time to practicing cocking the hammer and lowering it while releasing the trigger. Be sure to watch muzzle discipline. Most of these students will point the gun at themselves or others during this initial exposure and it is time to gently remind them that they should be careful where they point any firearm in any condition.  During this first step I like to emphasize that a firearm is a machine and nothing more, and it gives a person security and peace of mind. If you have a revolver, you are instantly moved out of the easy victim category and have a lot less to be afraid of.

Step Two -- Dummy ammunition and manipulation under stress – With aluminum dummy rounds, we practice loading and unloading and dry firing at a target. Here we cover the basics, loading and unloading plus muzzle and trigger control under stress.  Muzzle pointed down until the target is identified and finger off the trigger until the front sight is on target, are the two important learning outcomes besides loading and unloading.  While this is happening it’s a good time to explain sight picture and grip. It is also a good idea to have them do this exercise a few dozen times to make sure they have the procedure down in muscle memory before moving on. 

Step Three -- Rubber bullets and paper target practice – Speer makes rubber bullets that fit in 38 special cases and are primer fired. The primers drive the little rubber bullets fast enough to penetrate a cardboard box at several feet. For me they are the perfect training tool because they form an intermediate step between not very realistic dry firing, and loud, hard kicking real ammunition. This gives the shooter a chance to adjust gradually. The little Speer rubber bullets are loud enough to require hearing protection and have a tiny bit of recoil. They act like a gun you see on TV, which is what our gun haters expect from a revolver. I hang a canvas drop cloth on a rope and clip a full sized paper silhouette target to it. The optimal distance is about 10 to 12 feet, so you can do it out in the garage. The rubber bullets penetrate the paper and are stopped by the drop cloth. I pick them up from the floor under the drop cloth for re-use. Although these rubber bullets are not powerful, they could give you a nasty welt or seriously hurt an unprotected eye, so everyone has to wear hearing protection and safety glasses for rubber bullet training.  My favorite firearm choice for gun haters is the Smith and Wesson 38 Special Bodyguard. There is no hammer to get cocked, the grip is an ergonomic masterpiece, the trigger is smooth and light and the gun even has a little laser on the side. During rubber bullet training the laser helps the shooter master sighting because they can compare the sight picture with the laser dot and the hole from the rubber bullet. This allows the average person to “get it” in about five shots. While the laser sight makes training easier and gives the shooter confidence, I don’t think it has any practical use if the gun is actually needed. Why?  Because, under the stress of a sudden event they will never remember to turn it on.

Step Four – Live Fire. This is the final exam. Up until now, everything has happened on the kitchen table or in the garage. Now, it is time to go to the range.  People who are not familiar with firearms need some special considerations. The target should be 7 yards or closer. They need double hearing protection, which means foam plugs and a set of muffs, and an outdoor setting is preferable because the noise level is lower. With the addition of recoil and noise you don’t want to make the session too long. I plan on the student firing about 25 rounds for this first, and probably only, range session and the goal is to land the bullets somewhere on the silhouette target.  My current recommended 38 Special ammunition is Hornady Critical Defense 90 grain FTX because of its low recoil, which is especially important to a new shooter with a lightweight gun. Hornady Critical Defense is also available almost everywhere so they will have little trouble getting more if they decide to practice occasionally. Another approach you can take if you reload, is to load up some light bullets over a few grains of powder and let them take the first 25 shots with those. I use a 93 grain lead bullet over a few grains of Bullseye. That load has about 70 foot pounds of energy and is pleasant to shoot, even in a 16 ounce revolver. In this case, the final five shots are the Hornady 90 grain FTX factory loads and they take home the box with the 20 remaining unfired cartridges. In a pinch, you could also substitute half a box of target wad cutters for the reloads. Any low recoil 38 Special, standard velocity, defensive ammunition, will work, so if you have another preference for your student, by all means use it.

So, what did we accomplish?

I don’t have any delusions that my gun hater students are skilled with firearms. Why didn’t we work on the latest  semi automatic pistols with several hours of range training? Because they won’t do it. They don’t like firearms and strive only to be minimally competent in the shortest period of time. It would be nice if they could have a more efficient (and more complex to learn) firearm, but that is not the reality of their lives. They simply don’t want to do that, and the Second Amendment guarantees them the right to bear arms, even in a less than optimal way, if that is what they desire.

 They have gained enough familiarity to have overcome their fear of guns, and understand how they work and how to use them safely at close range. Average people, with little firearms knowledge or training, defend themselves adequately with handguns each and every day. Across the United States hundreds of thousands of these little revolvers sit quietly awaiting events that, for most of them, will never occur. Their owners, instead of being an easy victim, are now an armed opponent. Just that psychological elevation out of the easy victim category is a benefit. They never again have to be afraid of the bump in the night or the loud banging at the front door.