You want to carry a concealed handgun but you don't want to train as a gunfighter? You need to get your mind right!
by James Banks, Owner / Instructor
Here at Phase Line Defense, we get a lot of students who want to be concealed carriers. They fully understand the threats that are out there and they fully understand that they may need to employ deadly force, as necessary, against those threats. I can ask a classroom full of CCW students, "Who here, wants to learn how to be a concealed carrier?'' Just about every single hand in the room will go high into the air. I will then ask, "Who here, wants to learn how to be a gunfighter?" I will rarely get a hand raised. Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake that when you find yourself in a life-and-death struggle with a deadly threat and you need to use your gun to defend yourself, then you are in a gunfight! The root word in gunfight is not gun, but FIGHT, and fight is something that you better be ready, willing, and able to do. This entire process begins in your mind. You need to mesh the fact that you are a concealed carrier and may need to use a gun to defend yourself and/or your family with the fact that YOU ARE USING A GUN TO DEFEND YOUR LIFE. For some reason, there is a disconnect between these two facts. People know and claim to understand them but they truly refuse to mesh these schools of thought together and come to an understanding that if you am to be a responsible concealed carrier and you are willing to use a gun to defend your life then you must learn how to actually fight with a gun. Like I said, this all begins in your mind and it starts with some real honest self-reflection and evaluation. You must be intellectually honest with yourself and not have delusions as to your own abilities or limitations. It's okay to admit that you lack knowledge. I often say that when I am in a training class and everything that we're learning is new to me, then I know that I'm in a great place. Learning and challenging yourself is absolutely the right thing to do in life and it's imperative if you are carrying a gun on your person in a public place. I consistently say in my classes that if you are a concealed carrier and you are in public, then you need to understand that there's a gun on scene....because YOU brought it there. This is huge. This is not to be taken lightly. This is absolutely something that you should process mentally and therefore, after being honest with yourself, seek to learn how to fight with the gun.
This is where our HEAT, Handgun Employment Advanced Tactics, course comes into this conversation. In our HEAT Phase I course we begin with a PowerPoint presentation where we will delve into the science of a gunfight. We discuss, at length, a full comprehensive study of police shootings and what we have learned from those engagements. Police shootings were used in this study as they are the shooting incidents that are studied and evaluated from every angle, by local, state and federal law enforcement and other investigatory officials. There is actual scientific evidence that doing certain things in a gunfight will actually increase your percentages of survivability as also there are things that, when done in a gunfight, will actually decrease your chances of survival. Along with this, we will also discuss things that will actually increase your own effectiveness in the gunfight as well as what things that will decrease your effectiveness in a gunfight. We will learn ground fighting techniques and learn weapon retention techniques with both, an unholstered and a holstered weapon. We will go into the the science of shot placement, discussing newer science as well as some of the older, less effective methods still taught today by unknowing Instructors. We have an entire segment devoted to edged weapon defense and offense. Proven, effective techniques that are broken down in such a way as the most novice of practitioners can perform them. This is still a Phase I course mind you but we will delve into so much more in this energetic eight hour course and you owe it to yourself to lay this foundation for yourself, so let's get your mind right, let's get honest with ourselves, and give Phase Line Defense the opportunity to open your mind to a way of life.
This is where our HEAT, Handgun Employment Advanced Tactics, course comes into this conversation. In our HEAT Phase I course we begin with a PowerPoint presentation where we will delve into the science of a gunfight. We discuss, at length, a full comprehensive study of police shootings and what we have learned from those engagements. Police shootings were used in this study as they are the shooting incidents that are studied and evaluated from every angle, by local, state and federal law enforcement and other investigatory officials. There is actual scientific evidence that doing certain things in a gunfight will actually increase your percentages of survivability as also there are things that, when done in a gunfight, will actually decrease your chances of survival. Along with this, we will also discuss things that will actually increase your own effectiveness in the gunfight as well as what things that will decrease your effectiveness in a gunfight. We will learn ground fighting techniques and learn weapon retention techniques with both, an unholstered and a holstered weapon. We will go into the the science of shot placement, discussing newer science as well as some of the older, less effective methods still taught today by unknowing Instructors. We have an entire segment devoted to edged weapon defense and offense. Proven, effective techniques that are broken down in such a way as the most novice of practitioners can perform them. This is still a Phase I course mind you but we will delve into so much more in this energetic eight hour course and you owe it to yourself to lay this foundation for yourself, so let's get your mind right, let's get honest with ourselves, and give Phase Line Defense the opportunity to open your mind to a way of life.
"Avoiding battle is advantageous. Avoiding knowledge of battle is dangerous" -James Banks