31-Jan-10 – 23:55 by ToddG
During the Aim Fast, Hit Fast class I was teaching in Memphis this weekend, a student shot himself in the leg while holstering his pistol.
I will not get into details — or answer questions — about the shooter’s identity, make and model of gun, etc. However, the incident and the class’s handling of it are worth relaying as it may hopefully be instructional for others.
Before the first shot is ever fired in any AFHF class, an emergency response plan is devised and then communicated to the students. In this class, two students identified themselves as having training/experience dealing with gunshot wounds. They were then designated the first responders. I described where I keep my IFAC (attached to the shoulder strap of my range bag) so anyone in the class could easily locate it and bring it to me. The range owner confirmed that the fastest emergency services response was via 9-1-1 and all the students were told calling 9-1-1 was the responsibility of anyone who was not immediately involved in treating the injury.
I’ve given that speech dozens of times and watched hundreds of students nod in the same way you nod at the flight attendant while she explains how the oxygen mask works when the plane loses cabin pressure.
But Sunday morning, we lost cabin pressure.
I was standing about five feet behind and to the right of the student when it happened. The class was shooting a drill that involved multiple draws from the holster. In the middle of the drill while everyone else was still shooting, the student turned towards me and very simply said, “I just shot myself.” He was perfectly calm. The slide on his pistol was locked back and just as he finished speaking he dropped it on the ground.
Immediately I called a cease fire and told the student to lie down. I pointed to another nearby student and instructed her to call 9-1-1. The two previously designated “first responders” immediately appeared and another student brought over my IFAC. Soon both of the first responders’ personal trauma kits were also in their hands.
Within a matter of seconds they had cut away his pant leg and exposed the wounds. The bullet had entered just below the knee, traveled through the calf muscle, and exited just above the ankle. Pressure bandages were applied to both wounds. The student remained lucid and even made some jokes. He calmly explained that he’d had his finger on the trigger as he holstered the gun.
The police and then an ambulance arrived and the student was taken to the hospital. Approximately two hours later, after x-rays and examinations, he was released and is expected to make a complete recovery.
After the police cleared the area and allowed us back onto the range, the rest of the class continued as planned.
The major lessons to be learned from this:
- Accidents can happen to anyone at any time. This was not the student’s first formal training class and he had also participated in IDPA matches. He had drawn and reholstered his pistol probably a hundred times so far during AFHF this weekend alone. But a moment of inattention was all it took for a bullet to make two new holes in his body.
- Make a plan before an accident occurs and communicate that plan to everyone. Literally less than 30 seconds passed between when the student shot himself and two trained people were attending to the wounds. There was no panic, there was no standing around trying to figure out who was going to do what. We had a plan, everyone knew the plan, everyone followed the plan.
- If you are on the range, you should have a GSW kit with you. Even if you do not know how to use it — in which case you should learn — at least have the kit in case someone else has the know-how but not the supplies. An IFAK should be part of every shooter’s range kit.
- Never be in a rush to holster your pistol. We all know it, we say it, we teach it. Not all of us do it.
I would like to commend all of the students in the class — especially our two medical responders — for their mature, professional, coolheaded behavior on the range today; and, the great staff at the range for their role in assisting with the student’s well being, the police investigation, and the aftermath.
And of course above all else, I hope the student has a swift and easy recovery.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
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