I watched three different instructors teach seven students over the course of a range session tonight. Over and over again, I saw the same safety violation go unnoticed and uncorrected.
When you are talking to your student, or your student is talking to you with a gun in his hand, the instructor has to watch the student’s trigger finger. Right from the beginning, students need to understand that a finger on the trigger during administrative handling, discussion, or down time is unacceptable behavior.
It just amazes me that so many instructors are oblivious to this. The number one responsibility of an instructor is to instill firearms safety skills and habits in every student. You wouldn’t let a student point a gun at you. Don’t let him use the trigger as a finger rest!
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
This is something I struggle with every time I am out teaching. Students often just don’t understand why it’s so important. For some it definitely takes a little of the fun away. My teaching partner and I handed out a survey form after a class of LEO’s one time, the number one complaint was about us being to “safety oriented”. Doesn’t matter in the end though, I’d rather be thought of as a safety freak then have an accident.
rob — Presenting safety rules and instructions in an effective way can be a challenge with some groups. You need to balance the need to maintain safety with the need to maintain interest and mutual respect. The best advice I can offer is to always treat armed professionals as professionals; you’re a teacher not a drill instructor. But as you said, at the end of the day the number one concern has to be that no one gets hurt.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
part of the problem, particularly with the current groups of LEO’s that we are training, is that some of them have firearms experience, and others have none. It’s almost always the ones that DO have experience that complain about the safety stuff. (this is what happens when you arm an agency that previously wasn’t armed).
Something I’d love to see would be a good article written exclusively on why it’s so important to keep the finger off the trigger. Breaking down the various mishaps that can, and have happened.
positive reinforcement. When this happens I have found I get more response and attention to the finger on the trigger by politely reminding them move thier finger. Sometimes I may stop and remind a student two or three times or as many times as needed until they get the point.
I normally think of something to compliment them on, then move on to reminding them about the trigger. Seems to work better than yelling at them. Builds a bond between instructor and student.