Amplify Your Training – Part One

Receiving adequate training is important for responsible gun owners. Across the nation, there are thousands of firearms instructors who bring a certain expertise to the table. It may be hard for a new gun owner to find an instructor that teaches a curriculum relevant to the training they want to receive.

If you, or the women in your life, are having a hard time finding the firearms training right for you, or them, consider joining A Girl & A Gun. This women’s only shooting league hosted its 11th annual National Conference at the beautiful Cameo Shooting and Education Complex in Grand Junction, Colorado on April 28^th-30^th, 2023. The conference brought together 600 students, all women, who received training from 102 instructors in 400 training sessions.

I was able to attend the National Conference this year and learned so much from the training I received in the seven courses I attended. In this mini-series part one, I’ll discuss the first three courses I participated in.

Gunfighter Medicine – Stop the Bleed

Everyone should know how to handle an injury. Especially if they are carrying a firearm or knife daily. The Gunfighter Medicine course taught just that. Stop the Bleed has created a curriculum to train individuals on how to handle various traumas to the body.

During the class, I learned how to properly apply a tourniquet and how to properly pack and cover wounds. The goals are to stop the bleeding and keep as much blood inside the body. It is imperative to handle bleeding injuries quickly. Someone can bleed to death in 5 minutes depending on the type of injury.

When blood starts to leave the body, the injured individual’s body will respond by limiting blood flow to their extremities. It is important to keep their body warm while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

Tip: Keep an emergency blanket in your range bag and car. Use it to keep the injured person warm.

Stop the Bleed courses are available Nationwide. Visit their website stopthebleed.org to find a class near you.

Knife Defense

I hope that all gun owners carry a firearm daily, including it in their everyday carry (EDC), whether at home or out in public. But the ones who decide not to may want to investigate other ways to defend themselves. Carrying a knife may be a great alternative.

During her training session, Jasmine Vanderpool, Co-Owner of Martial Arts Resource Systems (MARS) of Colorado, introduced students to the counter-offense tactics required to defend themselves against edged weapons. In the class, we learned defensive maneuvers, various grips with both strong hand and weak hand, and the various styles of edged weapons.

We partnered up, grabbed rubber training knives (cut-up pool noodles), and learned the most common knife strikes – the downward and upward slash, the cross-body slash, and the thrust. Once we understood the knife strikes, we incorporated footwork and defensive maneuvers to stop a blade attack. At the end of the class, we combined all the tactics we learned and used washable markers to visually see not only how often we were struck by our opponent, but also how often we struck ourselves.

 

If you think defending yourself with an edged weapon is a great option, consider taking a knife defense course to understand how to properly use your weapon of choice.

One-Handed Wonders

I typically tend to focus on the fundamentals during my handgun training. To get outside my comfort zone, I took a one-hand course with the amazing Lou Ann Hamblin of LouKa Tactical. Lou Ann has 22 years of law enforcement experience and specializes in training female officers – training close to 5,000 in pistols alone.

You may be asking yourself why I would want to learn how to shoot one-handed. If you put yourself in a self-defense training scenario, one hand could easily be occupied. Are you holding or carrying something? Did the attacker shoot or slash one of your arms? Maybe your dexterity has diminished in one of your hands. There are many reasons why someone may need to defend themselves using only one hand.

In Lou Ann’s class, our focus was to perform all tasks with one hand – from loading the firing to doing a magazine change to unholstering and re-holstering. We also ran drills on handling malfunctions one-handed.

If you want to improve your skills with a handgun, consider taking a one-handed class. The skills I learned during this class are important to understand when it comes to properly defending myself and my family.

Recap

Training is the best way to improve your skills. Learning new skills will also help you to stay engaged and want to train regularly. As I said previously, receiving adequate training is important for every responsible gun owner. Learning how to handle wounds, edged weapons, and handguns one-handed helped me become an even more comfortable and confident armed citizen.

In part two of this mini-series, I will discuss the other four courses I took during A Girl & A Gun’s National Conference – Beginning Archery, Bushcraft Basics, Crush n’ Clays, and Anti-Ambush Techniques & Tactics.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Meaghan Roble is an anti-gunner turned gun activist. She is a USCCA-certified instructor and an NRA-certified range safety officer. Meaghan is also an A Girl & A Gun Chapter Facilitator. She owns her own Firearms Training & Education business, Roble Defense, and enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience with others.

Want more content from Meaghan? Follow her on social media. Facebook – @mroble16, Instagram – @mroble16, and YouTube – @M1ssM3gO

 

 

 

 

 

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