Close Range Gunfighting, Jacksonville, AL, 29-30 September

**BigBuddyBear** · 10-02-2012, 02:42 PM

I am fortunate to have a close friend who is an accomplished shooter having attended many of the most prestigious and sought after shooting schools in the nation. In addition he has attended eight Suarez International (SI) courses and does some part time instructing for Suarez International. I have been to the range with him on a few occassions and the evolutions we worked through taught me that I had a lot to learn about being a gunman. Much of the training evolutions we worked through was pragmatic; everyday situations that can and often do go bad. He had gleaned the workup through material he learned in SI courses.

I was sold and was immediately on fire to attend SI training courses myself. I am not new to guns; I served in the US Army for 22 years, but I must admit that I am new to the idea of close range gunfighting - stuff I am more likely to see as a civilian. Army tactics, techniques and protocols stressed engagements further out, in fact a phrase we often use in the Army is "focus on the 50 meter target" meaning concentrating efforts on the most important, close-in tasks. Fifty meters is considered close range for a Soldier, but to a civilian bad guys at 50 meters will likely pose no threat. So I needed a paradigm shift...SI Close Range Gunfighting (CRG) to the rescue.

Now all this background information was to give you an idea of where my mind and training was coming into the training. My expectations were...well I didn't have much of a frame of reference to form expectations, so I was completely open to learning. Not a bad place to be.

So, September 29-30, 2012, I hosted a Suarez International Close Range Gunfighting course in Jacksonville, AL. The Instructor was Randy Harris, and he was outstanding - he really knows how to translate training objectives into the useable and pragmatic in a manner that resonates with adult learners. Randy is also very knowledgeable about self defense tactics and is not strictly a "gun guy." Because of this he was able to articulated structured strategies that did not involve going to guns immediately...or as Randy would say "winning means not getting shot."

I loved how Randy gave us the "why" of CRG spending much of the morning talking to us about pre-, mid-, and post-fight issues before putting us behind the sights of a gun and in front of targets. As an experienced adult trainer myself I understand the benefit of giving the "why" before going through a bunch of iterations of training. Randy's structured strategy gave us "something to hang our hat on" when we were going throught the evolutions. Simply put, it made all the shooting evolutions make sense. This was not your typical square range shooting course where everyone lines up and puts a lot of lead downrange. Yes we shot a lot of ammo, but it was done so by placing us in the context of a real world situation that may become violent. The training then took us to the point where when we had to go to guns it was an articulable situation...meaning that we knew why we had to go to guns. This gave us a much greater understanding of what we were doing, why we were doing it, and should the need ever arise to use the training, we would be able to articulate why to civil authorities (i.e., the police, and criminal justice system). This not only armed us with information on how to defend ourselves from violence, but also to defend ourselves, if necessary, in a court of law. This is not to say that we conducted deep analysis of the law, but rather, a deeper analysis of why we felt the need to go to guns. It would be hard to defend why you shot an unarmed man because he looked mean and scary.

As for the shooting evolutions, there were enough of them to give you plenty of opportunities to experience scenarios that you could face in an ever increasing violent world. All of the shooting was close to the targets. That should not be interpreted as easy. In fact when you have less to evaluate the situation and react to what is taking place it seems to me the more likely you may be to miss your target. That makes this training that much more valuable, because now I have a frame of reference from which to work. Randy didn't just run us through multiple shooting evolutions, he gave us context about the value of the evolution. When you are standing at the ATM and you are approached by a thug with intent to steal your money so that he can score some more drugs, the last thing I want to have to do is start thinking about how I should react. Like I said, Randy gave us that context, so that now I have a fantastic baseline to establish training protocols for me and my family.

I highly recommend this course to anyone that may be sitting on the fence. It is well worth the investment. Which brings me to another point. I have several guns and have a considerable amount of money invested in those guns. I assume that if you are reading this posting on Warriortalk that you have at least one gun too. It only stands to reason that if you have a lot of money invested in guns, you should consider investing in comprehensive, realisic strategy structured training to put those guns to use. I plan on investing my money in at least one SI course per year. My next course...probably SI Force on Force.

**TattooedGunner** · 10-02-2012, 03:18 PM

Great review!

Randy is a top notch instructor. I hated missing this class.

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**Randy Harris** · 10-04-2012, 08:29 AM

Thanks guys. This was a great group to work with. I'll try to get some pics up in next day or so.

**TeamStone** · 10-22-2012, 05:22 PM

[Apologies for the late comments. I can't believe 3 weeks has passed since the class.]

Randy's classes always feel like at least Masters degree level classes because they come packed with so much practical information along with solid doses of historical context, current events, and interesting anecdotes.

We discussed Hick's Law, assault indicators, how and why to articulate why you did what you did when you did it.

We went through Randy's classic PESTS EAT FAST material. [If you've never read that thread, do it now.]

As mentioned by BigBuddyBear above, Randy does a great job of explaining the "why" of things. For example, we spent time talking about "The Fence". Not just "here's the fence, now you do it", but the background of the origin of the fence (see Geoff Thompson) as well as the reasoning behind it (non-aggressive posture, but can become instantly offensive; subconscious psychological barrier as well as a physical barrer; etc.). Getting both the "how" and the "why" is part of what makes this such excellent training.

Oh, and there is some shooting too! I shot about 700 rounds and didn't feel like any of it was a waste of ammo.