Attention should be paid to tactical reloads, speed reloads, and malfunction drills.

Gunhandling begins with learning basic gun safety. And this is covered by four easy-to-understand rules: 1.) All guns are always loaded. 2.) Never let your gun's muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. 3.) Keep your finger off the trigger until the gun's sights are on the target. 4.) Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

From that beginning, Gunsite students learn the effective presentation of their handgun from the holster. They learn tactical reloads, speed reloads, and various malfunction drills. Due attention to these drills allows a person to become one with his handgun and a far more effective fighter.

Practical marksmanship involves delivering a bullet to the target in a very quick and accurate manner. The real key to this shooting skill is the ability to master the flash sight picture and the smooth trigger press. Students quickly learn that when they focus on the front sight, they hit the target. Over and over again, you hear, "Front sight. Press. Front sight. Press." Gunsite Rangemaster Charlie McNeese occasionally pointed out to me that it was not "Front sight. Jerk! Front sight. Jerk!" I don't know why he kept bringing that up.

Mind-set is the mental conditioning that allows one to quickly identify a threat and to develop a plan for dealing with it. It teaches one to be aware of the surroundings so that a potential threat is identified as soon as possible (Cooper's Color Code). Gunsite's mind-set lecture also gives students ways to deal with their fears and ways to develop a successful plan to deal with a criminal attack. Mind-set is what teaches you that when you have to fight, you fight smart.

Putting The Skills To Work
After some of the basic skills have been learned, students of the Defensive Pistol class are given several opportunities to put them to work on practical problems. This involves running through the outdoor and indoor simulators, also known as the Donga Run and the Fun House.

The Donga Run involves engaging steel knockdown targets at various distances and with varying degrees of concealment down a dry gully. Donga is Swahili for a dry wash or gully.

The Fun House challenges the student to move through a building, clearing rooms and checking hiding places while searching for good-guy and bad-guy targets. Having dealt with real bad guys in rough desert terrain and dark houses, I have to say that these simulators are extremely realistic and challenging.