Taking the Family to the Range
Rob PincusDescription
Rob Pincus encourages you to take your family to the range, whether they are shooters or not. And it’s not just about turning them into shooters, though that would be a great benefit.
The Status Quo
Some of you have already taken your family to the range and perhaps have family members who are shooters. But others may be familiar with the scenario of going to the range alone or with friends, doing some defensive shooting practice or taking a firearms training course, then going home and telling your wife you had a great day, end of story. Your spouse and other family members don’t know much or anything about firearms. The main purpose of taking the family to the range is familiarization.
FAMFIRE
Bringing your family to the range is about educating them and acclimating them to exactly what happens when a gun is fired. The result is that, if a worst-case scenario happens inside your home, your family members won’t freak out just being in the presence of a gun.
Rob knows a lot of families who, out of all the people who live in the house, only one or two are comfortable with firearms. If this describes you, set up a safety trip to the range, a firearms familiarization trip, a basic range class, or just some casual shooting on, for example, national forest land, so people can get used to guns.
High-Stress Situation
If your home is broken into during the night, in the stress and confusion of the incident, you don’t want family members to become distracted and agitated when you access your defensive firearm. This could disrupt your home-defense plans, and family members may not be able to follow your simple orders that will keep them safe.
Making your family comfortable around firearms will help keep them safe during a critical incident.
You're like most gun owners you get together with your friends or you pack up the ammo and the guns by yourself. You head off to the range, you get some shooting done. Hopefully you're getting some defensive firearms practice done. Maybe you're attending a training class and then you go home and your wife asked you how it was. Your husband asked you how the range trip was and you say it was great.
Maybe you talk about it online with some friends, post some pictures, but I'm gonna encourage you to think about taking your whole family to the range, whether they're shooters or not. And it's not just about turning them into shooters. Although that could be a great benefit of the trip. It really is about educating them and acclimating them to exactly what goes on when a firearm is fired and when things might happen inside of the house, that are worst case scenarios, they're not gonna be freaked out just being in the presence of the gun. Now, for a lot of people, this isn't gonna apply to you because you do shoot with your family.
You have educated your family and you've made them, aware of what your intentions are in terms of defending them and yourself inside of your home in that worst case scenario. But I know a lot of families who might only have one or two people out of the 345 or six that live in the house that are comfortable with firearms. And what you really need to set up is that safety trip, that firearms Familiarization trip, that basic range class or just that casual shooting environment out there in the country out on some National Forest land shooting up against the side of the hill so that people can get used to the idea of firearms. You know, think about that high stress situation. Right.
I thought the alarms going off glass has been broken, the dogs barking, there's a lot going on. People are scared, people are flustered and if they're made uncomfortable by firearm, when you pull it out of the quick access safe, when you open up your tactical walls and you pull that rifle out and that distracts people from doing the things that they need to do to survive, which may very simply be follow your directions or follow a, a plan that's been rehearsed, maybe follow a script that you've laid out for them. But instead they fixate on the firearm, they start worrying about what's gonna happen if you have to pull the trigger and they're more worried about your opportunity to defend the family and they are the actual threat that might be out there somewhere on the other side of the door or down the hall or around the corner that can cause more problems than anyone needs in those environments and in those scenarios. So, taking your family to the range might not just be about turning them into a shooter. Of course, having a good time.
It may be something that actually ends up saving their lives because they're more comfortable around firearms. They have some idea what to expect and they're not distracted, much less surprised when you take action to defend them inside your home in a worst case scenario.
Rob, follow up question, if you get these, how do you suggest preparing a spouse and small children for the aftermath (noise, gunfire, possible wounded attackers, etc.) of a break in where one might have to use a weapon? I have a plan for where I would like my wife to grab the small children and take them to a relatively safe place in our home in that event. (We don't have a safe room, but I have places where I feel they would be safest in the event of an exchange of gunfire due to a front entry of our home). I would like them to go to a closet in the back of the home where I would expect (no guarantees) they would be most likely to avoid stray fire. Thanks again, good advice about preparation, just thinking it through. Will
Thank you Rob, this is great input. It's not only about personal readiness, it's about for the entire family and their ability to understand what I (or they) might have to do. Great stuff, keep it up!