I will add that I am a huge proponent of dry fire and air soft for aspects of "tactical" training. Too many times we use our square range time for drills that are best done dry. I know when my first agency finally got a 360 degree shoot house everyone wanted to go guns blazing on everything we did and I am honestly surprised nobody got killed in those first few months. A better plan would be to run room clearing drills a couple hundred times dry before ever firing a shot. Also in a basic academy class I got to observe an instructor teaching weak hand draws with a hot gun to people who had little pistol experience. I was amazed nobody left with extra holes and it was a horrible use of limited range time. This is a skill that could have been shared when there was extra time during lunch instead of watching another 30 minutes of "Cops".
Nobody needs a custom 1911 or multi thousand dollar classes to become proficient or know their limits. My Dad is getting old and knows his physical skills are not what they used to be and is compensating accordingly. Over the years he has dropped from a .45 to 9mm to a Ruger .22 because that is all he can handle but you can be damn sure he is pretty surgical with his placement. He also knows he has limited penetration and terminal efficiency and keeps that in mind at all times.
I encourage everyone to take a good look at their gear, look at themselves in the mirror and take the time to really understand their own abilities and liabilities regardless of what they carry.
After years of avoiding optics I am finally going to run one on a fighting rifle. I have a whole new learning curve of what I can do better or what I might have to compromise. I would bet a months pay check I could pass the basic qual after a quick zero but that does not mean I have learned how to exploit the options an optic gives in a fight. I am on a tighter budget than ever and plan an drying firing a ton, using the .22 kit for anything under 50 yards and acclimating to a new trigger before I would consider carrying it when it would matter.
For decades, dry fire has constituted most of my trigger time. It was easy when I carried revolvers, but became more complicated when I recently switched to a Glock. That is until I received delivery of a SIRT training pistol. Anyone who carries a Glock needs one.
