Concealed Carry & Firearms Safety Training Blog

When Pistol Training Is Put to the Test

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:02:11 Z

Most pistol training takes place under controlled conditions. The shooter knows where the target is. He knows when the drill will begin, and usually knows exactly what he is expected to do. The instructor may add movement, time pressure, or decision-making. However, the student still knows they are participating in a training exercise. It is all in preparation for when pistol training is put to the test.

However, a real-life emergency provides none of those advantages. Nobody gives a start signal. Innocent people may run in every direction. Information may be incomplete. And the armed citizen may have only seconds to determine what is happening and whether they should act. On August 1, 2026, Jordan Salinas had his pistol training put to the test. He faced exactly that kind of test during a mass shooting at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Three people died and several others suffered injuries during the attack. Authorities later praised people who confronted or distracted the gunman and said their actions likely prevented additional casualties. What interests me as a firearms instructor, however, is not simply that Salinas had a firearm. More importantly, he had trained before the day came when training mattered.

He Didn't Start Training After the Attack

According to published accounts, Salinas began taking firearms training much more seriously after witnessing the aftermath of the 2021 Boise Towne Square Mall shooting. Afterward, he regularly practiced with his firearm and also rehearsed a decision-making process familiar to many defensive-training instructors: Observe, Orient, Decide and Act—the OODA Loop.

In simple terms, the OODA Loop describes the process of seeing what is happening, understanding what that information means, making a decision, and acting on that decision. Although the concept can become much more detailed, an armed citizen does not need an academic lesson in OODA theory to benefit from it. Instead, they need defensive pistol training that requires them to observe, think, make decisions, and then act appropriately.

That distinction matters. Under extreme stress, people rarely become more capable than their preparation. Instead, they tend to rely on habits, skills, and decision-making patterns they developed beforehand. Therefore, the purpose of defensive pistol training cannot stop at teaching someone how to operate a handgun accurately.

Shooting Is Only Part of the Problem

A person who carries a defensive handgun may develop an excellent draw and shoot tight groups at defensive distances. Those skills matter, and responsible firearms instructors should build them. However, before an armed citizen has their pistol training put to the test, they may need to solve several much more complicated problems.

First, what is actually happening? Next, who is the threat? Is the person holding a firearm the attacker, an off-duty police officer, another armed citizen, or someone who picked up a weapon after the original attacker dropped it? Meanwhile, where are the innocent people, what lies behind the intended target, and does the armed citizen actually need to become involved?

A paper target never creates those problems. It never suddenly becomes nonthreatening, produces a different weapon, moves toward an innocent person, or turns out to be the wrong person. Consequently, shooting accurately represents only one part of defensive firearms competence.

Effective defensive pistol training should force students to process information rather than automatically fire whenever they see a target. Therefore, instructors can require students to identify threats, recognize non-threats, make decisions, and understand that sometimes the correct decision is not to shoot at all.

The Serious Risk of Becoming Involved

We would be remiss if we discussed this incident without addressing one of the most important lessons for every armed citizen: intervening in a third-party confrontation carries enormous risk.

You are not a police officer simply because you carry a firearm and know how to use it. Or simply because you've received concealed carry training for a concealed weapon's permit. You may shoot well, think clearly under pressure, understand defensive tactics, and possess considerably more training than the average gun owner. Nevertheless, that does not mean you have received the extensive law-enforcement training a police officer receives, nor do you automatically receive the legal protections that may apply when officers act within their official duties.

Furthermore, when you enter someone else's violent confrontation, you may not know what happened before you arrived. You may misidentify the aggressor, misunderstand what you see, or fail to recognize another important part of the event. Likewise, another armed citizen or a responding police officer may mistake you for the attacker.

Then Comes the Legal Aftermath

Then comes the legal aftermath. Depending on the circumstances and the law in that jurisdiction, a third-party intervention can expose an armed citizen to an investigation, arrest, criminal charges, or prosecution. If authorities or a court determine that the use of force was unlawful, the consequences can include jail or prison. Moreover, even when prosecutors ultimately file no charges or the armed citizen prevails, attorney fees and other legal expenses can become enormous.

Civil litigation creates another danger. An attacker, an attacker's family, an injured bystander, or another involved party may attempt to bring a civil lawsuit depending on the circumstances and applicable law. Some states provide significant statutory protections for justified defensive force, while other states provide different protections. Consequently, anyone who carries a firearm should understand the laws governing defense of another person in the state where they live and train.

The takeaway should not be that an armed citizen must never help another person. Instead, the lesson is that either openly carrying a pistol, or carrying concealed gives you capability as well as culpability, not police authority or immunity. The decision to enter a third-party deadly-force encounter may become one of the most consequential decisions you ever make.

Defensive Pistol Training Must Include Decision-Making

This is where defensive pistol training must go beyond conventional marksmanship. Students should sometimes encounter exercises in which the target in front of them does not automatically require shooting. They should have to recognize what is happening, evaluate the circumstances, and choose an appropriate response.

Likewise, instructors should expose students to changing situations rather than always giving them a predictable sequence of commands. A student who only practices drawing and firing after hearing a timer can become very good at reacting to a timer. Real defensive encounters, however, seldom provide such obvious instructions.

Consequently, the instructor's goal should not simply be to program a faster physical response. The larger objective is to develop an armed citizen who can observe a rapidly changing situation, make a defensible decision, and then execute the physical skills required by that decision. Marksmanship remains essential, but judgment determines when those shooting skills should actually come into play.

Knowing When Your Job Is Finished

Another critical lesson comes after an armed citizen decides to intervene. Eventually, responding law-enforcement officers will arrive, and they may have incomplete information about who fired which shots. Police responding to an active shooting can enter an extraordinarily confusing environment filled with victims, witnesses, armed citizens, discarded weapons, and conflicting reports.

Therefore, before a trained citizen's pistol training is put to the test, an armed person must understand that the situation changes dramatically once law enforcement takes control. Continuing to move through the scene with a firearm can create another deadly misunderstanding. Accordingly, the same decision-making skills that helped someone recognize when action became necessary should also help them recognize when their role has ended.

That point receives too little attention in ordinary firearms training. Students spend enormous amounts of time learning when and how to shoot. Defensive pistol training must also address when to stop, when to disengage, and how the arrival of law enforcement changes the situation.

What Will You Fall Back On?

Nobody can know with certainty how they will perform during a genuine life-threatening emergency. No training exercise can perfectly duplicate the confusion, fear, noise, and consequences of an actual attack. Nevertheless, the Twin Falls shooting gives armed citizens and firearms instructors an important question to consider.

Salinas had chosen to train long before the shooting occurred. His preparation included firearms skills, but it also included a process for observing circumstances, understanding them, deciding what to do, and acting on that decision. When the emergency came, authorities said the actions of people who confronted or distracted the attacker likely prevented additional casualties.

That does not mean every armed citizen should move toward gunfire or intervene whenever another person faces danger. In fact, the potential criminal, civil, financial, and physical consequences provide powerful reasons to think very carefully before entering someone else's deadly-force encounter.

Instead, the larger lesson is simple: the middle of a deadly emergency is a terrible time to discover what your training never prepared you to do.

Pistol training should prepare a student to operate and shoot a handgun competently. Defensive pistol training must go further. It should prepare them to observe, think, decide, act responsibly—and recognize when the right decision is not to act at all.

That is when pistol training is truly put to the test.

Open Carry Training: Downsides Responsible Gun Owners Must Know

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:04:50 Z

Open carry may be legal in many places, but legal does not always mean smart in every situation. A visible handgun changes the way strangers see you. It may change the way a business owner treats you. It may also change the way a criminal evaluates you.

That is why open carry training must be direct. The question is not only, “Am I allowed to carry openly?” The better question is, “What problems do I create when I advertise that I am armed?”

You Give Up the Element of Surprise

A concealed firearm is private information. An openly carried firearm is public information.

If a violent criminal sees your gun, he knows where it is, which side you carry on, and what he must deal with first. That may not scare him away. It may simply cause him to change his plan.

Some people argue that open carry deters crime. Sometimes it might. But deterrence is not guaranteed. A determined attacker may decide to surprise you first, distract you, come up from behind, or target the gun before you have time to react.

When you carry concealed, the attacker may not know you are armed until you choose to act. When you carry openly, he knows before the fight starts.

You May Put a Target on Your Back

Open carry can make you stand out. In some places, you may become the most noticeable person in the room.

A visible firearm may attract nervous customers, curious strangers, store employees, managers, law enforcement, or criminals. Some people may stare. Others may challenge you. A few may try to provoke you.

That is a bad place for an armed citizen to be. If you are carrying a firearm, you should be trying to avoid unnecessary attention, not invite it.

Responsible carry is not about proving a point. It is about protecting life.

Gun Grabs Are Real

One of the biggest problems with open carry is simple: the gun is visible, reachable, and tempting to the wrong person.

Even trained police officers have had guns grabbed, pulled, or fired during struggles. Officers use duty holsters, receive training, and still face gun-grab attempts. If that can happen to a trained officer, a civilian with a visible handgun and little retention training should take the risk seriously.

A criminal does not need to win a gunfight if he can take your gun before the fight begins. He only needs a moment of surprise, a poor holster, a crowded space, or access to your gun side.

This is one reason defensive pistol training should include awareness, distance, retention concepts, and decision-making instead of only slow-fire marksmanship.

Open carry without retention training is a dangerous fantasy. A basic open-top holster may hold a pistol while you walk around. That does not mean it will protect the gun from a grab.

Retention Is Not Just Equipment

A retention holster is important, but it is not magic. Equipment can help. It cannot replace awareness.

Open carry training should include how to protect the gun side of the body, keep distance, avoid letting strangers crowd you, and recognize when someone is closing space for the wrong reason.

If you are standing in line, do you know who is behind you? If you are pumping gas, is your gun side exposed? If you are in a store aisle, can someone come up behind you? These are not range questions. These are public-carry questions.

The person who carries openly must think about access to the gun from every direction, especially from the rear and the gun side.

Store Policies Still Matter

Open carry can create conflict with private businesses. A store may allow lawful concealed carry but discourage or prohibit open carry. A manager may ask you to leave. An employee may not know the law. Another customer may complain.

The right answer is not to argue at the counter.

If a business asks you to leave, leave calmly. Do not debate. Do not lecture. Do not turn a policy disagreement into a public scene while armed.

The goal of carrying a firearm is safety. It is not to create unnecessary conflict.

Concealed Carry Often Makes More Sense

Open carry may be legal. It may even be appropriate in some settings. But for many ordinary public situations, concealed carry is often the more practical choice.

Concealed carry helps you avoid unnecessary attention. It protects the fact that you are armed. It reduces the chance that someone will target the gun itself. It also lets you move through public places without turning your firearm into the first thing people notice.

For many students, the smarter path is not simply choosing open carry or concealed carry. The smarter path is getting proper Florida concealed carry training before carrying in public.

Concealed carry does not solve everything. You still need safe handling, a good holster, lawful judgment, and training. But privacy can be valuable.

Open Carry Training Should Be Honest

Open carry training should not pretend that a visible gun automatically makes you safer. It may deter some people. It may alarm others. It may attract attention. It may create arguments. It may give up surprise. It may also give a criminal a clear target.

Before you carry openly in public, get training. Learn the law. Understand private-property issues. Use a secure holster. Practice awareness. Learn when to leave. Learn when not to argue. Learn that the gun is not a badge, a warning sign, or a conversation starter.

A firearm is a last-resort defensive tool. Carry it with humility, discipline, and good judgment.

Students who want practical firearm training in North Central Florida should look for instruction that covers safety, judgment, lawful carry, and real-world responsibility.