Author: Rick Billington
After more than 25 years of teaching firearms, you would think I could predict what I'm going to see when a new group of students walks through the door. I can't
I've had students show up who have been around firearms their entire lives, and I've had others who were nervous just picking up a handgun for the first time. I've taught police officers, experienced gun owners. people preparing to carry concealed, and people who bought their first handgun only days before coming to class. I've had students who could shoot better than they thought they could and a few who couldn't shoot nearly as well as they thought they could.
That's part of what has kept firearms instruction interesting for me all these years. Every class is different because every student is different.
It has also taught me something I probably didn't fully appreciate when I first became an instructor: teaching someone how to shoot is actually the easier part of what we do.
Grip can be improved. Slight alignment can be explained. Trigger control can be practices. With good instruction and some range time, most people can become reasonably competent with a handgun. The harder part is developing the judgement, discipline, and mindset that should go along with owning one.
That is where I believe responsible gun ownership really begins.
Years of Ownership Don't Necessarily Mean Years of Experience
I've heard some version of this statement hundreds of times: "I've been around guns my whole life."
Whenever I hear it, I don't assume the person is a good shooter, and I certainly don't assume he is a bad one. I simply wait and see.
There are gun owners who have been shooting for decades and are extremely competent. There are others who bought a handgun 30 years ago, take it out occasionally, and consider themselves to have 30 years of firearms experience. Those aren't necessarily the same thing.
Some of my best students have been complete beginners. They come into class knowing they don't know very much, which means they listen. They ask questions and aren't embarrassed to admit when they don't understand something. They haven't developed years if bad habits that an instructor has to undo.
On the other hand, I've had experienced shooters who were outstanding students because they came into class with exactly the same attitude. They may have been shooting for years, but they were still willing to learn something new.
That willingness to learn has become one of the characteristics I respect most in a gun owner.
I've been doing this for years, and I'm still learning. I've changed things I teach because experience taught me a better way. I've reconsidered opinions I once held strongly. I've learned from other instructors, from law enforcement officers, and quite frankly, I've learned a great deal from my students.
Experience should make us more confident, but it should also make us a little more humble.
Shooting Well is Only Part of the Equation
Naturally, people come to firearms training expecting to learn how to shoot. That's an important part of what we do, and there is something satisfying about watching a student's target improve as the day does along.
But a nice group on a paper target doesn't tell me everything I need to know about someone who intends to carry a firearm for personal protection.
The more years I spend teaching, the more emphasis I place on what happens before anyone ever reaches for a gun.
Can you recognize a developing problem early enough to avoid it? Are you paying attention to what's happening around you? Do you understand the difference between bring frightened and being legally justified in using deadly force? Can you control your temper when someone insults you, threatens you, or tries to draw you into an unnecessary confrontation?
Those aren't shooting skills, but they are certainly concealed-carry skills.
I have told students for years that carrying a firearm should actually make you less willing to become involved in confrontations. You no longer have the luxury of getting into a stupid argument with a stranger just because you think you're right. Road rage, arguments in parking lots, disputes with neighbors, or trying to straighten out someone else's bad behavior can take on an entirely different meaning when one of the people involved is armed.
Sometimes the smartest thing an armed citizen can do is walk away.
That isn't cowardice. That's judgement.
One of the biggest misconceptions about personal protection is that the firearm is the protection. It isn't. The firearm is one tool that may become necessary when everything else has failed. Awareness, avoidance, judgement, and good decision-making are working long before the handgun ever becomes part of the equation.
A Certificate is the beginning, Not the End
One time I've watched over the years is how people view training. Some students understand immediately that a concealed carry class gives them a foundation. Others seem to believe that once they have completed the class, passed the required shooting exercise, and received their certificate, they're finished.
I wish it worked that way.
Think about how quickly any physical skill deteriorates when you don't use it. Shooting is no different. If the only time you draw from a holster, work on trigger control, clear a malfunction, or practice shooting is during the class you took several years ago, you probably don't have the same skill level today that you had when you completed that training.
The same thing applied to knowledge. Laws change. Equipment changes. Recommended practices change as we learn more. Even our own abilities change as we get older.
I know that last one firsthand.
Responsible training doesn't mean you have to spend every weekend at the range or turn firearms into your entire life. Most people have jobs, families, bills, and plenty of other things competing for their time. What it does mean is making a reasonable effort to maintain the skills that go along with responsibility you have accepted.
Go to the range occasionally. Practice safe firearm handling at home with an unloaded firearm and ammunition removed from the area. Review the laws in your state. Take another class once in a while. Consider CPR, Stop the Bleed, or another medical course. If you've changed your carry gun or holster, practice with the equipment you are actually using.
Most importantly, be willing to recognize where you need improvement.
I would much rather worth with a student who tells me, "I'm not comfortable with this yet," than one who pretends to have a skill he doesn't have. We can work on lack of experience. Overconfidence is much harder to fix.
The Older I Get, the Less Impressed I am with Equipment
I like guns. I suppose that's not much of a surprise coming from someone who has spent a good portion of his life teaching people how to use them.
I enjoy looking at new handguns and seeing improvements in sights, optics, ammunition, holsters, and other equipment. There are some excellent products available today that weren't even imaginable when I started teaching.
But after all these years, I'm far less impressed by what someone carries than by how they carry themselves.
We gun owners can spend an incredible amount of time arguing about equipment. Ask a group which caliber is best, whether a red-dot sight belongs on a carry gun, or which manufacturer makes the best handgun, and you may want to bring lunch because the conversation isn't going to end anytime soon.
Those discussions can be useful, but equipment has limitations.
I've never seen a handgun that could make a good decision for its owner.
An expensive firearm doesn't compensate for poor judgement. Neither does a custom trigger, premium ammunition, an optic, or the newest holster. Good equipment can improve the performance of someone who knows how to use it, but it cannot replace training.
Give me a student with a basic, reliable handgun who knows how to safely operate it, practices with it, understands his limitations, and exercises good judgement. I'll take that person over the owner of a $2,000 handgun who rarely trains every time.
The older I get, the more convinced I become that the most important piece of defensive equipment we carry is between our ears.
What I would Tell someone Buying Their First Gun Today
If I could sit down with every first-time gun buyer before they made their purchase, I wouldn't start by recommending a particular firearm.
I'd start by asking why they want one.
Personal protection? Home defense? Target shooting? Concealed carry? Maybe they simply grew up around firearms and finally decided to buy one of their own.
The answer matters because buying the firearm should be part of a larger decision. If it's intended for personal protection, for example, then we need to talk about much more than caliber and capacity. How will it be stored? Are there children in the home? Who else has access to it? Will you actually practice with it? if you plan to carry it, do you understand the laws that govern when you can and cannot use deadly force?
I'd also tell the new gun owner not to be embarrassed about asking basic questions. Firearms can sometimes attract an unfortunate amount of ego. Nobody wants to look inexperienced, especially standing at a gun counter or on a shooting range.
Forget about that.
Everyone of us started somewhere.
I'd much rather have someone ask me how something works than watch that person pretend to understand and make a dangerous mistake. There is no stupid question when the alternative is unsafe firearm handling.
I would also tell that person something that took me years of teaching to fully appreciate: responsible gun ownership isn't something you achieve once and check off a list/
it's something you practice.
Your knowledge grows. Your skills improve. Your circumstances change. You may start with a handgun kept at home and later decide to carry concealed. You may have children or grandchildren enter the picture. You may get older and discover that the handgun you could easily manipulate 15 years ago isn't quite as easy anymore. Responsible gun owners adjust rather than pretending nothing has changed.
Why I wrote The responsible Gun Owner
Eventually I realized that many of the conversations I was having in the classroom went far beyond shooting.
Students wanted to know about choosing a firearm, concealed carry, safe storage, training, situational awareness, personal protection, and what happens when a gun owner is forced to make a life-changing decision. Just as importantly, I found myself repeating lesson that had some from years of watching real people learn to become safer and more capable gun owners.
That was the reason I wrote The Responsible Gun Owner.
I wasn't interested in writing another book that simply explained how to point a handgun at a target and pull the trigger. There are plenty of excellent resources devoted to shooting technique.
I wanted to write about everything that comes with the decision to own a firearm.
After thousands of students and more than 25 years of teaching, I have become convinced that the best gun owners aren't necessarily the people who shoot the smallest groups or own the most firearms. They are the people who respect what a firearm is capable of, understand the responsibility they have accepted, continue learning, and exercise good judgement even when nobody else is watching.
Most of us who carry a firearm will go our entire lives without needing to use it to protect ourselves or another person. I hope everyone of my students falls into that category.
But responsible gun ownership isn't measured only by what happens on the worst day of your life. It is measured by all the ordinary days in between: how you store your firearm. how you handle it, whether you maintain your skills, whether you understand the law, and the decisions you make while carrying it.
If there's one lesson that more than 25 years of teaching has driven home for me, it is this:
Learning how to shoot is important.
Learning how to be a responsible gun owner takes a lifetime.
The principles discussed in this article are explored further in The Responsible Gun Owner by Rick Billington, a guide focused on responsible civilian firearm ownership, judgement, preparedness, and real-world decision-making.
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Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes and is not substitute for legal advice. Laws regarding self-defense vary significantly by jurisdiction are subject to change.
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