I recently had an opportunity to train with Defense Training International. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past twenty years or so, DTI is headed up by John Farnam, one of the top firearms instructors in the world. He and his wife Vickie, travel around the country teaching gunfighting to law enforcement, military and interested civilians. I’ve been through a lot of firearms training in my career. DTI’s is among the best for several reasons. First, DTI classes are run throughout the country. Check their schedule and odds are very good that there will be a course or courses offered near you. Second, there is a very low instructor to student ratio. Mr. Farnam has a cadre of well trained instructors that assist him in his classes, more on this later. Finally, Mr. Farnam does not teach shooting per se, he teaches gunfighting. How to prevail against one or more attackers when you are alone and armed with a handgun. I stated earlier that I had been through many hours of firearms training over the years. Much of it had been geared towards SWAT operations. That type of training prepares you for, you guessed it, SWAT operations. These tend to be assaults into a building as a team. That’s great, if you’re doing SWAT or similar things. If, on the other hand, you are a solo patrol officer or a lone civilian, you are better off using other methods. The course does include some partner work, but the bulk of it is geared to you being on your own.
We began at a civilized hour on Saturday morning. Mr. Farnam started by introducing himself, his wife and the cadre of instructors that would be helping him and us throughout the weekend. These folks have trained with Mr. Farnam for a long time, are well versed in his methodology and show an extreme attention to detail during range sessions.
Mr. Farnam began the day with about three hours of lecture. He opened with what he calls the Four Layers of Non-Participation. These are 1) Non Attendance, put simply don’t be there. Be aware of what’s going on around you and get out when you see trouble starting. 2) Functional Invisibility, be grey as James Keating would tell us. Don’t be noticed, blend in with the crowd and be forgotten the moment you leave the room. 3) De-Selection, this is where things start to step up. Body language, physical attitude and posturing should tell a predator to find someone else. 4) Disengage at the lowest possible level of force. If verbal commands do it, great. If you have to use OC do it and walk on. If the bad guy runs when you draw, let him go. If it comes to a shooting do what you have to do. The point was made repeatedly that if you can avoid shooting someone to do so. Once we were all clear on that Mr. Farnam went over the Four D’s of Violent Encounters. Divide your assailants focus. Disrupt his plan. Disable his body and Destroy his will to fight. Mr. Farnam repeatedly told us to keep moving, to stay in motion, if stopped to move laterally off the line of force. The lesson was hammered in again and again. If you are not shooting you are moving, once you’ve fired move, if you are reloading, clearing a malfunction or drawing a backup move, move off the line of force. The idea behind it, and force on force training proves the point, is that we get tunnel vision in a violent encounter. So do the bad guys. A simple side step can make you seem to disappear to an attacker. Move, shoot, move, scan and breathe. Another part of the lecture dealt with verbally seizing the agenda. Many times a robbery or other attack will begin with verbal distractions. Part of the course was programming ‘tape loops’ to respond to these type of things. A simple ‘No thank you’ as you walk on can throw a bad guys plan right off track. A more enthusiastic reaction can be gotten, I’ve found, if you point to the side and yell ‘Snake!’
The lecture included treatment of gunshot wounds. This is a separate course that DTI offers but Mr. Farnam feels strongly enough about it’s importance that he includes it in all classes. The lecture included information on the Israeli Battle Dressing, the latest information on sucking chest wounds (yes, by definition, any chest wound sucks) and the treatment for a tension pneumothorax. This portion concluded with suggestions for a blow out kit to help you deal with these and other injuries should you have to.
Once the initial lecture was done it was time to move to the range. We were introduced to the target we would use for the bulk of the course. It is a steel construction called The Rotator and we learned to hate it. The construction is diabolically simple, two ten inch steel plates attached by off set steel arms to a pivot point. The plates are set 180 degrees apart and can be set to spin vertically or horizontally. A solid hit will get the thing moving and if you time your hits properly you can get it to, well, rotate. Repeated hits afterwards keep it spinning as long as you can hit the plates and have ammunition. Misses, malfunctions and bobbled reloads will all conspire to stop the targets movement. Once you get that down then new drills are introduced like keeping the plates from spinning with well timed and placed hits, stopping the plates from spinning by countering other shooter’s hits among others. While you are doing this you must keep moving, keep your weapon charged, scan, breathe and be aware of other shooters on the line.
Once we’d gotten the hang of that we moved onto malfunction clearing. Mr. Farnam favors a non-diagnostic approach to this. Put simply, there are two ways to get your gun back in the fight if there is a malfunction and one builds off the other. You don’t waste time trying to figure out what happened and the techniques are not gun specific.
Go to method 1, if that doesn’t work go to method 2, if that doesn’t work get your backup gun out. What? You don’t have a backup gun? Time to get your running shoes out.
We then got introduced to a drill in which all the pistols were placed on tables and we got to fire each one. Then we got to do it again with three of the pistols that had been given malfunctions of various types.
We worked on into the night and as darkness fell flashlights came out. Mr. Farnam teaches the Harries and the Goode techniques. Other types of light were also used including road flares that were set in front of and then behind us.
Once we finished the night portion we were done for the day. Even though we’d only worked half a day (twelve hours) we were a little tired and I was looking forward to some food, a cold drink and a hot shower, not necessarily in that order, once I’d cleaned my gun.
We started the next day with more shooting drills. We then moved to disarming and retention techniques. Mr. Farnam teaches three disarms, one from the outside line, one from the inside and one to be used when the gun is pointed elsewhere. They all proved to be simple, effective and retainable. Retention techniques were also simple and easy to remember. One nice thing to see was the integration of gun and knife using the blade to keep your pistol from grabbing hands.
The last portion of the day was devoted to teamwork drills against a variety of steel and other reactive targets. Oh yeah, then there was the test. This is not one of those courses where if you show up and maintain a body temperature you get a certificate my friends. You have to show that you can perform what you’ve been taught. I won’t let you in on what the Basic and Advanced tests are. I will tell you that they are diabolically simple and comprise the skills taught in the class. You just have to do everything correctly and not miss any shots. That’s right, miss a shot, fail, screw up an administrative function, fail, take too long to get the job done, fail. You get the idea. Did I pass? Yes, I did and I got the pins to prove it.
A couple of recommendations, if you have never been to one of DTI’s courses before. First, bring something to drink. The days are long and there ain’t no vending machines around. I thanked God for my Camelbak several times. Second, bring food. The range we were at was only ten minutes from town but we only had thirty minutes for lunch and another thirty for dinner. Pack your own, you’ll be glad for it later. Mr. Farnam recommends that you bring a second gun in case your primary breaks during the course. We had this happen to at least one person in the class. I’d also bring more ammunition than the recommended 800 rounds. I went through at least 500 the first day alone.
I highly recommend training with Mr. Farnam if you ever have the opportunity. The quantity and quality of the instruction far outweigh the cost of the course. It is normal to find an instructor who is an outstanding shooter or a good tactician or has that devious turn of mind that finds ways to psychologically seize the moment or is just a good teacher. It is unusual to find all these qualities in one instructor. Add to that the ability to quote Kipling and Musashi equally well and folks, you got someone worth listening to. I will tell you this, if you are trained in any other shooting method go in with an open mind. This is about gun FIGHTING, not shooting a handgun. Actually, I’ll let you in on a secret. This course is not about shooting it is about speed bumps and dealing with them. Ran your gun dry? Deal with it. Missed your shot? Suck it up and move on. Got a double feed? Fix it and get back in the fight. Don’t whine, complain, bitch, moan, or do anything else that wastes perfectly good oxygen. Shut up, solve your piddly little problem and get back in the fight. Use whatever is at hand to solve your malfunction and get on with your life. That, friends, is a lesson more people in this world should learn. So take a look at DTI’s schedule and give them a call. Tell ‘em Spike sent ya.
