Quote:
If you are willing to put in the hours and the resources to develop proficiency, you will be rewarded with success. To that end, practice doesn't mean just shooting from the same position over and over. Quite the contrary, any seasoned expert will practice shooting from different positions, different sides, etc. Then the expert can take that awkward shot and reasonably expect it to go where he intended it to. Familiarity with the firearm of choice proves marksmanship; familiarity with varying techniques demonstrates the difference between having a shooting solution or walking home empty handed, or worse.


I'd like to point out that if you're planning on using a firearm for personal defense, there's a lot more to learn than just shooting. Practice should include drawing (or unslinging if we're talking about a longarm), movement, using cover, reloading, and clearing jams. Alertness and verbal disengagement skills are important, since it's better to avoid trouble in the first place. Of course, learning to make good shoot/no shoot decisions is important if you want to stay out of prison.

Shooting is an important part of defensive firearm use, but it's only one piece of the puzzle.