Some people keep pointing out how difficult it is to deal with self-defensive shooting situations. Other people keep saying they can do it. This sort of discussion is really more about the meeting of different psychological attitudes, and people are just going to dig into their current position. Let's try to make this a bit more productive. What sort of training do you need to address an active shooter scenario? MODERATORS: PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT ADVOCATING GUN-CARRYING OR FIREARMS TRAINING FOR EVERYONE. I'M JUST ASKING HOW TO DO IT RIGHT IF YOU DECIDE TO DO IT AT ALL.

Most civilian self-defense situations are pretty simple. It's enough to know to draw, present, aim, and place your shot. In other words, having good mechanics plus common sense and situational awareness might be enough. Competition shooting typically helps drill your mechanics. Somewhere along the way you should take a course on self-defense law. Training in firearm retention would be good. So that means three courses -- (1) intro self-defense, perhaps up to shooting on the move, (2) self-defense law, and (3) firearm retention -- and competitive shooting as a fun way to keep up your skills -- USPSA, IDPA, maybe even cowboy action.

But would that cover mass shooting situations? Let's see where you go if you take your training further -- erratically moving 3D targets, moving 3D "no shoot" targets in hostage situation, using backup gun, night shooting, learning techniques for shooting and manipulating the gun while injured, moving through buildings, tactics for fighting in teams, etc. Some of this would address the technical aspect of responding to a mass shooter situation. There are some problems: (1) this sort of training is expensive; (2) the availability of such training can be hard to come by for civilians; and (3) skill level is hard to maintain. Often you need special setup to practice this.

I feel that a lot of gun owners, even with some training, are missing mental conditioning. Some sort of martial arts training that knows realism and can pushes your mind and body would be useful. Working against adaptive resistance (an opponent who adapts his attack to your response) would be useful. I have never done force-on-force, which is the gun world equivalent, I guess, so I'm not sure where to place that. But certain aspects of force-on-force seem similar to what I'm talking about here.

I'm not comfortable discussing more technical stuff. For one, I paid a lot of money to get that knowledge. For another, I don't know who is reading this stuff. Why would I want to teach strangers on the internet to kill people?

Sidebar. The fact that many firearms instructors are finding it impossible to make a living indicates there aren't that many people signing up for classes. Now think about the brisk gun sales in this country. Most people would rather buy a fancy gun than pay half the amount to make sure they can actually use it.