The event closed down at 3:00 pm. Here’s my AAR:
Overall, not bad. I was worried that it was going to be a Charlie Foxtrot but it ran more smoothly than any of us expected.
The event could have been better organized, in my opinion, but then again organizing an event like this is a lot like herding cats.
It was good to hang out with Carlos and Spence and to show some inexperienced shooters the ropes. I didn’t keep an accurate count but it seemed to me that nearly half of the students who attended were female…a very positive sign. Most of the brand new shooters turned in phenomenal performance for first timers. We used 4" bullseyes (a little trick I stole from Larry Vickers) for the shooters at 5-10 yards (depending on the performance of the shooter) and several had no problem keeping most of the shots in the black. For the level of shooter we had, that was great performance.
Several of us brought .22 pistols and revolvers in addition to the 9mm handguns…and that turned out to be a life saver. A small group of shooters had no desire to shoot the 9mms. The indoor range makes the bark of the 9mm a lot worse than an outdoor range would, and that psyched out a couple of shooters. Easing them in with the .22 helped out tremendously. It also allowed us to give the students the maximum amount of trigger time possible…a move which most of my trainees noted and appreciated.
We had about 30 minutes with each shooter and despite that limited amount of time and the limited ammo I think we did the shooters a lot of good. I whipped out the ol’ ball-and-dummy and empty-case-on-the-front-sight drills to help my shooters and these drills seemed to benefit their performance quite a bit. Lasers on the guns would have been an ENORMOUS help in diagnosing sight alignment and trigger control issues. If you are teaching newbies, do it with a CT Laser Grip equipped weapon. Trust me: It’s an invaluable diagnostic tool.
At the end of the day nobody had any extra holes in them and every student I talked to (or who I overheard talking to the press…The TV station in Harrisonburg and the Harrisonburg paper sent out multiple reporters and camera-men to cover the event at the range) said they enjoyed the experience and wanted to do more shooting in the future…and that was the point. Providing a safe environment where folks can experience the joys of the shooting sports. Fewer people today have experience with firearms as a part of growing up than 50 years ago. If we as gun owners don’t make these attempts to reach out we will become an increasingly more insular and alienated group.
EDIT:
Here are some links where you can see coverage of the events and where press stories and photos of the event will be found:
http://www.whsv.com/ – TV station in Harrisonburg
http://www.dnronline.com/ – Harrisonburg newspaper
The young lady in the picture with me was probably the best shot out of the six shooters I dealt with that day. I had to make sure she had double-hearing protection when I found out she was a Violinist.
Unfortunately, I didn’t even get scratch behind an ear or a pat on the head!! 
