[rickr96]

I was shot and killed yesterday.

Hit a total of three times, one shot grazed my right hip, the other two shots, striking me center mass, right in the middle of my chest, proved to be fatal. Before succumbing to my wounds, however, I was able to return fire, getting off two shots. My first round missed completely, the second striking the bad guy in the upper left chest, close to his armpit. My bullet did no damage to vital organs, was not fatal, and, at best, produced a blood trail and maybe forced my assailant to seek medical attention from a local area hospital.

I was shot and killed in front of 10 witnesses who could do nothing to help me. It was a really good day!!!

Like others, I attended one of the weekends “Prisim” training classes offered by CCWInstructor (CCWI). Using his “state of the art” interactive training, CCWI put several of us through his unique and one of a kind virtual reality training classes. CCWI conducts Prisim classes almost exclusively for Law Enforcement agencies, traveling the western states to train various departments. His resume of departments includes municipal, county, state and federal agencies large and small. Using “real” weapons (more about that later), my classmates and I were able to train in a way usually reserved for law enforcement and the military.

Here’s how it works. One at a time CCWI called us forward, allowed us to choose the weapon platform we prefer (Glock, Sigs, Beretta, etc.), then presented us each with a different scenario. We were challenged with problems ranging from home intruders, to being accosted by persons outside the home, and even work place violence. We watched these scarnios play out before us on an interactive movie screen. “Actors” would enter a scene, engage us in the scene, and react to our involvement. If we shot (and hit them) they fell. If the wound was fatal, they stayed down. If not, sometimes, like Lazarus rising from the dead, they would fall only to reengage us later in the scene. When they shot at us, we got it… REALLY HIT… As in hit with nylon balls fired from a mini cannon mounted above the screen. The guys shooting at us were really good shots too. They rarely missed.

It really was a good time, and more importantly, good training.

With CCWI help, those of us in the class got see how well we've trained to handle deadly situations. Afterwards he would play back video so we could review our actions, judge our reaction times, and judge our ability to handle firearms when targets are shooting back at us. To say the least, it was a very eye-opening situation.

Training in that virtual, interactive world, I was able to see the results of all my hard work and to measure the skills gained from all that time at the range, and all that money spent training in other ways. Based on the results, it's obvious, I have more work to do… A lot more!

On playback, in slow motion and freeze frame no less, I noticed I did some really dumb things… I failed to react soon enough. I failed to see obvious threats like a handgun lying in plain sight about five inches away from my subjects’ hands. Note: You may ask, how could you miss that? My answer, when something else has your attention, you tend to miss things… (BTW… 8 out of 10 people watching this scenario also missed the old “hide the gun in plain sight” trick.)

I learned, too, how hard it is to take command of a situation before it gets out of control. In one scenario I was confronted with an obvious bad guy. My brain said “Take Charge. Get control. Tell him what you want him to do.” And all I could get out of my mouth was a very strong and forceful “HEY!!!” Now, the bad guy must have been impressed with my oratory brilliance and command of the Kings English, because after hearing my “Hey” command, he started shooting at me. He winged me, I winged him, but his friend, and second bad guy I had not noticed, killed me dead.(Apparently my shouted “HEY!” had no effect on him either….).

Each us had two turns on the firing line, and all got watch each other in action. So in addition to what we learned from our two sessions, we had a chance to learn from each other’s scenes as well. It was a true learning experince. After each scenario played out CCWI asked a few questions, answered questions, then gave us excellent training tips and suggestions for things we might want to think about or work on in our next trip to the range.

Did I mention it was a lot of fun too?

I highly recommend the Prisim classes. CCWI presents real world, everyday scenarios in a 100% interactive way. He uses real guns,,, Guns that go bang, have actions that cycle, eject brass, and work just like the one you/re using now. Basically, it’s as real as it gets!

CCWI offers other training… Including outdoor classes. I consider the Prisim class to be a little more advanced so it is prolly a very good idea to take his basic handgun classes before signing up for Prisim.

I had a really good time… I got to hang out with some forum buddies, meet some new members, and got a chance to see how far I’ve come… I also got to see how much farther I need to go…

Yes, I got killed, but that wasn’t so bad. Given the choice, I’ll take dying in CCWI virtual world over the real thing any time.

You see, after dying yesterday, we did a quick debrief, and then all went to lunch. Not a bad way to go...