It's not uncommon for someone to come into Openrange, see the suppressed firearms we have for rent and blurt "Those are against the law!" Our response is "WHO told you they were against the law?" That person usually has to stop at that point and process just where they came up with that thought. The reality is that this person, like many, have never shot, held, or even seen a 'silencer'....
As firearms instructors, our focus is on teaching the defensive use of firearms to private citizens. We want this to be as relevant and as realistic as possible. To this end, we study and keep up with the latest research on what happens when it comes to actual defensive firearms incidents involving private citizens. This involves not only looking at the latest statistics, but also watching various incidents via video to compare with those statistics.
At the time of the American Revolution, the British Army was considered to be the finest in the world. Their soldiers were drilled to an extraordinary degree. They were well equipped, well disciplined, well paid, and well fed. On June 17, 1775, the British army under the command of General Thomas Gage arrayed itself in battlefield formation to assault the American Colonists on top of Bunker Hill (note; the majority of the battle actually occurred on the adjacent Breed’s Hill).
It’s not uncommon to walk into the pistol range and see someone practicing with a target at 25 yards. Sometimes they are practicing head shots at that distance. Nothing wrong with that, as we should be able to hit both close, and at distance.
On a dark rainy night back in the early 1990s, I was involved in an off-duty street incident with an armed robber, and I was wounded in the left arm (and right leg) in the process. This caused less of a physical issue than you would imagine, because prior to that incident, I had spent a LOT of time operating my revolver with one hand, either hand.
