The Benefits and Liabilites of Firearm Training
In today’s society, most law abiding citizens do not realize the importance and benefits of being trained to safely use their firearms. When someone thinks of firearm/gun training, they think of training that is meant for police officers and military personnel. People should learn to understand the reason why people in these professions train in multiple disciplines including firearm training.
One reason is to be efficient in using your training to be prepare for the unexpected. The most important one that I hear in my career as a law enforcement officer is liability. Liability is “the state of being legally responsible for something: the state of being liable for something.” I’m not the type of person that would Monday morning quarterback the actions of an individual that was involved in using a weapon or a firearm in a single incident. We see these types of incidents on the News media every day.
People have the desire, whether it is a criminal or a police officer, to hold others liable for their actions. When there is a police officer involved shooting, the questions seems to always pop up; including “was the officer trained to shoot that many times.” This may appear to be a question only for a police officer but just as many law abiding citizens are carrying firearms for personal protection and thus, liability can apply to them as well. If you have not been around court rooms or know a legal attorney, you may not have experience with how our system judges people by their actions.
Most employers train their employees on how to perform the job and behave in the workplace. For example, if an employer fails to properly train an employee on how to cook a cheeseburger and employee serves an uncooked cheeseburger to a customer; the result is a person may get sick and file suit against the employer. The liability does not fall on the employee, the liability falls on the employer. Now you may think, how does that example relates to firearm training. Just think that you are the employer and your firearm is your employee.
You could be liable for how you use your firearm. In the worst case scenario, if you have to use your firearm for defense of life, would you want the State’s attorney, Judge and Jurors to review your Firearm Training record to read “Untrained gun owner who shot the attacker” OR “Law abiding citizen who is licensed to carry a firearm and trained in several firearm training disciplines which include: Firearm Home Safety Training, Personal Protection in the Home, Personal Protection outside the Home, Defensive pistol shooting, Basic pistol shooting, Active Shooter training, Instructor for teaching firearm tactics to civilians, etc.”
Training is done in all professions. The benefits are to reduce liability, increase your knowledge, skills, and awareness, and be prepared to react, make good judgments calls, and help teach others. You, as a responsibly armed citizen should invest in your firearm training. Put the liability on the bad guy.
