Instructor: SAFTD National Master Instructor Richard Smith
Where: Copperas Cove, Texas When: April 15-18th
As a firearms instructor, I’m always looking to better myself. To me, that means attending as much quality training as I possibly can afford to go to, so I can pass on new skills to our students. As an instructor certified by a national organization that is more focused on non defensive shooting, I wanted to branch out and increase my skill level as a defensive handgun instructor. This is where the Second Amendment Foundation Training Division comes in. SAFTD is a national organization backed by SAF (Second Amendment Foundation) that has hit the ground running and is expanding rapidly all over the nation. With a team of founders that have a great depth of training on both the civilian and military sides and a curriculum written by Tom Givens, I was intrigued.
The SAFTD Defensive Handgun instructor course can be done in one of two ways. A new instructor can attend a full 40-hour course (5 days) which includes MOI (Methods of Instruction), Defensive Handgun 1 student, Defensive Handgun 1 Instructor, and SAFTD Range Officer. If you are already a certified/licensed instructor, SAFTD has a transfer program where you attend a 3-day course and you will receive MOI, Defensive Handgun 1 student, Defensive Handgun 1 instructor, and you receive credit as an existing instructor for the second half of MOI and RO. We hosted a compressed 4-day version of the course where we were in class for 10 hours per day.
We made arrangements with Richard Smith at SAFTD and on April 14th he arrived for a pre course check of the range and classroom and to see some of the sights (the Luby’s memorial). I found Richard to be knowledgeable and he spent a few hours talking about firearms history, the history of shooting techniques, and other similar but related topics. It was definitely an educational experience.
The next day, day one, we began bright and early with a wide assortment of instructor candidates. We had an FBI firearms instructor, several instructors certified by other orgs, a Training Counselor, the Executive Director of Texas Carry, and myself. Richard was animated and we began to go through administrative SAFTD material such as levels of instructors, the history of SAF and SAFTD, ethics, instructor complaints, and a good deal more. One thing that really stands out is SAFTD’s higher standard for instructor certification. In addition to passing the instructors course, which is much more involved than many of the other national organizations, you are expected to maintain insurance, be CPR/First Aid/AED certified, teach a minimum number of courses, and do continuing education every year. Richard put a great deal of emphasis on the expectation of SAFTD’s instructors being perpetual students and always bettering themselves.
For the rest of day one we went over topics related to public speaking and topics such as psychological learning barriers, word association, voice inflection, and managing questions. There was also discussion on how to deal with volunteers and employees and even scientific studies on the optimal classroom temperature to enhance student learning.
On day two we had to skip ahead and go to the range, as there was 100% chance of thunderstorms on day three, the day we planned on going to the range. Richard didn’t miss a beat and he taught some portions of what we’d normally learn in the classroom on the range to keep us on track. While on the range we ran through the student shooting drills used in FAST (Fundamentals And Safety Training the four hour introductory course to the handgun for extremely new shooters) Handgun and the drills done by students in Defensive Handgun 1. Each course of fire was run by one of the instructor candidates in the course while Richard assessed our teaching ability and command of the range. Once we completed the student exercises and the student proficiency demonstration, we moved on to the instructor qualification. SAFTD uses the FBI handgun qualification as it’s instructor standard, requiring a score of 90% (54 hits out of 60) with FBI agents required to score 80% (48 out of 60) or higher using an IALEFI QP target. CLICK HERE to view the FBI qualification. The FBI qual was conducted one at a time with the rest of the class watching the instructor candidate to induce a small amount of stress. After a full day of shooting most of the instructors passed, with a few needing to attempt the qualification again the next day (everyone passed their attempt the next day).
Day three was the day we went through more instructor development and then the Defensive Handgun Instructor student course. Here we learned that the Defensive Handgun 1 course is made to be a foundation for Defensive Handgun 2. Students learn the fundamentals of grip, stance, pistol selection, stoppages, malfunctions, and a great deal more including what quality gear and holsters are. This way, the student comes back with a quality belt, holster, and weapon to begin to learn the draw and shooting defensively in Defensive Handgun 2. Here we also went in depth into Cooper’s color codes, the OODA loop, and a few other defensive topics.
One thing that stood out on day three was how Richard handled a repeated question about how to tell students how badly “Hipoints suck”. I laughed along with the class as much of the firearms industry does, and Richard patiently waited until the class was done. He then recapped a post written by Greg Ellifritz (READ HERE) about encountering a single mother alone at the range shooting a Hipoint because she was convinced she needed to defend her family and defend it now. Richard gave us an impassioned speech about how he’s not going to tell a young mother trying to defend her family that her gun is terrible, he’s going to teach her how to defend herself and better gear will come later. I’ll be honest, it changed my outlook on how I approach other shooters and their gear. Richard is very passionate about leading a shooter to a better solution instead of cutting them down, it was refreshing.
At the end of day three, each instructor candidate was assigned a topic and given a few minutes to study before getting in front of the class for a teach back. Each teach back was conducted as if the other candidates were a group of new shooters and the instructor was made to teach as well as answer questions, no matter how stupid they may have seemed. One Training Counselor (instructor trainer) in the group commented that this entry level instructor course for SAFTD was having us do things that were at the Training Counselor course level in other national organizations. The teach backs were conducted in a positive manner with constructive criticism given to each instructor candidate when they finished.
At this time, we said goodbye to the certified instructors taking the transfer course and had a small graduation ceremony. We went out and had dinner as a class before everyone headed their separate ways and it was a fun relaxed night.
On day four I sat in through the Range Officer course. It was as expected and the RO candidates were run through range SOP’s, range safety rules, different considerations for an RO at different events and ranges, how to take a gun from a student or stop them from turning towards you with a gun, and how to move with a shooter on a non-static range during training or events. Overall it was well taught and the RO candidates all passed.
When it was all said and done over four days, I learned more than I have in my previous 4 handgun instructor courses combined. I left with not only knowledge, but I left this class with a huge list of books and other instructors that were suggested to get training with. I’m definitely both a better instructor and a better shooter for having taken this class. I cannot suggest enough to invest in yourself and your students by going through an SAFTD instructor course.
