First, my thanks to all for the good wishes. I’ve been less-than-happy at the slow pace, but also got reminded today that I’m still not three weeks out from the latest surgery. I could have sworn it was four-plus. Given that, it’s going amazingly well. Trying an experiment in ditching the sling for a bit to write, will see how it goes. Nice not having to be archy or ee for a bit.
Second, thanks to a very nice person I got the chance to attend Guy Relford‘s Indiana Gun Law Class at Indy Arms this last Saturday. For those not in Indiana, Guy Relford is not only the founder of the 2A Project, but a practicing Constitutional Law attorney specializing in the Second Amendment, and has also helped write a fair bit of current Indiana gun law. Still a few changes he would like to see made, and I hope he gets the chance to make them.
Those who know me, know I push for people — especially first time gun buyers — to take such a course. Ignorance of the law never works out in your favor, and there is a LOT of bad info out there. You need a law course as much or more (esp. if you live in an ‘interesting’ state) as you need good firearm/tactical training.
When I first moved to Indiana, a small-town police chief I got to know gave me a decent quick overview as he helped me apply for my carry permit. It is more than just a concealed permit, more on that in a minute. The laws have changed a LOT since then, and I’ve been wanting to take the class for a while now. It’s the first step to getting back to where I need to be after the lightning strike and shoulder replacements.
So, Saturday was five-plus hours of high-quality instruction on Indiana gun law, as well as use-of-force and other related topics. This included getting into the actual laws (and regulations) and going through same. There were a lot of good questions, good discussions, and citation of actual events and cases to make points.
Yes, Indiana is now (thanks in part to Mr. Relford) a Constitutional Carry state. That said, it is still a very good idea to go ahead and get that carry permit as doing so helps you via exemptions (such as within 1,000 feet of a school) as well as being honored in a number of other states. Take the course to learn how and why.
I’m not going to go into details, but we went over everything from who is a prohibited possessor and what convictions can be expunged after various periods of time — and what can’t ever be expunged — to transfers. The course covers when and where you can carry (and how) to the differences between use of force and use of deadly force.
I’ve got multiple pages of notes on those topics and even on things like curtilage as it applies to Castle Doctrine. In short, it was an amazing class where I learned a lot. I also learned a phrase to use if I am ever involved in a shooting or deadly force situation, and some other tips on same.
Glad to learn that phrase and some other suggestions on interactions. The last time I had formal use-of-force training was during Air Force Security Police Augmenter training several (cough) decades ago. Since policy at the time was shoot for extremities, I learned then ‘Sir, in the stress of the moment I reverted to training and fired for center of target.’ The phrases I learned Saturday are a huge improvement and will do a lot more to help keep me out of trouble.
Seriously, if you are a gun owner in Indiana, regardless of if you carry or not, you need to take this or a similar course. I can highly recommend this one, and do so unreservedly. This is time and money extremely well spent.
As I noted above, I’m using this as the start of re-learning to shoot. Between the lightning hit and getting new shoulders, I want to drop back and effectively start over. It’s a chance to re-learn, discard any bad habits, and build up better than before. Funny, I’ve done it a couple of times in terms of shooting and photography, and each time I came out the richer for it. For photography, both at Playboy and then again a few years ago, the concept of ‘forget what you know and relearn from the ground up’ resulted in huge improvements. For firearms, some training around the AFSPA program and some later tactical and related training vastly improved my shooting and response capabilities. Any help so doing now is very much appreciated.
So, an amazing and educational Saturday! It was good to meet Mr. Relford in person, as previously we had only engaged on social media. Give him a follow on X/Twitter if you are on there. Seems like a good man to sit down and smoke a cigar with and get to know.
Getting hit by lightning is not fun! If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, which include moving once we have medical issues cleared up, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.