The Most Important Lesson I Learned as an FBI Firearms Instructor

During my 16 years as an FBI Firearms Instructor for both SWAT Operators and all-Agent training, I was instructing on the range during five different accidental discharges or “ADs”, involving three different weapons systems (handgun, shotgun and MP-5). A few years prior to my appointment at the FBI Academy, there had been three separate ADs where trainees were shot, almost closing the academy. While at the police academy in Colorado Springs, an officer from another agency was accidentally shot in the leg while reholstering. And when I was in the Marine Corps, one Marine accidentally shot and killed another when he mistakenly loaded a live round while conducting force-on-force SIMMS tactical training.