It’s great to carry a gun every day, but there are more crucial skills needed if you want to protect yourself and others. In reality, gun owners are less likely to need their firearms and more likely to need to render first aid to someone. It’s also imperative that you can actually access your firearm if you need to deploy it. Having some basic hand-to-hand skills or training with non-lethals could give you the time and space you need to get to your gun.

My goal as a gun owner is to be a continuous learner and student. I know how quickly skills perish if I go too long without dry fire or live fire practice. I try to take at least one high-level firearms course lead by a professional shooter each year to maintain and improve my skills as a competitive shooter. I also make it a point to get some form of defensive training, whether it includes firearms or not. The ultimate goal is to get outside my comfort zone and return with new things to work on and practice. If you’ve never ventured outside of your comfort zone to get training outside of firearms, here are six types of training I recommend.

Situational Awareness

We’ve all heard of situational awareness and the importance of staying alert in transitional spaces. Many gun owners think they are pros when it comes to situational awareness, but we all could be more intentional about this type of training. The best way to “train” situational awareness is by going out in public and being intentional about what we need to work on. The first lesson to learn is to be aware of exits and entrances in any structure, building, house, or complex you visit. Don’t put your back to the door if you can help it, and always have an escape route.

The next lesson is always to assess your surroundings in transitional spaces. We all fall victim to texting in public or scrolling on social media when we should have our head and eyes up, especially in parking lots or gas stations. An easy target for predators is one that isn’t paying attention to their surroundings. One thing I am very intentional about is leaving my right hand free no matter what. For example, I use a cart if I’m leaving the grocery store and the bags are too heavy to carry with only my left hand. If I were to use both hands to carry the groceries out and someone were to attack me, my response time to draw my gun would be slow or too late.

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Blade Training

The Blade community is very similar to the firearms community. There are people who carry knives daily, take training courses on how to use them, or instruct others. I was first introduced to “stick & knife” training at Where Our Families Train (W.O.F.T.) in early 2024. The goal of blade training for gun owners is to learn how to use one against a threat temporarily until you can deploy your firearm to neutralize the threat. If you let someone bigger or stronger than you into your personal space who is aggressively trying to hurt you, a fixed blade can be a great tool to get them off of you.

Combatives

There are so many forms of martial arts and combative training available nowadays. Just like learning how to fight with a blade to get to your gun, learning how to use your hands or body to defend yourself is also crucial. During my second trip to W.O.F.T. I had a block of combative training where I learned some basic techniques to defend myself. I learned that it doesn’t necessarily matter how much an attacker weighs compared to you as long as you maintain a better technique than them. It was an eye-opening experience to accept that, more often than not, women are easy targets for predators, and that I might have to use what I learned in this class one day.

Medical Training

I am guilty of not getting medical training often enough or to the level of knowledge I wish I had. Organizations such as the American Red Cross host basic medical classes nationwide that anyone can sign up for. I recommend taking classes for first aid, CPR, and AED at the very least. If you want to take it a step further, consider taking a formal class offered by your local college or medical facility. Since I spend most of my time on shooting ranges, I prioritized understanding how to use a tourniquet, an AED, and basic first aid for anything minor. I am also self-aware of what I cannot do and understand what my role might look like in a real medical emergency. Sometimes, being the person to call 911 or volunteering to lift someone or something up is the perfect way to help.

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Medical training and assistance require the right tools for the job. It’s useless to know first aid but not be able to render assistance because you don’t have an IFAK kit nearby. I travel with an individual kit that goes everywhere and a larger, three-person backpack in my truck at all times. I also highly recommend reviewing your kit or pack to know what’s in it and, more importantly, where specific items are so you’re not rummaging through it trying to find something in an emergency. I also recommend purchasing an extra tourniquet to practice using it. Do not use this in the field; keep it as a learning tool and share that knowledge with friends and family.

Vehicle Safety

Think about how often you are in your vehicle alone, with a significant other, with friends, or with family members. Are you always in your car, or do you also spend time in these other people’s vehicles? How well do you know their car compared to yours? And finally, if you aren’t the driver, are you guilty of not checking mirrors or paying attention to people or cars outside the vehicle? I had eye-opening experiences in anti-carjacking and low-light training at W.O.F.T. that made me question how well I have been paying attention in the past.

In anti-carjacking, I was put through scenarios where I had to react quickly to one or multiple attackers. I learned to use my thumbs to hook under my seatbelt and guide my hands down to release the buckle quickly under stress. I made decisions to use a flashlight, pepper spray, my firearm or to flee from my vehicle when the chances of survival were zero. I learned how to use the inside of the door as a brace to prevent someone from pulling me out of the car’s window. I also got great practice of drawing from concealment while sitting in the driver’s seat. This training made me think twice about leaving my windows rolled down, laying the seat back, and getting too comfortable, rather than keeping my eyes up and checking mirrors constantly.

If you can dry fire or live fire practice with your vehicle at home or on a range that allows it, I recommend working through scenarios in your car to see how you respond or deploy lethal or non-lethal weapons under pressure.

Low-Light Scenario Training

I bring up W.O.F.T., again, as this was where I had the most impactful safety training. At this facility, you can use whatever tools you carry or skills you know to defend yourself against attackers. The goal of each scenario is to walk to your vehicle safely, get in, and lock the doors as if you’re about to drive away. No two scenarios are the same. The entire W.O.F.T. staff gets involved, and they’ll have six to eight people with dedicated roles for each scenario. Most often, nothing happens, which is a reminder of how true this is in real life. You might encounter a drunk on the street or a homeless person asking for cash. In these scenarios, you keep a safe distance, use your voice to command them to leave you alone, or shine a flashlight in their eyes if they approach you and are getting too close, with no more escalation needed.

W.O.F.T. has simulation ammo and pistols that replicate an EDC setup down to specific makes and models of firearms, such as a Sig P365 I got to use. In low-light scenario training, those who carry every day in real life are equipped with one of these setups. I have been both a participant and a spectator in this training, and I can tell you that being on the ground is way different than watching from above. You think you know how you would respond in that scenario, but you don’t until you’re put through one yourself. I have never felt like this training was “fake” because I know that this training is preparing me to think quickly, respond fast, and, ultimately, keep myself alive.

Any kind of scenario training is valuable. Many facilities have “shoot houses” set up to look like real houses, with bedrooms, a kitchen, a laundry room, and more to train home defense scenarios. Low-light training is valuable because once the sun goes down, you must rely on natural light to see or carry a light on your person. The closer to reality that you can replicate, the better training.

Don’t let your ego or lack of knowledge keep you from signing up for specific training. Every instructor and highly skilled person had to start at the beginning, too. Prioritize what you need most, absorb as much information as possible, and keep practicing when you get home.