Popping the lid off a thousand round ammo can of .223 and blasting the hell out of sray beer cans, toasters, abandoned cars... is definitely an important part of anyone's firearms experience.
Shooting pumpkins with a .338 or 12ga shotgun will also bring it's own special kind of rewards to the lives of the responsible gun owner.

Something to level with though is that almost everyone who owns one has somewhere in their agenda the possibility of personal defense.
When the shit hits the fan and you need to use it, do you know what to do?
What if it jams? What if your hands are cold or numb? Know where you're gonna try to hit the bastard? Know if you have the skill or if your equipment has the ability to take care of the problem?

Professional training is worth (by a longshot) more than the face value of the money used to pay for it.
Places like Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, Front Site, Massas Ayoob's Leathal Force Institute, The Firearms Academy of Seattle, there are more, but I list these particular places as the example to follow for comparison.

That NRA handgun course ain't gonna cut it.
It'll get you the card or the hunting license, but don't think knowing how to load the thing and wail on a target is gonna save your ass if things go horribly wrong and you need to stop an attacker to save your life.

I've trained beside FBI, DEA, NRC, army, navy, agencies that weren't allowed to be named, Moms, librarians, cops, champion firearms competitors, hookers, even a couple of hot whities who lived in El Salvador and needed to protect theirsleves from the occasional bad neighbor.
Everyone I've trained with came away from the experience that they'd been lucky so far that they'd either never needed to defend themselves with a firearm, or had found a new understanding of what is or what aint when it comes to dealing with the possibility of a gunfight.

Something else to note is that -everyone- I've ever trained with was left with the gravely grounding sense that a gunfight is the last place in the world they'd ever want to be and would do anything to avoid having to go there.
For what it's worth, those people are likely to be the most prepared and most feared of the millions of possible opponents in a gun battle and in the unthinkable event would also likely be the ones left when the smoke cleared.


On the lighter side of things, after a course at a good training outfit, you're gonna leave knowing exactly what the hell you know about gun handling and will without a doubt be a better shot and much less of a hazard to those around you.
You'll be a better gun handler and shooting for fun or sport, even hunting for that matter, will be much more rewarding.


I've seen certificates for classes at Front Site selling for about $250 lately, from time to time you'll find promotions like that where you can get into a course for a greatly reduced rate (so long as it's your first class, usually), it's worth it to at least look into.



What's your training?
Do you know if you can park a .45 slug in the eye of that bastard who has your daughter by the neck, when you're stressed and tired, in the falling light of dusk?

I do.



--John