The Gift  by Kate Alexander Krueger © 2002, All Rights Reserved Over the years my husband and I have had the good fortune and opportunity to train with many very talented instructors and attend a number of very prominent shooting academies throughout the country.  We've learned how to shoot, when to shoot, how to carry concealed and draw, tactics, night shooting and on and on and on… But some of the most vivid memories of our days training came from the camaraderie that we experienced attending these schools with many like-minded folks.   With my own background strong in instruction I've, of course, gone through all the basics with my sons over the years.  Though they are both excellent shooters and we've been especially proud of their safety and handling only my oldest son, who is 27, has gone on to get his Concealed Carry Weapons permit in Arizona and taken some local training.   We were concerned that he did not have enough knowledge to do the right thing if he needed to utilize that Glock that he carried religiously.  So when we started thinking about gifts that were appropriate to give him we decided to make this year's gift good for more than a few occasions.  We registered him for a Gunsite "250" class with Bill Murphy from Huntington Beach, CA as the head instructor.  The "250" is close to an immersion course where you shoot approximately 1400 rounds in 5 days and also includes classroom instruction, night shooting, range drills, fun houses and more.  He was nervous about attending but in the end was ecstatic to be there.  He called at night and shared some of the stories of what they had done that day, what was planned for the rest of the week, what his instructor said, what he had learned, his successful stages and his not so successful stages, the other students that he met and learned from, and like all classes the students you don't want to learn from but the underlying theme was how glad he was to be there.  He made some new friends and some that will last a lifetime and finally understood the camaraderie that we share with many of our own contemporaries. When he got back he said he felt strange not to be shooting everyday because that's what he had gotten used to.  We went to an IDPA match that weekend and the difference in his technique was very noticeable, everything was cleaner and crisp, his tactics were sound, his use of cover was good and the bottom line is he survived the match.  You see in tactical scenarios there is no real right or wrong there is only alive or dead.  Alive is a good thing!  The bottom line to this story and the reason I share it with my Internet friends is to tell you to pass it on.  I don't mean my story but the training.  If you care about someone give him or her the gift of knowledge. It doesn't have to be Gunsite or LFI or Thunder Ranch or Chapman Academy, there are some outstanding local instructors like Georges Rahbani in the Seattle Area, Bill Murphy on his home turf of Huntington Beach, CA, Jim Donovan around Detroit, MI, Bob Berry in the DC area, myself in Phoenix, AZ and many more…  You see not only may it save their life someday but the knowledge helps them to have a better understanding of us.  And through all my training and accomplishments I have never been prouder than to see my son receive his certificate from Gunsite.  My husband and I were both 1st generation gun enthusiasts and now my son is 2nd generation.  As I said "Pass it on…"   If you need more information pertaining to any of the instructors mentioned here please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to have them get in touch with you. Send me email at: Derbyguns@gmail.com