Guns, Dogs and Blades QnA
Well it kind of all goes back to the litigation landscape of todays society. Most all of the popular classes for self defense, defensive shooting, etc have a large part of the class doing holster work with high repetitions. Invariably if there is an AD (accidental discharge) on the range it is typically when the individual is going in or out of the holster. The great majority of students have not practiced this aspect of shooting much, they are clunky and nervous about drawing their pistol. The leather holsters create more friction and also are far more malleable and prone to the tops folding over as the individual inserts the pistol back in. With Kydex, the holster is ridgid and the friction coefficient is dramatically less. This greatly reduces the opportunity for anything to go wrong on either extraction or insertion of pistol into holster. As a result it has become somewhat of an industry standard to require a modern holster for training. By same token most PDs have adopted similar stance as a result of retention device requirements. Very few ranges or clubs will allow the shooter to do holster work. If they do allow it a lot of times the member must pass a test and have a written release from club allowing them to do holster work. In my classes I always explain that on each repetition I require the student to slowly and carefully look the pistol back into the holster. Most all are utilizing a striker fired pistol so it is going back into the holster with a round in chamber. I have seen multiple ADs in both training and at matches it happens. By same token of course a seasoned competitor who has thousands upon thousands of draws from holster is not who we are talking about here, it is Joe citizen who has signed up for class with little to no experience. I apologize for length of response but this is a tuff topic.
