Poll: Teaching a giggling gaggle of girls how to use guns

[Dirty Hipsters]

So one of my hobbies is firearms, I own a few guns, and really enjoy shooting, and teaching my friends to shoot. I've taught all of my friends how to shoot handguns and rifles at the local shooting range, and they've all enjoyed the experience. My friend's girlfriend's birthday is coming up, and she wants me to take her and a few of her friends to the shooting range and teach them how to shoot.

Now my friend and his girlfriend planned this whole thing out without me, and sprung it on me just the other day. Apparently they've already set a date and time, and invited 6 other people to come with us, all college age girls who have no experience with firearms. I've never taught that many people before at once, usually when I teach people to shoot I do it one on one, and I have no idea how I'm going to be teaching this massive group of people how to not blow their heads off and shoot one another. Any ideas about how to keep everyone's attention and make sure they remember the things I tell them?

Update:

We went shooting last night, and here's the results:

So the list of girls that actually showed up ended up getting cut down from 6 to 4, which ended up being much more manageable. They were all pretty good at listening and taking directions, especially once they actually got inside the range (it was an indoor range) and heard real gunshots for the first time.

My friend and I acted as the instructors, he took his girlfriend and two of the girls, and I took the other two. We each had one pistol (he rented a Beretta 85 in .380 and I brought my CZ75B in 9mm Luger), and all of the girls took turns one at a time with each weapon. We first showed them how each gun operated, then as each girl came up to shoot we taught them proper grip, sight picture, and shooting stance one on one.

The reaction of one of the girls was hilarious. The first time one of the girls fired my CZ75B she immediately put it down very calmly, then walked over to a bench, sat down and started hyperventilating. Then she came back about a minute later and emptied the magazine into the target with a huge grin on her face.

Anyway, looks like everyone had fun, and no one got shot, so all in all I think it was a pretty successful range visit.

Thanks to everyone who posted advice in this thread.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well...do they want to be remembering the things you tell them? I mean, if they are adults, who've decided they want to learn something, that's probably a good idea.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Oh, man. Everyone's going to be so pissed at you.

Basically, the best way to do this (If I were you, I'd just refuse to participate. This is an accident waiting to happen) is to basically do it like your always do: one at a time. Start with a group class and go over all the safety stuff, then go over the actual gun basics (What weapon they're firing today, show its action, show how it should be handled, go over proper form and trigger pull and breathing and etc), and then go over safety again. Then, when it comes to actually shooting, take people one at a time up to the firing lane, go over it all again and walk them through firing, then switch out with the next person.

Its going to be boring. They're going to want to talk, and really, there's not much you can do to stop it, which is why you have to do one on one as well as group classes. And no one is going to be pleased. But at the end of the day, everyone should have a basic understanding of firearms, and hopefully, no one will be dead.

Who cares if they didn't have fun?

 

[dyre]

It probably won't be that bad. I mean, basic gun safety can be taught in all of ten minutes. If you're really worried about it, you can more easily keep track of what's going on simply by limiting the number of actual weapons circulating between your flock of firearm fledglings.

 

[NightmareWarden]

My vote goes towards "refuse to participate" as well.
Option 2: Get a video on survival training to distract your flock while teaching them one on one.
Option 3: Bring airsoft guns or paintball guns so that they can work on their basic aim without putting each other at risk. This will also give them a distraction while you teach them basic safety with real guns. Heck, maybe you could just convince them all to go to an obstacle course or something that is specifically for paintball or airsoft battles.
Option 4: Convince them to do something else.
Option 5: Convince them that you deserve to get paid for doing that much work, suck it up, and be their instructor for the mula.

 

[Lilani]

If you do decide to go through with it, do it one girl at a time at first, so you can have your full attention on them when they're starting and you can individually gauge how seriously each of them is taking it. This way the other girls can also watch and absorb stuff, so they can know a thing or two when they pick up the gun. Or if your friends plan on helping with the training, make sure there is one friend to a trainee when they are starting out. If more than one girl has a gun, make sure she has at least one person who knows what they're doing with her, at least until you're confident she's got the hang of it.

I think it's definitely doable, as long as you keep the atmosphere under control and don't bite off more than you can chew. It should be fun, but they shouldn't for a moment convince themselves they are dealing with a toy instead of a deadly weapon, or that because they are a shooting range that somehow makes it safer.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My vote goes towards "refuse to participate" as well.
Option 2: Get a video on survival training to distract your flock while teaching them one on one.
Option 3: Bring airsoft guns or paintball guns so that they can work on their basic aim without putting each other at risk. This will also give them a distraction while you teach them basic safety with real guns. Heck, maybe you could just convince them all to go to an obstacle course or something that is specifically for paintball or airsoft battles.
Option 4: Convince them to do something else.
Option 5: Convince them that you deserve to get paid for doing that much work, suck it up, and be their instructor for the mula.

I honestly wish most of those were options. We don't have any paint ball or airsoft courses anywhere near were we live, nor do I own any airsoft or paintball guns to teach them with. All I have as training tools are real guns with snap caps. There's also no way I'm going to get paid for doing this because the entire reason they specifically want me to teach is because they don't want to pay for instructors at the range, so instead of telling them to pay me I'm better off just refusing to go and telling them to pay the instructors, which is what I'm seriously considering doing at this point.

 

[Keoul]

I vote you have a meeting before that date.
Meet all of them and then decide whether you can actually train em or not, at the very least it'll give you time to figure out how doomed you are and whether or not you should bail. Also you may be able to get some of the safety lessons out of the way but I doubt they'll pay attention long enough.

 

[soren7550]

I'd say to refuse to do the group. You have your way of teaching and doing things, and they went and decided without your consent 'hey, let's have a big ol' girl giggle party on the gun range! And our buddy Dirty with provide the entertainment!'

Plus, this seems like an accident waiting to happen. And we *really* don't need anymore dumb shit gun accidents.

 

[Comrade Richard]

I agree with Keoul on getting to know the people you may or may not decide on teaching. Personally I would be quite angry if someone did this without my consent and I'd outright refuse and make a point to lecture them on why they should ask you first instead of putting something together, it'll hurt their feelings, maybe even get them pissed at you, but you need to stand up for yourself.

 

[thethird0611]

Probably my advice is to start in a group, then move to individual teaching.

The first thing would be to get a table you can set firearms down on. Get the people around it and show them the basic safety rules. (i.e. Never point a gun at something you dont want to kill, even when unloaded, what the safety is, etc.). Pretty much tell them how to be safe with the guns.

After that is done, take them 1 at a time and teach them individually how to shoot, so they know the safety from the first part, and you can show them how to shoot and drill in the safety part during it.

But, I would put this out there, if someone isnt listening, refuse to let them even touch the fire arm. If you see someone doesnt have respect for what they are holding, be the guy they are going to hate because they wouldnt listen. Dont ever have a 'Ah, I think she will be alright moments', if you have a ping out doubt that they dont take the matter seriously, dont do it.

EDIT: Also, make it BYOA. Bring your own ammo. Ammo is expensive dude.

 

[DefunctTheory]

EDIT: Also, make it BYOA. Bring your own ammo. Ammo is expensive dude.

Good luck with that.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Probably my advice is to start in a group, then move to individual teaching.

The first thing would be to get a table you can set firearms down on. Get the people around it and show them the basic safety rules. (i.e. Never point a gun at something you dont want to kill, even when unloaded, what the safety is, etc.). Pretty much tell them how to be safe with the guns.

After that is done, take them 1 at a time and teach them individually how to shoot, so they know the safety from the first part, and you can show them how to shoot and drill in the safety part during it.

But, I would put this out there, if someone isnt listening, refuse to let them even touch the fire arm. If you see someone doesnt have respect for what they are holding, be the guy they are going to hate because they wouldnt listen. Dont ever have a 'Ah, I think she will be alright moments', if you have a ping out doubt that they dont take the matter seriously, dont do it.

EDIT: Also, make it BYOA. Bring your own ammo. Ammo is expensive dude.

Yeah, ammo prices are ridiculous right now. I saw some motherfuckers online setting steel cased tulammo for $30 per box of 50 9mm luger 115 grain FMJs. THAT'S FUCKING MENTAL.

Having said that, I have a just under 2000 rounds of 9mm luger target ammo stockpiled thanks to a friend who works at a gun store, so I'm ok on ammo for the moment and can frivolously waste a few hundred rounds, and .22 lr isn't very expensive, which is mostly what I'll be having them shoot. The guy who is organizing this thing has also promised to pay me back and he's always been really trustworthy about money stuff so I'm ok with providing the ammo.

Besides, I'll say bring 9mm luger and I just know someone will find some goddamn 9mm makarov and think that's the same thing.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

I think there's something you're overlooking, on account of you being very used to guns.

I'm from Ireland, so my first experience ever even holding a real gun was at a firing range in Arizona.
And let me tell you, as someone unused to guns, it was sobering as fuck!
I was all excited to play with real guns, like some sort of a badass. I even wore fingerless SWAT gloves.
But when I went into the range, where the guns are deafening even with ear protection (not like in movies and games), and actually felt the explosive force of the gunshot reverberate through my teeth...

I would be very surprised if those girls continue to giggle and goof off once they're actually there.

 

[Yopaz]

Considering these are adults... They might already be aware of the fact that guns might lead to injuries. I think I remember learning that when I was about 5 at least. Tell them to pay close attention and that it's for their own safety. It should probably be enough.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Taking bets on how many will be dead in the first hour.

Seriously, dude- bad idea. BAD idea.

 

[Jamash]

Are you officially qualified to teach gun safety?

There could be some legal differences between showing a friend how to safely use a firearm and teaching a group of people the same thing, and if any kind of accident or misfire were to occur, will you be covered by the same kind of public liability insurance that an official instructor would be?

It would be a shame for an accident to occur and for you to get prosecuted and fucked in the courts because it was deemed that you were an unlicensed and unqualified imposter, someone who was trying to pass for an instructor and attempting to teach a group without the proper authorisation or training.