[pax]

"MUZZLE!" and "FINGER!!" do have the beautiful and utterly necessary virtue of brevity, a hugely important component of any range command -- esp a command that might be yelled under stress.

While we could use longer phrases, or even make up a beautiful chewing-out on the spur of the moment, most people experience a physiological inability to really string words together well when under time stress. That's why we memorize very brief and formulaic range commands rather than talking full sentences at our students when running the line. Under the brief stress of needing the student to do something RIGHT FREAKING NOW, it's best to fall back on that formula.

Let me add something important here: I don't want to increase their personal stress or otherwise startle them before that muzzle has been corrected. (Bad juju to have someone startle onto the trigger in those circumstances.) So I might not even call "Muzzle!" -- I might instead dodge out of the way and then say something.

Since I want them to stop pointing the muzzle at me RIGHT FREAKING NOW, I also don't want to take the time to formulate, or take the time for them to have to mentally process a longer phrase. The complete chewing out should wait until after the muzzle in question has been pointed in a safe direction.

Come to think of it, I might not even always give the student a complete chewing out even after the muzzle has been redirected, not because stupidity is okay, but because occasionally it's obvious that either 1) the student already feels like an idiot, or 2) the offense was caused by their own too-high level of stress & nervousness, in which case they get a calm-down lecture rather than a you're-an-idiot lecture. So that part depends on the situation.

If the student already feels like an idiot, their own self talk will be far, far more harsh and on target than anything someone outside themselves can say. Furthermore, if they already feel like an idiot and you rag on them, they often get a defensive thing going on and start making excuses for their behavior. THAT outcome is utterly unacceptable. So if it's obvious they're already beating themselves up, it's usually best to let them stew in their own juices while also making it obvious that what they did wasn't appreciated.

While I've been swept from time to time in classes, I don't regard it as a minor thing or something just to accept as the price for good training. Any time a student sweeps me, it's a serious problem worth getting upset about. And I regard it as MY failure. I failed to control the situation or to anticipate their actions in time to prevent them from doing something dangerous. I failed to maintain awareness. That doesn't mean the student bears no responsibility; it simply means that as the instructor I know the buck stops here. Too often, people use the phrase "Range safety is everyone's responsibility," to mean it's no one's responsibility. Doesn't work that way! If you're running the range, you're ultimately the one on the hook.

I haven't encountered "Big Boy Rules" being used in a safety sense, ever. I have heard it in other contexts -- such as during FOF when someone takes a paintball hit to a painful spot, you assess the situation and if they're just hurt and not injured, you remind them (or the other player who is obsessively apologizing) that we're playing by Big Boy Rules so everyone puts the owie behind them and drives on.

Okay, setting all that aside: I took a class recently where we did the snake drill and a few other similar drills, and at NO point did anyone point a gun at me. These types of drills aren't for everyone, they certainly aren't for people who take safety protocols lightly, and they aren't for people who haven't internalized all freaking four of the four rules. It's not acceptable to put all your safety eggs in any one of those rules-baskets; there are four of them for a reason.

pax