2550 East 55th Street, Indianapolis,IN 46220 Indy Arms Firearms Training Philosophy
Indy Arms’ Senior Instructors design each of our courses to educate people on the safe and legal use of defensive firearms. Our instructors create and refine each course with the input of multiple experts in the fields of civilian self-defense, law enforcement, military, legal, and education. Our classes generally include lecture, dry-fire handling, and live-fire elements; focusing on helping people learn regardless of their personal learning style. The purpose of every class is to reinforce 1) the safe use of firearms, 2) the legal use of firearms, and 3) the defensive use of firearms.
Based on these goals we create our training using best practices accumulated through extensive research on what the ‘average’ person will do in a high stress critical incident and have built our training around these concepts. Our training works with the body and mind’s natural responses to a high stress event; working within those responses, not against them. As such, our instruction builds skills relevant to surviving a defensive encounter including consideration for the legal, moral, and personal issues of such an event.
Our senior instructor staff continue to attend shooting academies and training events across the United States. Additionally, they regularly attending self-defense focused conferences and workshops. These activities are undertaken with the aim of making sure any person taking a class at Indy Arms is getting the most up to date and relevant information possible.
Indy Arms Company Dry Fire Safety Rules
Dry fire is the act of manipulating a firearm with; 1) No Ammunition in the Firearm, 2) No Ammunition in any magazines used, and 3) No Ammunition in the room you will be training in. If there is any possible way a live round could be chambered in the gun, you are not doing dry fire.
Even with a Verified cleared weapon you should still follow the Four Rules of Firearm Safety:
1) Always treat every firearm as though it is loaded.
2) Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
3) Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until ready to shoot.
4) Always be sure of your target and what is in front of it and behind it.
Safety Rules for Dry Fire
- Eliminate all distractions when dry fire training and only do dry fire when you are well rested, alert, and not altered by drugs or other substances.
- Lock and remove all ammo from your weapon and the area where you’re training (we suggest establishing a permanent dry fire area that ammo is never allowed in)
- After visually and physically confirming that your weapon, magazine, pockets, pouches, mag holders, etc. are empty of live rounds, audibly state (to yourself) that you’ve confirmed that your weapon and magazines are unloaded and that there are no live rounds.
- Use dedicated dry fire targets with a backstop that can safely absorb negligent discharges.
- If your concentration is interrupted at any point, go through steps 1-4 before continuing.
- When you decide you’re done dry fire training, don’t do ANY more. The transition from dry fire to live fire is when most training negligent discharges happen. The mind must have a clear transition from “real gun, real ammo” to “dry fire” and back to “real gun, real ammo.”
- When you are done dry firing, audibly say, “I am done dry firing” at least 3 times. This sounds silly, but you absolutely cannot switch back into dry fire mode for “one more shot” and this little refrain is designed to help you reinforce the message to your brain that training is done.
If there are ANY distractions, STOP. Be extra careful when finished with your dry fire session if distractions are around, sometimes people forget that they have loaded a live round back into the gun and they will do just one more dry-fire drill. This is how they accidentally shoot their ΤV set. Again, it is very important to not allow any live ammo in the practice area and/or room.
