Around the Car in a Parking Lot
Dry-Fire · At Home
Verified clear, at home, in a garage or out of public view. Use your vehicle as the obstacle. Fifteen reps of moving from the driver's door to the engine end of the car and getting low behind the front wheel. The engine and the wheels are what stop things. The doors and the glass do not.
Live-Fire · At the Range
Twenty rounds at 10 yards from a barricade if your range has one, two per exposure, working low. Otherwise shoot from kneeling.
Service Pistol
You know this from training. The part to rehearse is getting there quickly in winter gear.
Concealed Carry
In a parking lot, the car is the cover you actually have. Know which parts of it count.
Carbine
A rifle rested over a hood shoots lower than you expect because the sights sit above the bore. Keep the muzzle clear of the hood.
AUX (when ready): move to the front wheel and make two hits from kneeling in under six seconds.
Know which parts of a car will stop a bullet and which will not.
Your Daily Callout — By Archetype
Get behind the engine. Then decide what to do next.
Look at where the other cars are. They are cover and they are also places to hide.
Put the engine between the problem and your family.
The engine and the wheels count and the doors do not. That is the whole rule.
Layer: work from the other end of the vehicle.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded — always, no matter what you think you know.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have decided to fire.
- Be sure of your target — and everything beyond it.
Dry-fire: no ammunition in the room. Verify the firearm is clear — twice. Use a safe backstop. When you finish, say it out loud: “Dry fire is over.”
The Four Universal Safety Rules
Non-negotiable. Every drill, every rep, every time. This applies to live fire and dry fire.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded — always, no matter what you think you know.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have decided to fire.
- Be sure of your target — and everything beyond it.