Your Rules for Next Year
Dry-Fire · At Home
No gun for the first part. Write down five rules you will follow next year. Some examples are: I do not argue while armed, I do not carry when I drink, I do not open the door to strangers, I leave when something feels wrong, and I lock up every gun that is not on me. Use your own five. Then, verified clear, run fifteen presentations with a partner calling quadrants and mixing in invalid calls.
Live-Fire · At the Range
Twenty rounds at 7 yards on the quadrants with a caller. Fire two rounds on each valid call and none on an invalid one. A round fired on an invalid call counts double against you.
Service Pistol
Write your five so that they fit both the job and the hours you are off duty.
Concealed Carry
Most of what keeps you safe is decided by rules like these and not by shooting.
Carbine
Include a rule about how the rifle is stored.
AUX (when ready): ten straight calls answered correctly, and five written rules.
Rules that you set in advance are decisions you do not have to make under pressure.
Your Daily Callout — By Archetype
Your rules should be the ones that slow you down.
Your rules should be the ones that make you act on what you see.
Share your rules with your family, since they live with them too.
Five rules, written down and reviewed every month. This is your kind of assignment.
Layer: the caller gives calls while you are moving.
- 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.