Shooter Self Care in Fort Worth

If you’re a shooter, and you don’t carry a first aid kit in your range bag, you’re leaving the house unprepared. Given the remote location and lack of appropriate first aid facilities at most shooting ranges, being prepared to treat yourself or your buddy until EMS arrives can literally mean the difference between life and death. Most ranges I frequent have no AED, their first aid-kits amount to little more than a plastic box full of Bandaids and a few gauze pads, and the most absorbent dressings they have are found on a roll in the Porta John.

But equipment is only half the equation. Proper training is just as important.

I mean, we all agree that it’s important to practice often with your weapon. We advocate taking classes from a reputable trainer. We’ve planned what to do in a home invasion, and we take appropriate steps to lessen the likelihood that we’ll ever have to use our weapons…

… yet most of us approach medical emergencies with “Call 911, and pray that the paramedics get there in time.”

We’re fond of saying that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. Well, I’m here to tell you, if you catch a round in the chest or the femoral artery, the same is true for the ambulance.

Without lifesaving measures applied by yourself or a shooting buddy, you’re not likely to survive.

You need training.

Problem is, classes such as Tactical Combat Casualty Care are primarily aimed at tactical medics, army medics and corpsmen operating under fire.

In other words, not for laypeople.

The good folks at Among The Leaves have invited me to teach a Shooter Self Care course at Elk Castle Shooting Sports in Fort Worth on October 30. Course begins promptly at 5:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm. We’ll cover:

• Adult single-rescuer CPR and AED use
• Recognition and management of life-threatening bleeding
• Use of combat tourniquets
• Hemostatic dressings
• Occlusive dressings
• Thoracic trauma treatment
• Eye injuries

Tuition is $200, and includes a shooter blowout kit valued at $90:

• 2 pairs nitrile gloves
• 1 trauma shears
• 1 4″ Ace wrap
• 1 Cederroth Blood Stopper
• 10 4×4 gauze pads
• 1 8×10 absorbent gauze pad
• 1 Vaseline gauze
• 1 4″ roll of Kling roller gauze
• 2 triangular bandages
• 2 occlusive chest seals
• 1 SOF-T Wide tourniquet

Sign up at Among The Leaves, and we’ll see you in Fort Worth!