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Regardless of your personal leanings, if you have taken the steps to become a firearms instructor, it is time to set your bias aside. There are tens of thousands of part-time or occasional firearms instructors in the United States. The tendency of humans is to gravitate toward areas that make them comfortable and shun areas that don’t.
Every gun guy and girl has their favorite firearms. Some preferences are based on sentiment, such as the .22 rifle your grandpa used to teach you how to shoot. Military veterans with either fall in love with the guns they carried or take with them a deep-seated hatred. Don’t believe me? Have a conversation with a Vietnam vet who was first issued an M14 and then had to turn it in for a new M16.
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The M1911A1 pistol, a fan favorite for decades.
Years ago when I was on my first tour with the United States Marine Corps I was taught to use the M1911A1 service pistol and issued one for duty. Approximately two years into my enlistment, we were issued the M9 Beretta pistols and subsequently had to learn all of its idiosyncrasies. The whining and moaning has carried on for decades.
Cadre
Several years back I took an assignment to become part of a cadre of military contractors teaching small arms and tactics to U.S. Military personnel prior to their deployment overseas. As you would expect, the primary arms included the M4A1 service rifle and the M9 service pistol. I had very little personal experience with the M9 outside of my active duty time. At that time, my personal firearms collection did not even include a Beretta 92/M9. Now I would be teaching hundreds and then thousands of troops to use said handgun.
Love it or hate it, every firearms instructor needs to understand the M9 Beretta.
During my first month on the job, I ordered my own M9 pistol so that I could not simply teach the basics, but master the gun. On my own, I attended private shooting schools and took the Beretta with me. You can imagine the looks I got from both 1911 and Glock guys. Many could not believe that I chose the M9 deliberately.
It was at this time in my life that I came up with a short list of handguns that I felt I needed to master in order to be a well-rounded firearms instructor. Although I have had this information bouncing around in my noggin for years, this will be the first time I have elaborated in writing. Your personal list may vary, but here goes.
Any Firearms Instructor seeking to be a master of his craft must have more than just a familiarity with the following five handguns: M1911A1, SIG P226 DA/SA, GLOCK 17, Beretta M9, the double-action revolver. While I have called out SIG, Glock, and Beretta by name, it was not so much to endorse the company but to highlight the particular handgun design.
M1911A1
This single-action pistol has been in production for over one hundred years and it can be found worldwide. It can be easily argued that the Russian Tokarev pistol has a striking similarity to the 1903 Colt SA pistol. The M1911A1 pistol can be used with tremendous efficiency. The grip safety, manual thumb safety as well as the trigger are rather unique to the design. In trained hands, the M1911 can be a superior tool. In untrained hands, that same pistol can be a safety hazard.
SIG P226 pistol in DA/SA are still prevalent among L.E. agencies.
SIG P226
In standard Double-Action to Single-Action design, it was singled out primarily due to the fact that the decocking lever located on the left side of the frame. It is unique among pistol designs. Many US and foreign police agencies still issue SIG pistols in this trigger configuration.
The U.S. Navy SEAL teams are naturally the most famous SIG customers. Many American gun owners followed suit and purchased P226 pistols like their heroes in uniform.
GLOCK
For at least ten years, the Glock models 17 and 22 have been the leading sidearm for U.S. law enforcement and citizens alike. The striker-fired action of the G17 led the way for others to follow.
Springfield
The Springfield XD(M), the S&W M&P9, the Ruger SR9, and the new Caracal 9mm pistol all function in a nearly identical manner. Yes, there are differences between a Glock and a Smith&Wesson M&P9, but they are similar enough that if you can master one you can master the other.
Revolvers
Though rare as duty guns, the DA revolver is still carried as a CCW piece.
Lastly, while the double-action revolvers used to be a basic staple of all firearm programs, they are rarely used as duty guns anymore. This fact does not alter the reality that many gun owners. Concealed carry folks, may show up to your class with some type of ‘wheel gun’ in hand. I am personally acquainted with many young military firearms instructors who have had little to no exposure to them.
Parting Thoughts
Yes, I am sure you could add on to this list until you run out of ink in your pen. However, mastering the Big 5 will take a dedicated firearms instructor much farther down the path of being a legitimate educator. Remember the point of being an instructor is to teach, not to show the student how cool you look shooting your custom 1911.
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Professor Paul Markel
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Good list. That covers about 90% of the firearms that people use.
Good choice of guns. Personally, I would have shrunk the Beretta and the Sig 226 requirement down to “learn to use a SA/DA gun”, but then a) I am not from the USA, so our duty guns are different anyway, b) the law says 5 handguns is one to many in my case 😉
Also, I chose all of them in 9×19. Sacrilege for the 1911, weird for the revolver but ammo cost and commonality is king for learning and teaching purposes, I think.
Always enjoy trying out different types of firearms…an old dog learning new tricks can still be fun 🙂
I had the chance to shoot the new SigSauer 320 a few weeks back…very nice!
Very well thought out list. As a firearm instructor, I completely agree that we have to have a working knowledge of the weapons we might encounter on the range. When I attended firearms instructor school, we had every weapon on this list in the class.
We were in the Corps around the same time.
I shot Expert with the M1911 in ’88.
The first time I shot the M9, I was really please with the accuracy compared to my shaky jake .45.
Good article, brother.
Semper Fi
Paul, we probably came in around the same time as well. I was on Barracks Duty from 84-86 and used the 1911 and then used the M9 when I got to the Fleet in 86.
Semper Fi!
For additional variety (pistol idiosyncrasy) It would be good to demonstrate one of the European manufactured pistols that have a European-style magazine release “button” on the base of the grip/frame