Helping beginners learn to shoot


Defensive Shooter lesson plans

You can use our Lesson Plans and related printed materials—at no charge— under terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-ND license, which allows you to reproduce them without asking us.

Firearms Instructors:  These 20 basic skills move your trainees from beginners to intermediate-level shooters. 

  • After teaching the Beginners Workshop, follow up with your trainees by offering your own advanced classes.  Use this Defensive Shooter curriculum to mix & match to create your own.
  • These skills can be taught anywhere.  Consists of dry-fire lesson plans that can be presented at your church, clubhouse, even your garage or barn.  No shooting range required.
  • Includes a video and dry-fire training exercise for each skill.  In the classroom play the video, demonstrate the skill, then have them practice it on their own.  
  • Follow up with additional training at the range.  Help your trainees put these skills to practical use.
  • How did we develop this curriculum?  By participating in live-fire training events and watching what trainees did not know.  These are the skills that instructors most frequently had to stop and explain.

Our Defensive Shooter training exercises help your trainees learn the basics of defensive handgun shooting.  When you’re target shooting, the idea is to slowly and carefully hit a bulls-eye.  In defensive shooting, the idea is to quickly stop a threat by hitting the center of mass, while shooting under stress. 

Among the skills your trainees need to learn are shooting on the move, shooting from behind cover, using a flashlight to shoot in low light, and quickly clearing malfunctions.  We’ve identified twenty skills, when mastered, move your trainees from being beginners to intermediate-level shooters.

Developed in association with Armed Defense Training Association, a Washington State nonprofit gun club founded in 2011.  ADTA volunteers helped create this training curriculum and have taught hundreds of beginners how to shoot. 

Download Lesson Plan PDF

  • Overview of Defensive Shooter dry-fire training exercises:


  • DSE-1:  Learn to hit your target with the first shot | Watch video
    This is your most important shot in any deadly confrontation.  Hitting your first shot is your best chance to stop a threat immediately.
  • DSE-2:  Learn to hold the muzzle steady | Watch video
    If the muzzle of the gun moves, you’ll miss the target.  Practicing this skill will greatly improve your shooting accuracy by preventing any movement. 
  • DSE-3:  Learn to set your gun’s action for dry-fire practice | Watch video
    This lets you perform many shooting exercises at home.  Dry-firing is one of the fastest ways to improve your shooting at the range.  It provides a way to get in a lot more practice time. 
  • DSE-4:  Learn the difference between concealment and cover | Watch video
    One of them will stop bullets.  The other won’t.  If you’re ever in a shooting situation, knowing the difference may save your life. 
  • DSE-5:  Learn to assess for additional threats | Watch video
    Even though you’ve stopped an immediate threat, there may be other threats behind you.  Identifying these threats prevents being surprised by them. 
  • DSE-6:  Learn to shoot on the move without tripping | Watch video
    In many defensive shooting situations you’ll be moving from one position to another, and often shooting while you’re doing it.  You don’t want to trip and fall down.  That’s a position you don’t want to be in. 
  • DSE-7:  Learn to perform tactical reloads | Watch video
    If you find yourself in a defensive shooting situation, it’s important not to run out of ammunition.  Performing a tactical reload lets you continue the shooting activity with a fully loaded gun. 
  • DSE-8:  Learn to perform emergency reloads | Watch video
    Suppose you’re in a defensive shooting situation, and you suddenly run completely out of ammunition, with your slide locked back.  When you perform an emergency reload, you’re exchanging a completely empty magazine in your gun for another full magazine that you’re carrying on your person. 
  • DSE-9:  Learn to shoot controlled pairs | Watch video
    The idea behind this skill is that two shots have greater stopping power than one.  Practicing this skill will improve your chances of survival if you ever have to stop an actual threat.
  • DSE-10:  Learn to draw from your holster | Watch video
    When you are armed and away from home, it is likely you’ll be carrying your gun in a holster.  There are five steps for drawing your gun from a holster.  By mastering this skill you’ll be able to draw your gun safely and get on-target quickly.   
  • DSE-11:  Learn to re-holster your gun safely | Watch video
    Hammer-fired guns have a very light trigger pull when the hammer is cocked and the safety is off.  The reason for making it safe before holstering is to prevent an unintended discharge.
  • DSE-12:  Learn to clear failure-to-fire malfunctions | Watch video
    If you are in a defensive shooting situation and your gun malfunctions, you need to fix the problem quickly.  This lesson is about clearing a failure-to-fire malfunction. 
  • DSE-13:  Learn to clear failure-to-eject malfunctions | Watch video
    If you are in a defensive shooting situation and your gun malfunctions, you need to fix the problem quickly.  This lesson is about clearing a failure-to-eject malfunction. 
  • DSE-14:  Learn to clear failure-to-extract malfunctions | Watch video
    If you are in a defensive shooting situation and your gun malfunctions, you need to fix the problem quickly.  This lesson is about clearing a failure-to-extract malfunction. 
  • DSE-15:  Learn to switch your gun between hands | Watch video
    The ability to shoot both left- and right-handed using a two-handed grip is a valuable skill when shooting from behind cover.  
  • DSE-16:  Learn to shoot with one hand | Watch video
    Shooting with one hand involves having a proper shooting grip on the gun, and maintaining control of the gun while moving it from hand to hand.
  • DSE-17:  Learn to shoot in low light with a flashlight | Watch video
    Darkness provides good cover for criminal activity.  The result is that many self-defense situations may occur in low light.  This lesson includes two commonly-used methods for shooting while holding a tactical flashlight.  
  • DSE-18:  Learn to get off the "X" and reach cover | Watch video
    If someone points a gun at you, it’s important to get out of the line of fire quickly.  We call this “getting off the X".  X is the place the bad guy is pointing his gun, and you don’t want to be there.  
  • DSE-19:  Learn to shoot from behind cover | Watch video
    If you hear shots close by, the safest thing to do is move immediately to cover.  Then if a threat appears, you can return fire from that position.  
  • DSE-20:  Learn to move from cover to cover | Watch video
    Moving from cover to cover involves moving quickly without tripping, combined with shooting accurately while moving. This skill is useful if you’re ever in a shooting situation and have to change cover positions.

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