I use the term Citizen Rifleman because I’m not creative enough to come up with a different name for prepared individuals. A citizen rifleman, in our context today, is an average guy who trains with modern firearms for the defense of themselves, their families, and their communities. If Russia invades tomorrow, these guys will be the militia.
I consider myself a Citizen Rifleman in this context. I train with rifles, with chest rigs, and even body armor when it’s not too hot outside. In most cases, none of this training will be useful. I don’t need to make shots at 200 yards for home defense, but I like being able to do it. Today I got to thinking about standards.
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Police have standards, the military has standards, but what do we have as prepared individuals? What are the citizen rifleman standards? Specifically, what are our firearm standards? What should the everyday citizen rifleman be able to accomplish?
The Importance of Standards
Why do we even need standards? What if we always just try to be better? Trying to be better is important, but that’s too wide open. One of the most important parts of standards is giving clear goals to the end user. With a goal, you have a training purpose beyond ‘being better.’
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The Citizen Rifleman standards would allow a group of unorganized shooters a basic level of skill. If you know your friends can meet the standard, that becomes part of your planning process. If you, Bob, and Kevin all have different skill levels, how do you know what your team can accomplish when facing a violent threat?
If you can meet the standard, and not just barely but consistently and confidently, you can also throttle back on firearms training. Of course, not fully throttled back, but you can put your focus elsewhere. Medical training, radio training, patrol training, handgun training, and the list goes on and on. Shooting isn’t the only important skill to know as a citizen rifleman.
Military and Police Standards
The military and police have standards; couldn’t we just adopt their standards? One could, but often military and police standards aren’t exactly high. They are more or less a bureaucratic checkmark on a form that says you can shoot a gun and not shoot yourself.
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Police and military forces have backup, squad automatic weapons, and the backing of the United States government. The citizen rifleman is often alone or with a small group. As such, they need to reach a higher standard.
That’s not to say all standards are bad. Some parts of the Marine Corps and Army rifle quals are good. However, they require a big range and a lot of logistics to work. How many of us citizen riflemen have access to a 500-yard range we can maneuver on?
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What Are Our Standards?
I’m not an expert enough to throw down some drills and establish standards. We’d need a real expert in infantry combat to develop such a thing. It’s a pipe dream. However, I do think that there is a basic framework for individual rifle and handgun skills. Any citizen rifleman should be capable of:
- Hitting various size targets out to 300 yards.
- Reloading Quickly and Efficiently.
- Assume and employ multiple positions.
- Understand your zero and the ballistics of your platform and caliber.
- Engaging at close range with speed and precision.
Like any good drill, the standard needs to employ both time and tight accuracy standards.
Those are the very basics of rifleman skill. How we’d test those is a way that anyone could meet those standards. Is beyond me, but I don’t plan to drop this idea. Watch this space as I plan to reach out to some instructors and other highly knowledgeable people to develop something a bit more concrete.
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