Last Veterans Day, I wrote about the veterans who helped build Train SMART and how our new approach to civilian firearms training was firmly grounded in the principles we learned in the military. This year, I want to tell you what inspired us to help build Train SMART in the first place.
Our part of the story begins in September 2023, in the back room of a gun shop in Austin, Texas. Two dozen of us, mostly combat veterans, gathered to take a concealed-carry course. We weren’t there because we needed someone to teach us how to use a gun. We were there because we wanted to understand what ordinary Americans were learning when they sought the training and certification to carry loaded handguns in public.
The Training in Texas
What we discovered was disturbing. Our instructor, whom I will call “Steve” (I’ve written about him before in Vital City using the same alias), was an Army veteran. I knew that going in, and was hopeful his military training might translate to the classroom. Unfortunately, our shared service didn’t show up in the training in the ways I’d expected.
Over six hours in the classroom, we learned way too much about when Texas law permits someone to shoot another human being. We watched videos of violent encounters, discussed legal defense strategies, and listened to a sales pitch for what’s been called “murder insurance” to cover the legal expenses of using a gun for self-defense. He wasn’t teaching us how to avoid or de-escalate an armed confrontation; he assumed that we would eventually shoot someone and wanted to make sure we were able to get away with it.
Crucial basics like weapon handling, secure storage, and transporting a firearm received passing mentions. Despite the need for a concealed-carry permit holder to demonstrate firearms proficiency, our total experience with a gun in hand amounted to firing 50 rounds on a range.
Unsurprisingly, we all passed the course. I walked away with a concealed-carry license that allowed me to carry a hidden gun in more than 30 states. I haven’t exercised that privilege, nor do I intend to. But I still have the card and remember what little I had to do to earn it.
Steve simply didn’t meet the high bar that I and the other veterans held for quality firearms training. As I wrote in Vital City, he “lost us by teaching a concealed-carry class that focused not on the awesome responsibility of carrying a weapon that can kill others in an instant, but on fear, paranoia and how to get away with discharging a firearm in public.”
Why Train SMART Exists
The distinction between what I learned in the military and what was taught to me by a fellow veteran is at the heart of the creation of Train SMART. Frankly, we knew that a higher-quality training program was desperately needed in the market, one that helps gun owners learn to safely own and operate firearms without the fear and sales incentives they might experience in courses like Steve’s.
Our answer was building Train SMART for responsible gun owners — people who can balance rights with safety and accountability — using many of the same principles we received in our nation’s profession of arms. In the military, we take firearms training seriously because the consequences of failure can be catastrophic. We teach service members to understand the capabilities of their weapons and to recognize the responsibility that comes with possessing them. Perhaps most importantly, we teach restraint. As I wrote in Vital City, “when it came to firearm use, even in combat — especially in combat — the most important skill was not how to get away with shooting, but rather how not to shoot.”
Training, Safety, and Accountability
The Austin experience wasn’t the only inspiration for Train SMART, but it helped crystallize a conviction many of us already shared — that the military’s approach to firearms safety and accountability offers a far better starting point for civilian training than the status quo. Rather than simply complain about the shortcomings of civilian firearms training courses, a group of veterans joined forces with the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund to help create something better. We built a program around three principles: training, safety, and accountability.
We don’t indulge in tactical fantasies, and we aren’t selling guns or celebrating vigilante justice.
Our curriculum teaches the fundamentals of safe gun handling, secure storage, marksmanship, situational awareness, de-escalation, and suicide prevention, among many other topics. We want people to understand both how a firearm operates and the consequences of owning one. And we want to build a community of disciplined gun owners who can model those responsibilities for others.
I’m proud of what we’ve created with Train SMART. But I’m even more proud of why we created it.
Veterans Day is an opportunity to recognize those who have served our country, including the valuable skills, experiences, and perspectives we gained in uniform. For me and the other veterans who helped create Train SMART, this is another opportunity to serve. And for experienced, new, or prospective gun owners, taking a course with Train SMART is just another way to thank us for our service.
Chris Marvin is a former U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot and combat-wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He serves as a Train SMART advisor and Everytown’s veteran lead. No component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this program.