How to Get Trained by 14 Different Instructors At the Same Time

The 2^nd annual Guardian Conference was once again a resounding success. An elite line up of some of the best instructors in America insured a rare opportunity to learn from multiple viewpoints.

This year, we had a few returning instructors and a few new ones to add, keeping the information fresh and valuable. Below is a list of all the instructors in attendance:

1. Riley Bowman
2. Attorney Andrew F. Branca
3. Wayne Dobbs
4. Bryan Eastridge
5. Gary Eastridge & Rob High
6. Todd Fossey
7. Chuck Haggard
8. John Johnston
9. Melody Lauer
10. Matt Little
11. Brian McLaughlin
12. Samuel Middlebrook
13. Mickey Schuch
14. AJ Zito

If you’d like to see the full instructor roster and course descriptions, click here.

Given my frequent attendance at these events, I’ve learned a few things:

1. The Guardian community is welcoming

Hosted by Concealedcarry.com, the Guardian Conference brings people from all over the US to one location to learn how to be better defenders and everyone I spoke with came eager to learn. I had so many great interactions with the people that attended the event. Students and instructors alike, everyone was happy, pleasant, and capable.

2. The weather is hot.

The weather this year was once again hot, but not devastatingly so. As a medic with a close eye on the weather, I’m always cautious of heat casualties. I asked for large amounts of ice, cold bottled water, and electrolyte packets in an effort of preventative medicine.

And it worked! Patient education being key, I gave a safety brief at the beginning of the weekend and encouraged everyone to hydrate and rest as often as they needed. Everyone took it to heart and made sure to stay on top of it.

The instructors being highly experienced, gave frequent breaks for hydration and the students did such a good job drinking water when needed, we didn’t have a single heat casualty.

3. Setting up a Range Medic Bag

This year I put together a specialized Range Medic kit that has things like extra Band-Aids and 2×2 gauze for treating things like slide bite. Being a range medic is one of the things I enjoy about these events. It feels good to get back to my roots of being the Doc for my Marines, so I set up a kit designed to handle the types of minor injuries you might expect to see at the range.

We don’t sell this kit on our website; however we do sell the Wind River, an individual kit I designed for the outdoors and specifically the shooting range. This has all the items I like to have in my range bag.

The items stocked in the Wind River tend to be trauma heavy, with lots of TQs and wound packing, but comfort and basic first aid items are also included. These are things not especially life threatening (like a headache,) but get in the way of good training.

It’s my opinion that you should be as comfortable as possible when learning so you can stay mentally engaged and maximize your progress while training. It’s hard to pay attention when you have a brass burn on your neck, or a tender thumb from slide bite…

If you would like to see a loadout for a range medic kit, leave a comment below and I will post to the blog and do a YouTube video about it.

Emergency Trauma Response Training Course