Exploring the parallels between firearms and driving, this episode encourages listeners to rethink their approach to car safety and responsibility. The host shares personal experiences from her firearms training, emphasizing the importance of understanding your vehicle as a tool that requires skill and awareness. Key insights include the necessity of real-world training, knowing your vehicle's capabilities, and maintaining situational awareness. The discussion culminates in a call for drivers to treat their cars with the same respect and caution as they would a firearm, highlighting the shared responsibility of safety in both realms.
In this final episode of 2025, The Car Chick® takes a more personal turn—sharing how recent firearms training led to a powerful realization about driving safety.
This episode is not about politics or gun rights. It’s about responsibility, training, and what happens when we treat powerful tools too casually. From overwhelming choices and “gear over skill” thinking to why training matters more than gadgets, LeeAnn draws clear parallels between firearms safety and everyday driving.
She closes with The Car Chick’s 4 Universal Rules of Driving Safety, a framework every driver should carry with them—especially during busy holiday travel.
Takeaways
Cars and firearms are both powerful tools that require training and responsibility
Skill and training matter more than equipment or “mods”
Random opinions aren’t a strategy—clear priorities are
Situational awareness prevents emergencies before they happen
Driving deserves the same seriousness we apply to firearm safety
You can view a full list of resources and episode transcripts here.
"You need to get to know your daily driver car as well as possible and be as good at driving it as you can possibly be. This is why I have never had a dedicated track car, that and money."
A daily driver is the car you use every day for normal activities like going to work or shopping. It's meant to be reliable and easy to drive.
A daily driver is a vehicle that is used for everyday transportation, typically for commuting to work or running errands. It's usually practical and reliable, as opposed to a specialized vehicle like a track car or show car.
"This is why I have never had a dedicated track car, that and money. But when I go to the track, I drive Maggie."
A track car is a car that is built or modified to be fast and perform well on a racetrack. It's different from regular cars because it's made for racing, not just driving around town.
A track car is a vehicle specifically modified or designed for high-performance driving on a racetrack. These cars often have enhancements like improved suspension, tires, and safety features to handle the demands of racing.
"And granted, Maggie is not entirely stock and she does have a few little things for the track like harnesses."
Harnesses are special seat belts used in racing to keep drivers safe and secure in their seats. They are stronger than regular seat belts and help prevent movement during fast driving.
Harnesses refer to safety harnesses used in racing or high-performance driving to secure the driver in their seat. They provide better support and safety compared to standard seat belts, especially during high-speed maneuvers.
"That real world training is just so critical because you have to know how your car works, how it's going to perform under emergency conditions."
Real world training is when you practice driving in everyday situations, like in traffic or bad weather. It helps you learn how to handle your car safely in different conditions.
Real world training refers to practical driving experience gained in everyday situations, helping drivers understand how their vehicle performs under various conditions. This experience is crucial for developing driving skills and safety awareness.
"...It's like a Mercedes. Sure I'd love to have a Mercedes but I don't need a Mercedes. Mercedes does not fit my lifestyle..."
Mercedes is a famous car brand that makes luxury cars. They are known for being high-quality and comfortable.
Mercedes-Benz is a well-known luxury automotive brand that produces a range of vehicles, from sedans to SUVs, known for their performance, comfort, and advanced technology.
"...I need a really great Toyota. And so I'm like okay I need to go back and I need to re-look at my priorities..."
Toyota is a popular car brand that makes cars known for being dependable and good on gas. They have many different types of vehicles.
Toyota is a leading automotive manufacturer known for producing reliable and efficient vehicles. They offer a wide range of models, including sedans, SUVs, and hybrids.
"what is the MSRP you know what are they actually asking for it was going into Black Friday weekend"
MSRP is the price that the car company suggests you should pay for a new car. It's a starting point for negotiations when buying a car.
MSRP stands for Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price, which is the price that the manufacturer recommends for the vehicle. It serves as a guideline for dealerships and consumers during negotiations.
"that's only a few months old and certified pre-owned low miles it's better than buying a new one because you are getting a longer warranty than you would if you bought a brand new one"
Certified pre-owned cars are used cars that have been checked and approved by the manufacturer. They usually come with a warranty, which means you have some protection if something goes wrong.
A certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicle is a used car that has been inspected, refurbished, and certified by the manufacturer or a third party. CPO vehicles typically come with a limited warranty and other benefits, making them a safer choice than regular used cars.
"you are getting a longer warranty than you would if you bought a brand new one and bonus this was like getting it with an extra set of wheels and tires"
A warranty is a promise from the car company that they will fix certain problems with the car for a certain amount of time. If something goes wrong, you won't have to pay for those repairs.
A warranty is a guarantee provided by the manufacturer or seller that covers certain repairs or replacements for a specified period of time. It protects the buyer from unexpected costs due to defects or issues with the vehicle.
"...oh the car is under steering no the car is not under steering you are over driving..."
Understeering is when a car doesn't turn as much as you want it to. It feels like the car is going straight even when you're trying to turn, which can happen if the front tires lose grip.
Understeering occurs when a car turns less than the driver intends, often leading to a wider turn than expected. This can happen when the front tires lose grip before the rear tires, causing the vehicle to push forward instead of turning sharply.
"...you need to modify the driver we call it the driver mod and I'm realizing it is exactly the same with shooting..."
'Driver mod' means that sometimes it's better to improve your driving skills rather than just changing parts on your car. It suggests that how well you drive can make a bigger difference than the car's modifications.
The term 'driver mod' refers to the idea that improving a driver's skills and techniques can be more beneficial than making modifications to the car itself. It emphasizes that the driver’s ability plays a crucial role in performance.
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Hey everyone and welcome back to the Straight Shift, the podcast that cuts through the bullshitery
and helps you be a better driver, car shopper and car owner. But because of that, sometimes it's
not appropriate for children. And this is going to be one of those podcasts, not necessarily
because of the language, but because this topic is going to be a little bit different than my
usual. This is going to get a little more personal, a little more philosophical, but I think the
perspective is going to be useful. This is also going to be the last podcast of 2025 as we are
heading into the holidays. And I think that kind of feels fitting given the topic. A lot of us are
going to be getting in our cars, going over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house
for holiday travel. Emotions are running high this time of year. So I think this is just a really
good time to take a moment and stop and think about safety, about responsibility and what we owe
to ourselves and the people around us as humans. So let's end this year on a slightly thoughtful
note. I recently made the decision to purchase a handgun for personal protection. No judgment please.
And before anyone jumps to conclusions and shuts off this podcast, I want to be very clear about
something. This podcast is not about gun rights versus gun control. It is not about politics.
It is about safety. And my goal is to get you to think about your car and your driving
in a different way than you probably ever have before. And hopefully in doing so,
it might make you a safer driver. So I hope you will stick with me and learn why I think cars
are like firearms. So let's get into it. For about the last nine or 10 months, I have been
training Krav Maga with a group here in my hometown called Treadstone Defense Tactics.
If you're not familiar with Krav Maga, it is a real-world self-defense technique. It's not a
sport. It's not a traditional martial art, but rather it pulls from all those disciplines,
but it's about actually surviving real-world hand-to-hand combat situations or self-defense
situations. And aside from being really fun and a great workout and a good source of new
bruises every week, one of the things that I have learned pretty quickly is that no matter how much
training I can get, no matter how much of a ninja I might potentially become in the future,
women, especially small-framed women like me, are still at a huge disadvantage
in self-defense scenarios. Strength matters. Size matters. And sometimes no matter how much
training you have, there's just nothing that can overcome the disparity of force between one or
more big guys and even the most highly trained woman. So Treadstone also does tactical firearms
training. The owner of the company trains law enforcement all around the world. He's just the
nicest, scariest guy you'll ever meet. And I decided to add that training to my repertoire as well.
And it was not a snap decision. This was something that I really thought through very,
very carefully. And I would not do it if I didn't have access to this level of law enforcement
level training. And what I kind of learned in the process of this last few weeks, I had a huge
lightbulb moment that cars and firearms actually have a lot in common. So I wanted to share this
journey with you today and hopefully give you some good tips that I have learned in these
aha moments going through this journey of beginning the training and purchasing a firearm
and how I found that it directly applies to cars. So I started this journey knowing
pretty much exactly diddly squat about firearms, particularly handguns. I had never fired a handgun
in my life. I took riflery as a gym class in high school about 100 years ago, because Wisconsin
is where I grew up. And yes, we had a gun range in the high school because of all the hunter safety
stuff there. Hello, Wisconsin. But these were single shot bolt action rifles that I'm pretty sure
were left over from World War One. But I haven't shot a firearm since then. And when I started
training with Treadstone, I was started training with one of their search guns, which is basically
a fancy laser pointer that happens to be the exact same shape, size, and weight of an actual
handgun. In this case, a Glock 19. But everyone else that I train with there uses their personal
firearm with something called a barrel block that allows for totally safe, dry fire training. It's
great. And this is kind of where the first parallel hit me. It's really, really important to train
with the firearm that you are actually going to carry every day or use at home for home defense.
And I have always felt that that is true with the driver training that I have done.
You need to get to know your daily driver car as well as possible and be as good at driving it
as you can possibly be. This is why I have never had a dedicated track car, that and money. But
when I go to the track, I drive Maggie. And granted, Maggie is not entirely stock and she
does have a few little things for the track like harnesses. But for driving track days,
I want to have my daily driver because learning how to drive her at the extremes on a race track
make me a much better and safer and skilled driver every day in Charlotte traffic.
That real world training is just so critical because you have to know how your car works,
how it's going to perform under emergency conditions. If someone cuts you off and you
have to slam on your brakes or if you lose traction because it's raining and you hit a slippery spot.
All these situations that happen in the real world, they happen extremely quickly. And so
you have to have trained on that scenario to really know how to react. And I've learned it's
exactly the same in firearms training because you've got to know that weapon, you've got to
know how it works, and you've got to be proficient at using it under real world scenarios. And that's
not just standing at a table at a range, taking your time and punching holes in a paper target.
That is drawing from your weapon under an emergency situation. You have seconds to react.
You know, you have all these legal parameters that you have to fit in to be able to use deadly
force for self-defense. So I made the decision to purchase my own firearm to train with it
because I'm going to train a whole boatload before I actually will be willing to carry it
for self-defense. And so I didn't know much about guns. And there are so many options out there.
It's ridiculous. It's very similar to cars. There are so many different makes and models and
different shapes and sizes. There's like a whole new set of vocabulary that I have had to learn.
And it's just, it's been very overwhelming. And I realized, wow, this must be how most people feel
when they go car shopping and why my clients come to me. And I realized I was making the same car
shopping mistakes when I was gun shopping that most people do. And I asked around. And while
that's not a bad thing to do, and I asked my friends in my training group, you know, what they carry,
what do they like about it. I asked my brother who's a cop. But I also realized that I was also
asking people who had some different needs than me. And this is what happens when people realize
they need to go car shopping. Very often, they will ask friends, they will ask family. And worse,
they will get on social media and post, I need a new car. What do you guys like? I see this every
day in a lot of the Facebook groups that I am on. And they're just asking a bunch of random people
who, one, are probably not car experts and two, know nothing about their specific lifestyle and
their needs and what they need this tool to do for them. You've got to always take that advice
and those recommendations with a really big grain of salt because only you know what your
needs are and your priorities are, which means you need to take time to think through that when
you are car shopping. You need to write that down. I go through it with the perfect car questionnaire
with my clients by asking all those questions and forcing people to think about it and prioritize
what is most important to them, what are deal breakers, what are not. Tell me about how
you are going to use this vehicle every day. And so I realized I needed to do the same thing for
myself when it came to figuring out what was going to be the right firearm for me, especially since
I was starting at ground zero with my research. So I actually grabbed my perfect car questionnaire
and adapted it to a firearm and asked myself all those same questions. And I came up with a list
of what I really needed this tool to do for me based on my lifestyle, my budget, and not necessarily
personality, but physical characteristics and limitations. And I realized that my priorities
were I needed something small enough that I could carry every day on my relatively small female-shaped
frame. You know, this is kind of like getting a car that fits in your garage and in the parking
space at work if you park in a tight parking garage. And I needed something that would
comfortably fit in my smaller hands and something that I could easily operate and control like
racking the slide, changing the magazine, pulling the trigger with my hands, which have some chronic
tendonitis and possibly arthritis and my wrists and my thumb joints. So I knew I had that physical
limitation. So there's very much like someone who has back problems, neck problems, shoulder pain,
needing really comfortable seats with a lot of adjustments and good ergonomics in a car.
I also realized that I would need something with enough stopping power. So like a little 22
is just not going to cut it for a self-defense situation, but I still needed it to be controllable
for me. So there was a balance and capacity matter, which is kind of like the fuel tank size. You
need to have enough rounds to be able to stop a threat if I'm ever in that situation. It's like,
if you drive a lot, you want to be able to get around without having to stop at the gas station
constantly. So I also realized that of course I wanted something reliable and easy to maintain.
That's just kind of true in everything in my life, but I also needed something that had really
good sights on it. And I'm talking iron sights. I'm not going to cheat yet and go to the red dots
and all the little laser sights because that's just the way I am. I'm going to learn to use this
tool stock to the best of my ability. But the reality is I wear multifocal contacts. And while
my new ones suck less than the old ones, multifocal contacts just kind of suck. So I'm never going
to have a super crystal clear picture of that front sight or the target. So I needed them to be
as good as they could possibly be, as visible as possible, especially at night,
to compensate for the age of my eyes. So that's kind of like needing some blind spot monitoring
and maybe some of the other driver safety aids in the car just to help you as best you can.
And that's okay, as long as you are using those as a tool in addition to your own skill.
So once I understood what my needs were and I wrote them all down and I prioritized them,
and which is a deal breaker and which is not, then I had to start doing all of the research and
learn all the manufacturers, all the different models, kind of figured out that caliber kind of
translates to engine size, at least in my brain. But even so, there are still tons of different
variations on the same model gun. There's the XP and the plus and the pro and the comp and I'm like,
what is all this? And I realized it's very much just like trims and packages on cars,
which can be terribly confusing, especially if you don't live it and breathe it every day.
So I started doing all this research and then I made a short list of those use cases and things
that I wanted to evaluate on each firearm when I went to the store just to hold it,
not firing, just holding it. It's like going to the car show and being able to just sit in a
bunch of different cars to see how they feel. Is it comfortable? How do the seats feel? How do
they adjust? What is the technology like? Is it easy to use? Is it easy to reach? Are the seats
easy and quick to fold down? You're going through all the things that are important to you. So when
you go to look at cars for the first time, don't necessarily even plan on test driving your first
round. Just bring that checklist with you and sit in several of them, touch them, have them show you
the technology and go through your use cases. Like do I need four kids to be able to get in and out
of the car quickly in the carpool line? If you have a tall family member, bring them with you,
test fit them in the car. Do you need to fit a dog crate in the back? Bring the dog crate,
make sure it fits. Need to get two hockey bags back there? Bring both hockey bags, test, fit them.
You have to really stay focused on what your needs and priorities are because salespeople,
whether they're gun salespeople or they are car salespeople, although I did find the gun sales
people to be a lot more laid back, no pressure at all. But they still tended to want to show me
oh have you thought of this model? Have you considered that model? I really like this. Let
me show you this one. Maybe you haven't considered that. And I get that into a certain degree it's
helpful, but they're showing me what they like and their use cases are different. Their bodies are
different. I'm like that looks like a great gun. Where the heck am I going to carry that? Your body
is built like a column. You can carry that bad boy on your hip under a loose shirt and yay you're
concealed. Yeah that doesn't work for women. So I realized that I needed to stay focused on my
priorities and go through my checklist and not get distracted by what the salesperson wanted to show
me. And one of them did show me a gun that was not on my list. It was a Walther PDP and there is a
female version that's a little bit smaller and I did. I got a little bright shiny object syndrome
for a minute because it was amazing and I loved it. You know it felt great. I knew that I would
probably be able to shoot it really well at the range. The trigger was so smooth it's like having
great throttle inputs on a car. But I realized I'm not going to be able to carry that thing. It's
just too much gun for what I need every day. It's like a Mercedes. Sure I'd love to have a Mercedes
but I don't need a Mercedes. Mercedes does not fit my lifestyle. I need a really great Toyota.
And so I'm like okay I need to go back and I need to re-look at my priorities and put the bright
shiny object away and let myself be influenced by what the salesperson likes. He wasn't wrong
but it wasn't the right tool for me. And so you have to have that mentality when you go to the
dealership too and really stick to what's important to you. That is why it is great to bring a
checklist. I brought a checklist for every gun and I held it and I tested every little thing on
my list and I made my little notes and then I left and I came home and I evaluated it and
based on that I was able to eliminate it down to three. And then those are the three that I
wanted to actually test drive and that's great with cars too. You want to try not to test drive
more than three cars if you can because it gets a little overwhelming. So I found a range that
could rent each of these guns and I got really lucky the instructor was fantastic and he taught
me in the way that I learned and I realized as he was coaching me and teaching me about trigger
control and being smooth and how slow is smooth and then smooth is fast. I'm like wait a minute
this is exactly what I say to my students at the track when I'm teaching them high performance
driving for the first time and I think that was probably my first light bulb moment where I realized
wait a minute this car thing and this gun thing are really very very similar and learning to shoot
and learning to drive well are also very very similar. So that was really cool and I did very
well because of it and I'm going to brag a little bit my very first time shooting we shot 39 millimeter
rounds and 29 of the 38 were all in the 10 and the one that I missed was still a nine. So I
realized how much of my advanced driver training was translating over and it definitely allowed me
to have that moment where I'm like okay this is the one when I was shooting this one particular
firearm I just got this is my gun it fits my hand I can control it I feel like I made the
right decision and then it came time to do the actual shopping and just like with car shopping
you do not do it the same day you test drive because your emotions are running high I needed to sit
with it for a little bit and I needed to do my diligence do my homework. The one I decided on
was the Springfield Arms Hellcat Pro and it's relatively new it's only been out about three
years so I didn't figure I would probably get lucky and find a used one because like Toyotas
people hold on to them so I started shopping around just like I do for cars and saying you know
what is the MSRP you know what are they actually asking for it was going into Black Friday weekend
are there any sales you know how does this process work so that I would know how to negotiate and
in my shopping around I happened to stumble across at the range where I did my test driving
they had one in their used case I really think it was just meant to be and so I was able to get a
gun that was only used for a few months and then got traded in a bigger one but it came with seven
magazines instead of just the two that it came with from the factory so this is like the situation
that I love to find when I'm shopping for my clients if I can find a car that's only a few
months old and certified pre-owned low miles it's better than buying a new one because you are
getting a longer warranty than you would if you bought a brand new one and bonus this was like
getting it with an extra set of wheels and tires was like 200 extra bucks worth of equipment that
came on it so when I did all the math I realized I was really paying about half of what I would have
paid had I bought that firearm new and five extra magazines which I never would have done but they're
cool to have so I felt I did my homework I got a good deal this is what you have to do when you
were car shopping as well now the first thing I did when I got it home was read the manual cover
to cover and you need to do the same thing with the car because this is where you start learning
the vehicle yes when you're buying a car and you take delivery at the dealership they go over
everything but that's like drinking from a fire hose you got to go home later in the day maybe
tomorrow read the manual definitely leverage the youtube videos because they tend to be more
helpful than the manual when you're trying to figure out how to use things but you need to
understand how to operate this tool properly and safely and how to maintain it so the second
thing that I did was completely disassemble the firearm I don't recommend you disassemble
your car when you get it home but do pop the hood look under there where's my oil dipstick
where's the wiper fluid make sure you understand how to do the maintenance things that you should
be doing and the checks that you should be doing you must always know the condition that it is in
in order for it to be safe to drive so I made sure I knew how to do that and then of course
I took it to the range to train with that weapon and this is where I learned another thing that's
very similar between cars and firearms there was a young man at the range and he was hitting dead
center the x every single time not just in the 10 circle through the x every single time like
holy cow how is he doing that this is what I want to learn how to do so I went and talked to him
and nice young man he admitted it's like well it's really the site this site costs more than the
gun itself but my ego just won't let me shoot with anything else because I can't hit the x every
time using any other site and I okay I'm like you were honest you admitted to your ego and then I
noticed a lot of the other guys there because again I was the only woman there and they're all talking
about their sites their red dots their green dots and oh you know they missed then they're
seeing okay maybe my site's not dialed in this happens with cars and driving too the tendency
is to blame the equipment for your lack of skill and your mistakes I see this all the time at the
racetrack with my students they're always like oh what do I need to you know change on the car to
get faster oh the car is under steering no the car is not under steering you are over driving
you don't need to modify anything on this car the car is great as it is you need to modify
the driver we call it the driver mod and I'm realizing it is exactly the same with shooting
it's all about the shooter mod and investing in the training not a bunch of gadgets to compensate
for your lack of skill so that's why I'm going to keep my firearm stock I'm going to do iron sites
and I'm not going to fall into that trap this is where I really started thinking about okay
from a safety standpoint cars really are like handguns and there is a huge responsibility
in operating both if you're going to own a firearm and especially if you're going to
carry it around for protection yes it is your constitutional right we said we're not going
to talk about that but it is also a tremendous responsibility you have to train with that weapon
all the time and under realistic circumstances not occasionally not going to the range of
you times a year and poking holes in paper real world ongoing scenario based training I personally
feel the same way about cars and driving and unfortunately it's not quite as easy to get
that kind of training for adult drivers than it is to get it for firearms training but I have found
that there are more and more driving schools offering advanced training or just private lessons
to adults and so I'm going to encourage you if you have not had anything beyond driver's
ed from high school whether that was a few years ago or if it's so far in your rear view mirror
you can barely remember it that is not sufficient just like the concealed carry class while there's
great information in it it's not sufficient it's just a starting place for them continuing
ongoing advanced training I feel the same way about the stupid driver's ed courses for cars they are
not nearly enough to then just turn you loose with what is effectively a 3000 to 6000 pound weapon
and this is what I'm going to encourage you to think about differently you've probably never
thought about your car as a weapon but it is a car is a dangerous tool and we we just get in it
every day and take it for granted and go about and do the things that we're going to do and we
don't think about it in terms of safety nearly enough there are four universal firearms safety
rules that everybody has to learn and they drill it into you over and over and over again and it's
in 10 different ways on the concealed carry test because the stakes are life and death and you've
got to know this stuff and I feel the same way about cars so I have translated the universal
firearm safety rules into the car chicks driver safety rules so first I'm going to share the
firearm rules with you and then I'm going to tell you how I've turned those into driving rules so
the very first rule of firearm safety is you always always treat every firearm as if it were
loaded I don't care if you are 99.9 percent sure that it's not loaded it because you just unloaded
it you always treat every firearm as if it is loaded and you must always know the condition
of your firearm number two never point a firearm at anything that you are not willing to destroy
number three keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you
have made the conscious decision to fire otherwise you just keep that finger away from that dang
trigger and number four be sure of your target and what is beyond it and around it because
you might miss your target so what else could potentially get hit and what is beyond it because
you know bullets keep going they don't just stop necessarily when they hit the target I found that
these very easily translate into driver safety rules so here are the car chicks for universal rules
of driving safety treat every motor vehicle as if it were a weapon because it can kill someone
it can injure someone including yourself and the people in your car and the other people on the road
pedestrians treat every car as if it were a deadly weapon because it is never aim your car
anywhere you don't want to go because the car goes where you are looking you should be looking
where you want the car to go this is why we teach looking through the turn at the racetrack so if
you're over here looking at rubber necking because there's a car crash over here or you're over looking
at the Christmas lights then you are not driving where you're supposed to be driving the car is
going to follow you and you're going to find that the car is veering out of the lane this is why
lane keeping is necessary because people their attention wanders but then the car follows
wherever your eyes go so if your eyes are not on the road the car is eventually not going to be on
the road either number three don't commit to an action or a move in the car unless you're ready
for the consequences and this can be a little bit difficult especially under emergency situations
because we don't necessarily train those enough and so when we get into an emergency situation
what our instinct is in that moment of panic that oh shit moment is often not the right thing to do
from a physics standpoint and to correct the situation this is why I advocate the advanced
training but also don't do anything unless you're really committed to what the consequences are
going to be and that's not just in controlling the car but also in the safety decisions that you
make anytime you are in the car that means putting the phone away if you're going to be talking to
people there could be distractions don't do it unless you're willing to accept that the consequence
of that is that you may be distracted so just be very committed to being responsible and focused
on your driving and knowing what the right moves are in that car finally always know what's around
you situational awareness is the single most important factor to any type of safety whether
that's personal safety firearm safety driving safety knowing what the heck is going on around you
what is the environment what are the risks of my environment is it raining is it snowing is it
foggy is it dark can I not see well what are these other idiots around me doing
because that situational awareness will help you to avoid the emergency situation avoid having to
slam on the brakes avoid having to use deadly force in a self-defense situation and one of the things
I loved about the training with my instructors was that they don't talk about gun accidents
there's no such thing as an accidental shooting it is a negligent discharge and it is 100 every
time caused by ignorance and or negligence people not knowing what they're doing or being careless
and that is 100 true in cars because if you really boil down to it and I refuse to call
them car accidents I call them crashes even if you weren't quote at fault under the law under
insurance you still probably did something that contributed to it maybe not a hundred percent
of the time if you were literally just sitting there fully stopped fully parked nowhere to go
and somebody just drives into you you may not have been able to do anything about that but in most
cases everyone involved in a car crash played a role so challenge yourself to what could I have
done differently if paying attention more being more aware of your surroundings should I have looked
you know people say oh he came out of nowhere no he didn't he came out of somewhere he just came
out of somewhere that you hadn't bothered looking so I'll always encourage you to look ahead don't
just get fixated on the car in front of you and be constantly aware of your surroundings and all
the cars around you and what they are potentially doing because that's the number one way to avoid
getting into a car crash in the first place so I hope that some of these tips that I have figured
out in my recent firearms training that I think apply to cars I hope that that will help you
to be a safer driver and you know at the end of the day whether you know you own a firearm you
carry one for personal protection you decide not to which is also just your right or you are out
driving the ultimate goal and the ultimate responsibility that you have is to come home
at the end of the day and hopefully everyone else around you all the other innocent people
also come home at the end of the day so think about your driving not just as a right which we
tend to think of it as or privilege it is also a tremendous responsibility operating a vehicle
that can be a weapon so as we wrap up 2025 and we head into the new year I would like encourage you
to maybe set a new year's resolution to be a better driver be a safer driver whether that's
saying no phones in the car whatsoever phone has to be locked in a purse you know just like some
states require the firearm to be locked away where nobody can get to it do the same thing with your
phone or to take a driving class you know get out there and google adult driver training in your area
and maybe take an extra class get some more private lessons especially
if you've been in a car crash and you're nervous about driving it's totally normal
and it just takes some training to be able to push through that and you'll ultimately be a better
and safer driver so happy holidays everyone happy Hanukkah blessed yule merry christmas joyous
Kwanzaa and happy new year be safe I'm out of here the straight shift podcast is copyright
Lee and shattuck the car check 2017 all views expressed by guest and or co-hosts or those of
the guest and or co-hosts and not necessarily those of Lee and shattuck or the car check
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