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For me, Range Safety is of utmost importance. I cover it quite extensively and students practice in the classroom with "Blue Guns." We discuss basic malfunctions and range commands. Pointing a firearm at anyone during the Demonstration of Proficiency would be an automatic DQ. Luckily, I have only had this happen once. After class finished, I provided additional instruction to that student and after going over and over drills with a "Blue Gun," I allowed the student a retry shoot which the student passed reasonably well. On another occasion, I had a student that I noticed was closing her eyes and turning her head prior to each round. The firearm remained pointed downrange, but at the three-yard line there were NO holes anywhere on the target. This happened with two rounds, and I removed her from the range. She declined further instruction and left the class.

As for band-aids for slide bite, I consider that a learning experience for the student as long as the muzzle stays where it is supposed to, and they have enough holes in the target in the right place. As for malfunctions, they will lose the points for rounds not fired on that stage, but I will RE-SHOW them malfunction drill before the next stage.

Couple of GOOD instances: Female student with a low-cut V-neck t-shirt had a piece of hot 9mm brass go you know where. She did what I called the brass dance, jumping up and down flapping her t-shirt to get it out. The whole time she kept her finger indexed and the firearm pointed down-range until she could safely set it on the table. Second instance was a student who had the ejected brass catch between her eye-pro and her eyebrow. She immediately released the magazine, cleared the firearm with slide locked back, placed it on the table pointed downrange and then dealt with the extremely uncomfortable situation. Result was a pretty nasty blister just next to her eyebrow. She only lost one round on that stage and after all was said and done, walked out with a score in the 230s.

In my introduction slide, I tell students that this is NOT a learn to shoot course and that they are expected to know basic range safety and firearms handling skills and if they do not, I offer an introduction to pistol shooting course. But you will always get the guy who shows up with the firearm still in the bag from Academy.