I had the unique opportunity to sit down with Adam Painchaud, Vice President of Sig Sauer Academy, at this year’s NRA show.
Adam is a retired Air Force Special Agent and senior non-commissioned officer with 22 years of combined active duty and reserve time under his belt. He has completed many protective service operations, federal investigations, and antiterrorism missions all over the world. Additionally, Adam is Army Ranger and Airborne qualified. He concurrently is a special deputy sheriff/SWAT operator and police officer in NH. He holds degrees in criminal justice and professional education. He is a master instructor and has spent countless hours providing specialized instruction to various military and law enforcement units.
We talked training, tactics, hardware, and life.
I’m going to succinctly summarize Mr. Painchaud’s advice below (given in our time together) but you really should check the interview out.
Become a Tactician
Adam strongly advocates finding a reasonably sized handgun that you carry all the time. He recommends that we value becoming a tactician (to survive a deadly force encounter) over shooting skills. Not to minimize the importance of shooting skills and safety in particular, but in the hierarchy of gun handling tools, tactics is prioritized. He pointed out how common it is to find individuals who have stopped short, becoming sufficient shooters, rather than valuing the importance of getting the gun into the fight, and learning to become capable tacticians.
Defensive Mindset
He stressed the difference between paranoia and preparation.
“I’m sitting here with you wearing two guns, four magazines, and two flashlights.”
Some might see that as overkill but it’s simply preparation for the particular circumstances he’s in.
As an instructor, he suggests the use of long guns in a defensive encounter. If you know you’re going to need a gun you should bring a long gun.
Training Path
He recommends five classes from Sig Sauer Academy’s curriculum to on-ramp a new shooter to defensive encounter confidence: Handgun 101, Handgun 102, Handgun 103, Handgun 104, and Force on Force.
Real Life
Adam’s a true gun guy that enjoys training his local SWAT team, serving on the team, working on his old Army truck, and tinkering on his 1961 Runabout boat.
He enjoys the light bulb moment witnessed in his students’ training, especially in Handgun 103. Best of all, when I asked Adam about social media, he said that he’s on social media via Sig Academy. Haha, I love it!
I really enjoyed getting time with Adam Painchaud and I hope to train with him down the road. If you’re fortunate enough to have the Sig Academy accessible to you, training with Adam and his team is a no brainer.
