Making Shooters Better
Making Shooters Better is where real shooter stories turn into smarter training and preparation for everyone. Each episode dives into the journeys, wins, and lessons of competitors, instructors, and innovators from across the firearms world.
Hosted by Terry Vaughan—former British Royal Marine Commando, Top Shot competitor, and firearms instructor—this show delivers more than talk. You’ll get the mindset, methods, and motivation to train sharper and perform better, on and off the range!
Making Shooters Better
Accuracy Under Fire: What Policing, Trauma, and Real Stress Reveal About Survival
In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry Vaughan sits down with Tim Pearce, a former law enforcement officer whose career in South Central Los Angeles placed him face-to-face with violence, stress, and the limits of traditional training.
Tim shares how years in gang units shaped his understanding of human behavior under pressure, and how a heartbreaking personal tragedy forced him to confront a hard truth: most training doesn’t prepare officers for the physiological and psychological reality of a gunfight.
The conversation explores what happens to decision-making, motor skills, and mindset when stress takes over, why officers often develop coping mechanisms through experience rather than instruction, and how public perception and policy pressures compound the weight of the uniform.
Tim also explains how loss became the catalyst for innovation, leading him to develop a training system designed to replicate real-world stress and prepare officers for the worst day of their lives. The discussion goes beyond gear and tactics, focusing on resilience, mindset, and the human cost of policing in environments where mistakes are unforgiving.
This episode offers an unfiltered look at trauma, survival, and why realistic training under stress may be one of the most important tools we can give those who serve.