What Reid Henrichs says here seems dead simple… so why do we see so many people fail in these very basic weapon manipulations in firearms courses and in the real world?

The simple fact of the matter is that many people don’t bother to master the basics, thinking, “I’ve got this.” What they soon discover—hopefully at the range, and not in the real world—is that knowing how something should be done on an intellectual level in a stress-free environment is a far cry from being able to smoothly execute under even moderate amounts of stress in less than perfect conditions.