This photo was used for NRA’s Carry Guard. I cannot find it on their website now but take a good look at the photo. What is James Jarrett doing? Why is his index finger on the trigger as he is drawing his pistol?

So a little caveat, James Jarrett is a veteran and has law enforcement experience.

As a veteran Green Beret, LAPD officer, federal agent and deep-cover intelligence operative, James R. Jarrett has decades of experience as a tactical weapons practitioner and instructor. He has also served as a professor of criminology and forensics, a private forensic investigator and a federal and state court-approved expert witness in ballistics, firearms, homicide reconstruction and use of force issues.

Jarrett is equally at home on the battlefield, at the crime scene, in the courtroom and in the classroom. He is the ideal teacher to guide you through the self-defense scenario and the long legal battle that follows, with the blunt admonition that “… your problem starts when you have won the gunfight.”

What the NRA did not mention is Jarrett’s right hand. According to an LA Times article from 1995:

He is a demolitions and guerrilla warfare expert who sees some FBI agents as arrogant prigs and believes the DEA is out of control. Jarrett is a Vietnam veteran, an NRA member and a combat shootist with a partial claw for a right hand.

Torn in a grenade accident, the hand was rebuilt with bone from a rib and tissue from his backside. Jarrett says he gave surgeons a pistol as a mold so his grip and trigger finger would be saved.

So he has a deformed right hand. Even though he has decades of practice and experience with his claw hand, is this safe to promote? Should we give the guy a break? Disabilities is one thing, but being safe is another and should be a priority. What is wrong with his left hand? Obviously from the LA Times article, he favors his right hand so much that he had it reconstructed just to hold a pistol. I am ambivalent on this issue. He clearly knows how to handle a firearm and I will give him the benefit of the doubt that his trigger finger is not on the trigger but possibly hovering just millimeters away. That might be the extent of his ability, he might not be physically capable to keep his finger outside of the trigger guard. However another side of me thinks this is a perfect example of being proficient in shooting weak hand. He should be using his left hand, if it is fully functioning. Especially when matters of safety and promotion of the NRA are concerned.

What are your thoughts? Give the guy a break for his bum hand or hold him to a higher standard for who he is and what he represents?