Real guns, serious training, no bullets

The room is dim, the steel weight of a semi-automatic heavy at your side.

An electronic tone sounds. Get ready. Zombies are coming.

This might sound like a video game, and it kind of is.

Poseidon Experience, located in a Northeastside office park, is an advanced firearms training simulator rarely available to anyone outside the military, Secret Service or law enforcement.

The firearms used are real, but lasers, CO2 cartridges and other high technology have replaced the bullets. The tension remains.

"We have a theater where we can simulate any kind of shooting range or environment," owner Jesse Barnett said, "... all the drills necessary to become competent and confident with a firearm."

The 48-year-old retired Navy SEAL opened the training center on Jan. 31. It's the first of its kind in the Midwest and one of only a few digital shooting simulators in the U.S. open to civilians.

For $40, a person can train on the same digital equipment used in the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and police departments across the state. That is less than what many shooters spend on ammunition and range fees.

Real weapons, real training, no danger.

"This enables me to train people at a much higher level in a safer environment," Barnett said. "If you have a weapon around the house and don't know how to handle it, that's a dangerous item."

Nearly 600,000 people in Indiana, including nearly 69,000 people in Marion County, had an Indiana handgun license at the end of 2014, according to the most recent Indiana State Police statistics available.

Barnett spent 20 years in the Navy before retiring as a chief petty officer in 2005. For 15 of those years, he was a member of the SEALs, serving in Europe, Central and South America and the Middle East.

Barnett's facility uses the MILO Range Pro system, which combines video game technology with real Sig Sauers, Glocks or Berettas modified to fire lasers at targets projected on a 15-by-9-foot screen.

Instead of ammunition, magazines are loaded with CO2 cartridges that provide an actual recoil with every shot.

Swap out a few parts, and each weapon can once again fire real bullets.

Barnett can put users through a variety of simulations, from target shooting at an outdoor range to searching a darkened home while holding a flashlight.

Shooters encounter bad guys, good guys and some who might be either. With each encounter, they have to decide whether to pull the trigger.

More important than learning how to shoot, experts say, is learning when to shoot.

"If more people are going to be carrying guns, they've got to be able to respond appropriately," said Lt. Rick Kiefer, an instructor at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.

"You can't just freewheel and shoot. The Wild West days are gone. You've got to be able to make the right decisions at the right time under stressful conditions."

Poseidon Experience puts gun owners through tense situations. Traffic stops, robberies, terrorist assaults and even an undead uprising.

"We are the only facility in Indiana prepared to train you for the oncoming zombie apocalypse," Barnett said.

Firearms instructor Guy A. Relford, who is not affiliated with Poseidon Experience, said the training is an affordable and novel way for gun owners to hone their skills.

"(The simulator) allows you to test yourself and ultimately to train and improve yourself and your decision making under stress," said Relford, who operates the Eagle Creek Pistol Range and is the author of "Gun Safety & Cleaning for Dummies." "You never know what's coming down the pike."

Equipment maker MILO Range Pro, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has been selling simulators to the military and law enforcement for more than 20 years. The company sells to civilians only in the rarest of circumstances, General Manager Robert McCue said.

"When (Barnett) discussed what he wanted to do and showed us his business plan, we thought this would be interesting," McCue said.

"He is introducing this technology to the civilian market. It's kind of a novel approach, using equipment typically reserved for the military and police and putting it in the hands of civilians."

The simulation system, which includes a series of laptops, video monitors, screens, cameras and a Kinect gaming device, costs $15,000 to $20,000. Barnett said he has about $240,000 invested in his business.

Civilian gun owners need better training, McCue said, noting simulators improve decision making and could lead to fewer accidental shootings.

"Half of these people can't even pull a gun out of the holster properly, but when they leave there they can," McCue said. "There's a social benefit to gun owners being better trained."

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.

If you go:

What: Poseidon Experience indoor firearms simulator.

Where: 9402 Uptown Drive, Suite 800, Indianapolis.

Cost: $40 per person for 55 minutes of training and simulation.

Information: (317) 288-5242, poseidonexperience.com.