Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

1
Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

------


Rule #1 concerning gunfights is this- be somewhere else when they happen. OK, now that we’ve established that, what do you do if  you are forced to violate Rule #1?
There are a lot of people with a lot of theories about gunfighting. I’m not one of them; I understand that as an armed civilian there is no set-piece rule-book. Circumstances are highly individual and things happen very, very fast. You can learn all kinds of things and discover the fight is over before you remember even one of them.  You are better off learning very few things, but learning them bone-deep.
We know a few things about gunfighting these days. One if them is that you will fight as you train. If you train bad habits when the excrement hits the rotary impeller you will do bad things. People make much of the whole stress/adrenaline thing, and to a point they are correct to. But if you have trained actions to second nature when the stress and adrenaline hit you will do those things, and you will do them exactly as you have trained to do them.
A gunfight is chaotic and unpredictable, and it’s not going to happen on your terms. Seriously, if you think there will be a gunfight leave. Rule #1, remember?  OK, it’s going to happen unexpectedly with tons of random variables. Lighting, number of attackers, presence of innocents… there are simply too many things to ever develop a set plan for how to survive and win a gunfight. So you need to control what you can- yourself.
Practice to hit what you aim at, with both hands and either hand. Do it until you can do it consistently, then do it some more. No, a target on a range is not the same as a moving, living person- but putting bullets where you want them is always the same.  Odds are in a civilian self-defense shooting you will not need to reload. Practice it anyway, until you can do it blindfolded and one-handed. Then practice it some more.
If your weapon of choice is a semi-automatic practice clearing jams. Over and over; you’re training muscle-memory, burning in new neural paths. It takes hundreds or thousands of repetitions to get this hard-wired. If your weapon of choice is a revolver think about what to do if it jams. It’s pretty unlikely, but if it happens you now have a very sophisticated rock. It’s better to have a rock and a plan than to just have a rock.
Practice your draw- and practice it from the holster you carry in wearing the clothes you conceal it under. Practice drawing the gun and getting a sight picture. Do it over and over until you are sick of it, then do it some more. Then practice drawing with your weak-hand. Then practice while standing, sitting and lying flat on your back or on your face. Always be able to draw your weapon in any reasonable position you might find yourself in- and do it over and over and over until it is an automatic thing.
Here’s the thing about all this practice- it’s more important to do it right than it is to do it fast. In training don’t hurry. As Fiore said at the dawn of the 15th C., ”Train slow. In the fight anger will give you speed.’  It was true then and it’s true now- as long as you have trained to do it right adrenaline will take care of the speed in the actual event.
You also need to practice basic firearms safety- don’t point the gun at anything you aren’t willing to shoot. Don’t touch the trigger unless you want the gun to go bang. Know what your backstop is. You know theses things, and they apply just as much in a gunfight as they do on the range.
Once you have the basics down you are ready for the ‘advanced course.’ Here it is in a nutshell-
“If you aren’t shooting, moving or hiding you are probably doing it wrong.”
Pretty simple. ‘But Tinker!’ I hear you cry, ‘What about reloading? What about situational awareness? What about…’ etc. Fine, you need to reload? Hide. Nowhere to hide? Move. Need to look around? Do it while hiding or, if you must, while moving.  Let’s make this clear- by ‘hide’ I mean behind something that will stop bullets. Don’t stand there like an idiot while people with guns are trying to kill you. Move behind cover and hide. What about shooting? Don’t worry about it- if you’ve trained properly the shooting bit will take care of itself.
Example- bad guy with gun. Do you stand there like it’s 12-noon and try to out-draw him?  No- get something that will stop bullets between you while you draw your weapon. Move-hide-shoot. Yep, you might find yourself in a situation where you have no choice- but if you have no choice maybe all that training will give you a chance.
Train the basics. Keep it simple. Trust your training. Move/hide/shoot.
So that’s my advice, and you can take it for what it’s worth. Maybe it will help keep you alive, but I hope none of us ever need to find out.
Michael Tinker Pearce, 17 December 2017


------
Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

2
This would sound like crazy talk to so many people. And that idea bothers me a little bit. I've spoken to people who think you must be a crazy person to own a gun for self defense. That you will never need it. Going so far as to train for any kind of situation would seem like absolute madness to them.

But, one of the few things we can know is that human beings are violent creatures. A little martial preparedness never hurt anyone, especially someone who had no intent to use it.

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

3
BlogBot wrote: Practice to hit what you aim at, with both hands and either hand. Do it until you can do it consistently, then do it some more.

--snerp--

“If you aren’t shooting, moving or hiding you are probably doing it wrong.”.
Yep. Those are them.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

4
Yup, I share your views, Bang!

In fact, I am of the belief that martial training and understanding of the nature of conflict is exactly the maturity required to keep society peaceful. No, not the NRA idea of Good Guy w Gun but much deeper than that. Philosopher Generals in Ancient China recognized that long epochs of war between kingdoms eventually leads to periods of peace which after years again disintegrate into warring states. The idea arose that that long periods of peace actually discourages the martial training and that familiarity with the dangers, pain and sacrifices of war is lost. It is human nature eventually become lazy and blasé about that which we are not personally familiar and so we give war an opportunity to sneak back into politics. Enough egotistical leaders think they can manage a "quick war" and suddenly the world is plunged into warfare again.

What we here do with firearms training is get to know intimately the power and violence it is capable of. If we hunt, we can touch our own mortality when we take a game and field-dress it. In embracing firearms with the intention of growing personal expertise without the lunacy and romance of its power over others, we are in fact the greatest allies of peaceful living in mind and body.

People who decry guns as "weapons of war" are merely ignorant to the instincts of fear and self-protection that exists in all of us; the basis of all wars. Turn away from the darkness and you give it the best chance to sneak up on you from behind.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

5
Back in "The Day" as a Martial Arts Instructor specializing in edged weapons I got the opportunity to train with a group of County Sheriffs Deputies when the Sheriff decided (he was a student of mine) that his people needed to work with someone who was serious with knives. Most cops at that time thought that it was stupid to bring a knife to a gun fight and that the gun would always win. We showed them otherwise and then proceeded to develop skills to help them cope with combat. Close quarters, this guy is gonna kill me kinda stuff.

The first thing we learned was that if you root yourself and attempt to draw your weapon and take a classic stance like we have done over, and over, and over at the range, and we raise the gun and acquire sights to shoot the assailant we have been dead now for a couple seconds. Target Shooting does *not* prepare us for a gunfight and, in fact, it drives all the wrong things bone deep. Do not acquire sights, do not "bust a move" and stand and deliver. Move...instantly and laterally to cover.

Learn to hit what you are staring at...learn to move laterally and return fire accurately without attempting to acquire sights. When out brain starts looking at the gun we *stop* looking at the attacker and we stop avoiding his actions. We stop moving away from his attack because we are looking at the damn gun. Move. The most important thing you can do is *not* stand rooted and try and sight your weapon. Run and shoot. Run to cover.

I rarely target shoot with handguns because of this training experience being terrified that in my time of need I'll revert back to "target shooting" against a street fighter who is closing distance and shooting intuitively. Move and shoot - run and gun. Indexed Shooting, Point Shooting, Threat Focused shooting...call it what you want. Leave the sights to long range paper punching and set your mind to *move* when you are attacked. Instantly and laterally to cover while drawing you gun and shooting while moving.

VooDoo
Tyrants disarm the people they intend to oppress.

I am sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

6
VodoundaVinci wrote:Back in "The Day" as a Martial Arts Instructor specializing in edged weapons I got the opportunity to train with a group of County Sheriffs Deputies when the Sheriff decided (he was a student of mine) that his people needed to work with someone who was serious with knives. Most cops at that time thought that it was stupid to bring a knife to a gun fight and that the gun would always win. We showed them otherwise and then proceeded to develop skills to help them cope with combat. Close quarters, this guy is gonna kill me kinda stuff.

The first thing we learned was that if you root yourself and attempt to draw your weapon and take a classic stance like we have done over, and over, and over at the range, and we raise the gun and acquire sights to shoot the assailant we have been dead now for a couple seconds. Target Shooting does *not* prepare us for a gunfight and, in fact, it drives all the wrong things bone deep. Do not acquire sights, do not "bust a move" and stand and deliver. Move...instantly and laterally to cover.

Learn to hit what you are staring at...learn to move laterally and return fire accurately without attempting to acquire sights. When out brain starts looking at the gun we *stop* looking at the attacker and we stop avoiding his actions. We stop moving away from his attack because we are looking at the damn gun. Move. The most important thing you can do is *not* stand rooted and try and sight your weapon. Run and shoot. Run to cover.

I rarely target shoot with handguns because of this training experience being terrified that in my time of need I'll revert back to "target shooting" against a street fighter who is closing distance and shooting intuitively. Move and shoot - run and gun. Indexed Shooting, Point Shooting, Threat Focused shooting...call it what you want. Leave the sights to long range paper punching and set your mind to *move* when you are attacked. Instantly and laterally to cover while drawing you gun and shooting while moving.

VooDoo
Yes, that is exactly what bothers me about training videos on the internet. It's always some guy who slowly pulls a gun out, squats down like a toddler about to take a dump, gets a two hand grip in front of his belly button, slowly raises the gun up to his chest like a sippy cup, the slowly pushes it out to get a sight. Sure, these guys, at this point, can usually pop off a Mozambique drill really fast, acquire a second target pretty quickly and do another Mozambique, but motherfucker if you were in a real fight the other person already killed you! That stuff isn't fit for fighting. The victor is faster, no matter who's "better."

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

7
I got the opportunity to interview a bunch of old cops many years ago...my FIL was a cop, my BIL's were both cops. One killed in the line of duty. Around the farm house kitchen table I got a chance to interview many old timers who had been in gun fights - shot and been shot. Some of them multiple times. Bear in mind that these guys were my FIL's mentors and buddies and friends of friends and most of these old timers were cops in their prime in the 1920's thru the 1970's.

But the most interesting thing they imparted on my was the concept that Tinker pointed out in the OP - a gunfight is dynamic and it *will not* conform to rules or fantasies. When someone is trying to kill you, you will flee if you can and hide/fight if you can't. And you will fight the way you trained as everything except autonomous skills will fall away with the ensuing confusion.

If 99% of yer practice with yer carry gun is "stand and deliver" slow fire perfect target acquisition like you have done at the range for 25+ years you will likely do exactly that when some jackass pulls a gun at the 7-11 and starts ordering people to the back room or to drop to the floor. In case we didn't know this, once you go prone or allow yourself to be removed from the room/scene your chances of being killed without putting up a fight increase dramatically. You can't counter from the floor once you are prone. I digress....

Move. As soon as you realize that there is gonna be a fight you must move both laterally and to cover if not flee if you can. Run away if you can. Do not take your eyes or attention of of the attacker and when he moves move laterally to his movement. Force your eyes wide open and focus on the threat - not your weapon or sights. If there are folks you have to protect and you must stay move laterally to cover and lay down fire while you are moving. I talked to several fighter pilots who told me that in an old time gun battle between aircraft the most important thing you can do is turn and make the opponent take a deflection shot. Do not under any circumstances give him a stationary target...most folks cannot hit a moving target well unless trained to do it. Most folks can't move and shoot and it's easy to learn and to do.

Do not stand and try to counter with aimed fire/sighted fire while getting into your preferred Weaver stance. Move and shoot while fleeing or moving to cover laterally.

But in any case move. Instantly if you can.

VooDoo
Tyrants disarm the people they intend to oppress.

I am sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Re: Gunfighting- a Few Simple Thoughts.

8
Bisbee wrote:Yup, I share your views, Bang!

In fact, I am of the belief that martial training and understanding of the nature of conflict is exactly the maturity required to keep society peaceful. No, not the NRA idea of Good Guy w Gun but much deeper than that. Philosopher Generals in Ancient China recognized that long epochs of war between kingdoms eventually leads to periods of peace which after years again disintegrate into warring states. The idea arose that that long periods of peace actually discourages the martial training and that familiarity with the dangers, pain and sacrifices of war is lost. It is human nature eventually become lazy and blasé about that which we are not personally familiar and so we give war an opportunity to sneak back into politics. Enough egotistical leaders think they can manage a "quick war" and suddenly the world is plunged into warfare again.

What we here do with firearms training is get to know intimately the power and violence it is capable of. If we hunt, we can touch our own mortality when we take a game and field-dress it. In embracing firearms with the intention of growing personal expertise without the lunacy and romance of its power over others, we are in fact the greatest allies of peaceful living in mind and body.

People who decry guns as "weapons of war" are merely ignorant to the instincts of fear and self-protection that exists in all of us; the basis of all wars. Turn away from the darkness and you give it the best chance to sneak up on you from behind.
Great post, Bisbee. I've experienced the pendulum swing in my own life as well as at the 'corporate level' during my AF career. Humans are something else, eh?

Thanks Tinker, VooDoo, Bang, and ProfFingers as well.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest