Man pulls a sword on a fellow driver.

[Missashot]

Never bring a gun to a food fight.

How about a potato gun?

 

[Slinger]

Everyone knows a steak knife is a much better CCW than a sword!

 

[rudolf]

I guess distance and surprise must play a role...at 200 yds with my scoped Springfield 1903A4 I'd take on Mihamoto Musashi...

Just to have him jump from a tree and decapitate you.

He once slept in a tree before a fight. He could then watch his enemy setting up a trap for him. Didn,t work very well for his enemy.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

zook,

That's my point. The above is basic level doctrine taught at the academy. When they whine about the times being too fast for qualification they're reminded of this rule.
If you wait for him to move before drawing, you're reacting and will at the very least have some cool scars to show off.

If that's what your academy is teaching ... they're teaching it wrong (or perhaps incompletely).

The 21 feet "rule" is not a rule, it WAS a rule of thumb. You are referring to the Tueller Drill. The origin goes back a good many years. Tueller was an instructor for a department in (IIRC) Utah, and he was looking for a way to convey to rookies what experienced street cops develop as a kind of sixth sense: when does a potential adversary become a "threat"?

The starting point was to ask a number of his colleagues to draw from the duty holsters they wore at the time. The average time was 1.5 seconds. Tueller then went on to have a number of officers armed with dummy knives start from a standing position and from various distances try to get to an officer before the officer could draw and fire.

The final result was that a BG could cover 21 feet in the 1.5 seconds it took to draw and fire. The ONLY thing this was intended to demonstrate was that 21 feet (basically one car-length at the time, but about 1-1/2 car lengths for most of today's compacts) is not a safe distance when facing an armed opponent, so at that distance don't stand there with your piece in the holster. Take it out and hold it at low ready.

That was all before the advent of level 3 retention holsters. Most uniformed officers today cannot draw and fire in 1.5 seconds. Therefore, the 21 feet goes out the window. The distance today would be even greater. Lt. (or probably Capt. by now) Tueller knows this, and is updating the drill accordingly.

The other thing to keep firmly in mind is that this drill was intended to apply only to uniformed officers drawing from a duty holster. Undercover officers and "civilians" may be able to draw from certain rigs faster than 1.5 seconds, but more likely would need more time. For them, then, the 21 feet is also not an adequate safety buffer, because the 21 feet derives from the 1.5-second draw time.

Basically, that 21 feet keeps getting cited as though there's something magickal about it. It WAS a rule of thumb only, not a hard and fast law ... and it's currently outmoded. I wish people would stop citing it as though it means something.