I see a lot of us have intellectually considered multiple attackers exist, the question was, do you train for them? Again, at the range, do you typically stand in one fixed location shooting at a single target? The afteraction reports coming out about confrontations show 1) if you are standing not moving, you are a target 2) you won't be for very long.
I don't see descriptions of attackers standing upright in the open for very long, either. They tend to shoot move seek cover. Basically, if you are practicing for accuracy, a standard indoor target range is fine, it you are practicing for tactical proficiency, an outdoor range where you shoot, move, seek cover, return fire is more appropriate. Fixed range training is teaching us inappropriate behavior that is tactically unsound.
If you have played baseball and coached children, one of the fundamentals is to keep your eye on the ball. The related expression is that if you turn your back to the ball that's when it comes your way - and right on past you. Do we train to keep the opponent in our eyesight as we move backwards away to create distance? I'm told by many who trained me that if you turn your back to the shooter, you get shot in the back. You don't see it coming and you aren't suppressing their inclination to do something bad. Like shoot you in the back.
We discuss the incidents these lessons come from, but what do we do to actually train and prevent them? I used to work at a job that required I walk from a building to another across a busy side street in a small town, and after about two weeks I can say with absolute certainty I would look LEFT every time I approached the curb. I still do, and it got picked up in my driving, too. Approaching traffic comes from the LEFT first, closer, and quicker - yet many who steeer their cars to work seem less than informed about doing it. A lot of pedestrians are hit from the LEFT as they step off the curb, it's a lot harder to walk all the way across a street into traffic coming from the right that you didn't see.
Don't turn your back on the ball, don't turn your back on a shooter - do you practice it? Do you practice moving to cover, or removing your gun from a holster while standing in the open signalling you need to be shot? Do you practice range safety per arbitrary rules, placing your gun on a bench in front of you, or do you practice the way you will use it, unholstering acquiring a target shooting twice then moving away to the rear while not turning your back?
How many train with their wife shoot move communicate while leaving a retail store or restaurant or theater? Seems to be a more common scene than being confronted by some perp who steps out at a range from behind the backstop or target and starts shooting back. That never seems to happen. But it's all that we seem to train for.
t should be obvious that normal ranges set up tor target practice are not reinforcing methods of handling firearms in a way that you need for real life - they are reinforcing habits that lead to being unable to respond and worse, that get you killed.
If you are caught in a store, do you tip over displays or rake the shelf to remove products to impede the shooter as you create distance? I wouldn't give my position away nor would I miss the opportunity. In a long corridor with block or concrete, do you center up to keep ricochets from hitting you? It's a notable observation hugging the wall tends to get into the path of more bullets, not less, and you can't view the door openings or hallways as readily - stepping away to "pie" them is better.
I just don't see how banging away at a black target shedding flourescent highlights is going teach any of that. And I don't see many ranges that let you carry loaded and holstered do that, either. Are we training for failure, or training to survive?
I don't see descriptions of attackers standing upright in the open for very long, either. They tend to shoot move seek cover. Basically, if you are practicing for accuracy, a standard indoor target range is fine, it you are practicing for tactical proficiency, an outdoor range where you shoot, move, seek cover, return fire is more appropriate. Fixed range training is teaching us inappropriate behavior that is tactically unsound.
If you have played baseball and coached children, one of the fundamentals is to keep your eye on the ball. The related expression is that if you turn your back to the ball that's when it comes your way - and right on past you. Do we train to keep the opponent in our eyesight as we move backwards away to create distance? I'm told by many who trained me that if you turn your back to the shooter, you get shot in the back. You don't see it coming and you aren't suppressing their inclination to do something bad. Like shoot you in the back.
We discuss the incidents these lessons come from, but what do we do to actually train and prevent them? I used to work at a job that required I walk from a building to another across a busy side street in a small town, and after about two weeks I can say with absolute certainty I would look LEFT every time I approached the curb. I still do, and it got picked up in my driving, too. Approaching traffic comes from the LEFT first, closer, and quicker - yet many who steeer their cars to work seem less than informed about doing it. A lot of pedestrians are hit from the LEFT as they step off the curb, it's a lot harder to walk all the way across a street into traffic coming from the right that you didn't see.
Don't turn your back on the ball, don't turn your back on a shooter - do you practice it? Do you practice moving to cover, or removing your gun from a holster while standing in the open signalling you need to be shot? Do you practice range safety per arbitrary rules, placing your gun on a bench in front of you, or do you practice the way you will use it, unholstering acquiring a target shooting twice then moving away to the rear while not turning your back?
How many train with their wife shoot move communicate while leaving a retail store or restaurant or theater? Seems to be a more common scene than being confronted by some perp who steps out at a range from behind the backstop or target and starts shooting back. That never seems to happen. But it's all that we seem to train for.
t should be obvious that normal ranges set up tor target practice are not reinforcing methods of handling firearms in a way that you need for real life - they are reinforcing habits that lead to being unable to respond and worse, that get you killed.
If you are caught in a store, do you tip over displays or rake the shelf to remove products to impede the shooter as you create distance? I wouldn't give my position away nor would I miss the opportunity. In a long corridor with block or concrete, do you center up to keep ricochets from hitting you? It's a notable observation hugging the wall tends to get into the path of more bullets, not less, and you can't view the door openings or hallways as readily - stepping away to "pie" them is better.
I just don't see how banging away at a black target shedding flourescent highlights is going teach any of that. And I don't see many ranges that let you carry loaded and holstered do that, either. Are we training for failure, or training to survive?
