Observe the picture above. It would seem that the man with the gun clearly has the advantage over the man brandishing the knife. The distance between them is about 18 feet.
But, when the knifer charges in most cases he will be able to use the knife before most people can draw and fire their gun and stop the attack. This is one type of scenario we use at RMCAT to demonstrate to people the “reactionary gap” needed in such a situation. Some advanced police firearms training also demonstrates that most people need about 23 feet to draw and fire their weapon before being killed with the knife.
Here’s what happened next in the scenario that started with the above photo.
Now study the last frame, the student has dropped to the ground even as he is being overrun by the assailant with the blade. This is an absolute ” last ditch” technique but in this case it works. This identifies another important element about scenario-based firearms training. By using real guns and rubber bullets there is no need for any “guess work”. You know if you survived the scenario or not. More importantly, your body learns what you must do to survive such an attack in your home or on the street. Thus, you won’t have to bet your life that you will do it all right the first time out should you ever face an actual attack.
The Critical “Shoot/Don’t Shoot” Decision
Could there ever be a more critical decision that you could ever have to make than whether to fire a bullet through another human being and take their life?
But if you hesitate to fire, then you, and/or a loved one might be killed. You might also be immediately disarmed if you hesitate to fire instantly as demanded. Yet if you fire when it is not legally justified, in fact, in many states even if you draw your gun under such circumstances you risk being charged with “felony menacing” and prison time. Either of these failures in your decision making process can mean hard prison time at worst , and/or enormous legal bills that would bankrupt many people even if you are found to be innocent of any criminal act!
The Reality of Actual Shooting Incidents
You will certainly have to make that very critical shoot/don’t shoot decision under high adrenal stress with your heart pumping full blast. Please think about that, doesn’t simple common sense tell you that if you are serious about self defense then you must train under that adrenal condition too? With a gun in your hand or with just your bare hands it really comes to this same simple reality.
Owning a firearm in the United States is still a Constitutionally protected right. But a reasonable person should also accept that along with that legal right also comes a personal responsibility to be trained to use that weapon properly and lawfully… And to do all that that under adrenal stress? Good marksmanship “at the range” is not only not enough it is often not even of paramount relevance in an actual combat shooting, self defense situation. Most shootings occur at distances of less than 8 feet and very often in very low light.
If you ever have to use a gun on a violent criminal then it will be because they are about to take your life. Under those circumstances do you think you will be able to take your eyes off anything except that deadly threat right in front of you?. Most people won’t. Their bodies just won’t let them. Hence, you may not be able to use the sights on your weapon in most real self defense situations. In the “moment of truth” most people will convulsively grip the gun and keep both eyes wide open on the enemy about to kill them. This is why you have to learn to shoot with reasonable accuracy and expedient deliberation “with both eyes wide open and gripping the gun convulsively.” This reality is a lot of what the “point shooting” techniques are all about.
Point Shooting Concepts
Years ago most police were trained to “qualify” at the pistol range with aimed fire on paper targets. This meant that the sights of the gun were lined up and the trigger “squeezed” to “score” hits on that paper target to “qualify,” Yet when it came to actual shooting incidents on the streets, statistics clearly showed that there was no significant correlation between an officer’s scores on the range and his or her shooting and survivability on the streets.
Officers’ incident reports often said that they did not hear their own gunshots , even when the fight took place inside a small room! Most police felt that they fired fewer rounds than the actually did. When revolvers were predominately in use it was the norm for officers to fire every shot in the weapon.
Today, many experienced researchers of this phenomena attribute the fact that police prevailed in most shoot outs not to proper police training, but predominately to the fact that the “crooks” shot even worse!
Yet as early as before the Second World War experienced gunfighters such as Fairburn, Sykes and Applegate knew from their experience with the Shanghai police that the best training method to survive a real gunfight was “point shooting.” You simply see the enemy, you point your weapon and you fire as the situation demands.
It is true that when you can use the sights of the gun this most often results in more accurate shooting. But in real gunfights, or even when defending yourself against an unarmed assailant, circumstances will seldom allow you to use the sights of the weapon. Hence, you better be trained to shoot this way and hit your target. Point shooting is combat accurate for most people out to 25 feet or so, with minimum training, when conducted correctly. That is about three times the distance that most real world shootings occur. By the time you complete this two day course, you will be able to draw and fire and hit, without the use of sights, to at least twice the distance in which most real shooting incidents occur.
Rubber Bullets in the Simulations, Real Lead on the Range
You will have the chance to fire on reactive targets with live ammunition on the RMCAT firing range. But frankly there are other nationally recognized firearms schools such as “Gun Sight” or “Thunder Ranch” etc that can do a fine job of providing you with that type of firearms marksmanship training.
But at RMCAT we feel that knowing when to shoot is even more important than knowing how to shoot. This is where the simulations become so important, because they give you experience in making these life and death decisions under adrenal stress, and not by shooting at paper targets, but at living, moving, & unpredictable human beings.
You are given basic instructions before you enter a scenario such as “You are at your place of business at night. Your possession of the weapon is lawful . When you go to the parking garage to retrieve some papers you encounter this person. Under this state’s laws you may be liable for a charge of felony menacing if your draw your gun without lawful justification.”
Sometimes, for example, the person may come up to you with a road map asking you for directions. But when he gets close he drops the map and suddenly you see it conceals a gun in his hand. Other times the man may seem like a an “EDP” (emotionally disturbed person) who approaches quickly and gets far too close to you, and then makes a quick move to retrieve something behind his back. Is it a gun? Or are you about to see his hand produce just a printed card that says “I am lost, deaf and can not speak, will you help me find and use a phone?”
You will learn how to deal with these and many other such situations in a way that maintains and protects your safety as much as is possible in the physical survival sense, and in the legal jeopardy sense as well!