SCENARIO BASED FIREARMS TRAINING FOR SELF-DEFENSE. NOT TARGET SHOOTING!
picture below. 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!
LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
Do not assume that because you know you had no option but to use your gun that it will 'all work out'. That alone, or your innocence itself is no guarantee you won't be prosecuted.
You can draw prison time for even 'showing' a gun in a given situation where it is not legally justifed
Anything you learn here before an 'incident' is admissible in court and can not be excluded in your defense. Anything you learn after an 'incident' is NEVER admissible in court.
Hence, a portion of the course is dedicated to providing you with information and experience in several aspects of handgun stopping power and the real dangers of a person you are forced to shoot 'not stopping their attack' on you. This may make it somewhat more difficult for the DA to twist the evidence to make you look 'guiltier' and 'score' his conviction points at your expense. His only job is to 'convict' and never forget that. His 'conviction rate vs. his indictments' are the only measure of his job perfomance. It is not like on Television at all.
Consequently we will take a short amount of time to allow you to understand why handgun bullets may not stop 
your attacker. You will then know that a single bullet often does not stop an attack and why as well. It might amaze you but it is a fact that people have been shot point blank in the forehead with a .45 ACP from a 1911 style pistol and not be seriously injured much less stopped in their assault. This is are but you will see my interviews on video tape where cops, convicts, and others describe these events that they were eye witnesses too. You will also see and hear the testimony of trauma surgeon who has worked on hundreds of gunshot wounds explain to you why one shot is not likely to stop an attack. Your knowing all this makes it admissible in court in your defense. Further when the DA finds out that that your knowledge and testimony will be admissible then your case becomes a bit less attractive to him or her to prosecute.
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 because of proper police firearms training, but predominately due 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 fine and nationally recognized firearms schools such as “FrontSight” or “Thunder Ranch” etc that can do a very 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!
You will learn to load, charge, clear and fire a variety of firearms types. My feeling is you should know how to pick up almost any small arm on the planet and know how to use it in a crisis. It is unlikely that you will have to use an AK-47 to defend your life, but then again don’t you want to know how? If you are a world traveler you might become a hostage and the AK-47 is the most common weapon used by terrorist and pirates of every stripe.
Did you know that if the safety is on an Ak-47 for example then the person holding it must take his hand off the pistol grip to ‘unsafe’ the weapon? This means they are holding the weapon with only one hand at the forward hand guard (most often their left hand too). In such a situation the man with the Ak-47 can be disarmed with acceptable risk if you are close enough and the safety is on the weapon. You can see immediately if the safety is ‘on’ or ‘off’ oo.
In the early seventies, during my government service the Marxist terrorist group the ‘Meirhoff gang’ took hostages and was shooting them every twenty minutes in demand for the release from prison of some of their members. One of the hostages felt he had nothing to lose so he went for the terrorist with the Ak-47. He captured the AK-47 and butt stroked the terrorist several times rendering him semi-conscious. The other two terrorists heard the noise and came running up the stairs. Had the hostage known how to take the safety off the AK-47 he could have easily cut down the terrorists. But he did not know how the safety worked and he was killed. I am thus determined that nobody who takes this class will be ignorant of the operation of the Ak-47.
To apply please simply “copy and paste” this application to your word processor and ,fill it out and email it to me peytonq1@gmail.com
This class will be limited to 10 attendants.
Application to Attend the RMCAT Firearms Training
The APRIL 27, 28th and 1/2 day the 29th 2012
The course fee is just $550 which includes all your meals and lodging here at the RMCAT training Center, and your ground transportation to and from the Colorado Springs Airport
Name (first) __________________________(Last)______ _________________
Height_______ Weight _____Age______ Today’s Date ___________
The date of the RMCAT class I am now applying to: _____________
Your email address: _________________Street Address: _______________________
City __ ____________________ State __________ Zip _____________________
Cell Phone ( this helps with airport pick up)_________________________
NOTE: All your answers are confidential and shared only with members of staff and even
then only on a “need to know basis.” They only “need to know” when in my judgment
(Peyton Quinn) it will allow them to better help you reach a specific goal you mentioned in
this application. Also on the back of this sheet (or anywhere below if this is done real time in
an email) please tell us anything about yourself or experience that you feel might help us to
give you the best experience, training and personal goal centered outcome that we possibly
can.
(1) Please identify and briefly explain your goals in attending this class and why you feel
RMCAT training can allow you to achieve those goals:
(2) Have you ever been attacked, or “mugged” or robed at gunpoint or in any other way? If
yes, briefly describe the event.
(3) Have you had any previous martial arts training? Yes ( ) No ( )
(4) Have you had any previous self-defense training? Yes ( ) No ( )
(5) Have you ever witnessed a real act of violence, in the street, a bar or elsewhere? Yes ( )
No ( ) If yes then please explain the context:
(6) Do you have any felony convictions? If yes, then please explain below. Yes( ) No( )
(7) Please explain what experiences you have with firearms and any firearms training you
have had: (i.e Front Site, LFI, Military, etc).
(8) How did you first hear about RMCAT Training: Please check all that apply:
( ) I found you on web search ( ) A friend took the course and highly recommended it ( )
I read about your program in a magazine article. ( ) If you saw us on a TV program please
check which program here ( ) History Channel ( ) The View ( ) Tactical to Practical ( )
Other TV program. ( ) I read Peyton’s book Freedom From Fear ( ) I read Peyton’s
Book : Real Fighting: Adrenal stress Conditioning Through Scenario Based Training
( ) ISCQC & Jeff Anderson
About the release: In sending us this completed application you are agreeing to the terms
of the release below. In this release you give up certain legal rights in order to participate in
the course. A personal word on the course: I can say that we have not had any serious
injury (broken bones, lost tooth, joint injury etc) in this course in well over a two decades. A
slight sprain or even a slight bruise sometimes occurs, but even that is not common really.
RELEASE Of Liability: I realize that self-defense training, and this course in particular,
has some inherent risks of personal injury for me. I accept any and all of these risks in
submitting this application and I release RMCAT and Rancho Grande Ent, LLC and all
other attendants or instructors in this course, including Peyton Quinn, from any and all
liability for any injury, be it physical or psychological, that I might suffer as result of this
course.
Signed _______________________________________DATE____________
We will email you promptly on the status of your application and Thanks for interest and understanding of RMCAT!