Saturday, August 14, 2010

A rant on carbine/rifle use for defense

Tam had this video posted over at her place:



This is listed as a the "right" way to run a carbine. I admit there are many things right about this video, the handling of the guns, the reloads, the methods used, etc. I do have some problems with the video and the primary ones occur at 31-35 seconds into the video. Go watch it, I'll wait...

Did you see it? No? Watch it again...

Still not?

How about not advancing on the damn target while shooting it?! You are shooting at a target that you feel is a threat to your safety. WHY IN ALL THAT IS SANE, ARE YOU ADVANCING TOWARDS THAT DANGER?! Repeat after me, "If I use my gun to save my life, I will NOT ADVANCE ON THE THREAT. I WILL walk away from the threat.*"

~Deep Breath~

Okay, I just wanted to get that out of my system. I have a real problem with gun games and ~some~ "instructors" out there, who advocate moving TOWARDS a target. You should under nearly every circumstance move AWAY from the target. The only times you would move towards a target are to A) Escape (because you can't escape going backwards) B) Reach your family/loved ones (hence the reason you are shooting) C) To reach better cover D) No, that's really it for good reasons to advance. Do NOT advance on a target, do NOT confirm you've shot the threat or killed them, do NOT run to the target and kick their weapon away. STOP the threat, get a safe distance away, keeping the threat covered and call the police.

Also, another really serious point of contention here, if you are using a RIFLE to defend yourself, you have the LUXURY of engaging a target from a longer range. Use that to your advantage, get AWAY from the threat and engage him from farther away, if you must. The idea here would be that you can successfully fight from farther away with a rifle, that's one of the reasons we use them.

In the quality professional training I have had, we never advanced on a target, unless we had to. Why would we have to? We would run a training scenario, maybe you absolutely had to go into the house to save your wife and kids. A tough scenario, but one where advancing would be the wise decision. If, however you find yourself shooting a course of fire where you are told to advance on a threat and the reason is not given, stop and ask yourself and the instructor WHY you would do this. If they or you can't articulate a reason to advance on a target, then stop. Either practice getting away or pack up your gear and leave the tutelage of that instructor.

Remember folks, in defensive scenarios common to private citizens, you need to get AWAY from the threat, not advance towards it. Not only does it give you a better advantage for survival, but it gives you a better chance of surviving the inevitable legal after math.

*There are some legitimate reasons to advance on the target as discussed above, most are bad training or methods though. I've seen a number of videos displaying this type of nonsensical movement, don't repeat the mistakes of others.

Be safe, practice, seek quality instruction.

-Rob

1 comment:

  1. I noticed that during reloads every single shooter had to look way from the threat to insert a fresh magazine. Reckon it's a good thing that cardboard hasn't learned to shoot back.

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