I miss that kind of clarity
Not surprisingly, yesterday’s church shooting incident has generated a great of deal of discussion. As Mr. Wabash of the CIA said in Three Days of the Condor, “I miss that kind of clarity.”
Someone asked if I have analyzed various documents about Active Murderers and if I keep the documents on my website. My response was:
I tend to think about the other 3,300 violent crimes that occurred yesterday, including 43 other murders, 400 rapes, and 2,200 Aggravated Assaults.
Yesterday. Except for the other murders, they didn’t even make the news. And the other murders received about 90 seconds of coverage, on average, with no streaming replay of the event.
The kind of clarity that Mr. Jack Wilson, the Counter-Murder Operator who prevented further murders, had is rare. We should also consider the depth of Mr. Wilson’s shooting resume in terms of skill development.
Requisite level of skill (part II)
This morning there was a murder in a church in Texas. A few seconds later, further murders were prevented by the quick action of a counter-murderer who protected the congregation. In the incident, it appears that someone tried to draw a pistol but was unsuccessful and got shot for his trouble. It is possible he was trying to get his cell phone to call for help, though. The footage is not very clear.
What was the requisite level of skill to end this situation? The shot would appear to be two aisles plus the width of a pew.
At the recommended 24 inches per person for 12 people (4 hymnal racks per pew with 3 per), that would be 24 feet for the pew plus 10 feet (two 5 foot aisles). https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/church-architecture-rules-thumb-space-dimensions
Requisite level of skill
As long as a person can consistently (95% of one shot presentations) hit a target the size of two sheets of paper, stacked in landscape orientation, at four yards, they have the requisite level of marksmanship skill to dominate 99% of personal protection shooting incidents by non-sworn personnel.
That’s not a popular opinion but after studying over 5,000 Armed Citizen incidents, it’s the conclusion I’ve come to. Here is the Male torso hit zone target sheet.
There are other skills that are more important than marksmanship.
What’s the likelihood that something unpleasant is going to happen?
Stupid people, stupid places, stupid things. This is a perfect example.
Going to a birthday memorial service (lasting until 12:30 am) to honor the memory of a person who was killed while conducting a carjacking. That fulfills all of the criteria. What’s the likelihood that something unpleasant is going to happen?
13 People Shot At Chicago House Party Honoring A Man Killed [while carjacking] In April
Note also that there were three different shooting scenes. 1) The initial shooting in the home, 2) one of the shooters outside waiting for people to come out and randomly shooting at them, and 3) another shooter firing at a vehicle going down the street.
‘We can’t normalize this kind of behavior,’ [Chicargo Mayor] Lightfoot said.
Roger that transmission.
Claude Werner’s Revolver Operator Class
I like revolvers and I like teaching people how to use them well. It’s only an “arm’s length gun” if you’re incompetent.
The trap of specialization is rampant in martial training, whether it is empty hands or tools. The belief that a narrow focus is the path to mastery will often lead to the problem of “functional fixedness”.
In David Epistien’s book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” uses the 2008 financial collapse as an example of over specialization. He says “legions of specialized groups optimizing risk for their own tiny pieces of the big picture created a catastrophic whole.”
Many believe learning to be linear, in other words a modular progression, and some favor the circular, a continuing cycle of review and depth, both are important, nevertheless a holistic approach, or the master key has the benefit of a quick prioritization of important information allowing adaptation to a new skill. Therefore I am constantly seeking new learning experiences in shooting, and when Claude Werner offered me the…
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Get Ready (part 2)
Why do people carry an autoloader with an empty chamber? Because they’re concerned about having an Unintentional Discharge.
Sheriff’s gun goes off inside Walmart during a ‘Shop with a Sheriff’ event
One of the comments about the incident on Facebook sums up many people’s feelings about it.
Which is more likely to save your life? Carrying an autoloader with the chamber empty or carrying a revolver ready to go? Active Self Protection provides us with some food for thought.
A Stark Reminder to Keep Your Defensive Firearm Chambered
Armed Robber Kills Store Owner Whose Gun Wasn’t Ready
Another Reminder to Carry Chamber Full
Jack Ryan Season 2
Although the female character Harriet Bauman in the latest Jack Ryan series on Prime described herself as ‘former KSK,’ [German Special Forces] no women had passed the KSK selection process as of 2015. Being part of the BND [German Federal Intelligence Service] would be more believable except that there is no particular method of transition from those services to each other. A more likely transition would have been from the KSA [Strategic Reconnaissance Command of the Bundeswehr].
Overall, the second season has been largely disbelievable and highly contrived. The sequence involving the assassination of Senator Moreno was ridiculous. The idea that the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service wouldn’t be on top of the travel and security arrangements for a visiting US Senator in a semi-hostile country is laughable. To compound the absurdity came the recruiting of a reluctant and non-vetted ‘boat driver’ for the CIA Special Activities Center nee Division team. Then the boat driver and Ryan becoming total loose cannons made it even worse.
I haven’t read a Tom Clancy book in a while but I hardly think he would approve of this buffoonery.
Get Ready
It’s often apparent in classes how much time it takes people to switch gears and ‘Get Ready.’ Transitioning our Defense Condition, both mentally and physically, from Not Ready to Ready may be the most important skill we develop. We don’t necessarily have to deal with the Tueller Principle but even if a criminal is moving at a brisk walk, we seldom have 12 seconds to ‘Get Ready.’
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix Fimbres
Ten to 12 seconds is a common response time to a Ready command during firing squad practice on the firing line during classes. That’s a luxury of time we will seldom have prior to a criminal attack. Often people will look around to see what others are doing before Getting Ready. When a criminal comes for you, others will seldom even notice, much do anything to give you an Alert.
Get Ready is actually what Jeff Cooper’s Color Codes are about. They describe a state of mental readiness to act.
Mental condition comes first and can be followed by increasing our physical Readiness status.
- Ready positions worth practicing
- Hands in front
- Hand on gun
- Transition from OC (OC canister at arm’s length)
- Low Ready
When is Low Ready appropriate? Avoiding Aggravated Assault charges is just as important as avoiding the assault itself. Either can change our lives forever. A good guideline comes from the Los Angeles POlice Department.
What is the value of training?
Firearms instructors are periodically asked the question “Why should I take training?” The answer often comes in the form of a list of skills that are taught or the reasoning behind using a certain technique. However, these do not address the underlying fundamental reasons for taking firearms training at all.
- You don’t know what you don’t know.
- Much of what you know is wrong.
- It’s good to have some of the answers to the test before taking it.
These issues relate to both technical competency with using a firearm (gun safety and marksmanship) and the ability to use the firearm correctly in a personal protection situation (legal and tactical).
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Shooters who only take their gun to an indoor range once a year “to sight it in” generally have a highly ‘cocooned’ knowledge of firearms. They know how to operate a firearm in a…
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Capable v. Likely
What are we capable of versus what are we likely to do?
John Johnston of Citizens Defense Research and I have been discussing this topic in relation to standards in a class. He and I are both believers in having standards and being able to demonstrate competent execution of those standards. Being able to demonstrate means both the instructor and the client.
One of the things I do in private sessions is to have the client take a hostage rescue shot. The target is a complete head next to and not obscured by the hostage head. Only one shot is allowed. The client gets to pick the distance. Most clients, even competent shooters, will close to 3 yards (9 feet) or less. That’s always interesting because the boundary between the near and far phases of Social Space in proxemics is 7 feet for North Americans.
Our technical capabilities are limited by what is within our own heads. What we think we can do represents ‘likely,’ regardless of what we’re actually capable of.
As Ken Hackathorn has said for many years:
You are unlikely to do something in a stressful situation that you’re not reasonably sure you can do competently.
The real value of training and practice isn’t gaining technical competence, it’s achieving confidence in your abilities.
If you are interested in bringing your Strategies, Tactics, and Options for Personal Protection to a higher level, please subscribe to my Patreon account for $5 per month. It’s an investment in yourself. https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor
If you are interested in bringing your skill level higher, please purchase one of my books about how to practice effectively. https://store.payloadz.com/results/337896-tactical-professor
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