Hello Everyone,
Firearms represent dangerous weapons. All techniques learned anywhere concerning them should be taken with a grain of salt. What is the best defense against a firearm? Not to be in the situation. What is the second best defense? Run if you can to a place where the firearm cannot hit you. Other options exist for trained individuals. Training does not minimize the deadly nature of facing a loaded firearm with an individual bent on their own intent. Please keep these things in mind as you read this post.
Firearms vary in type and purpose. Rifles, shotguns, machine guns, carbines, pistols, etc. This discussion focuses on pistols and small scale firearms. If facing a machine gun, one must run and find cover immediately. This is not the movies where our hero faces fifty machine gun totting bad guys and defeats them all without as a misplaced hair.
Lets start with the difference between "cover" and "concealment." Cover is an actal object that stops the bullet, attack, etc. Concealment hides the defender from the attacker. You can see me or you cannot see me defines concealment. A door provides concealment and if thick enough provides temporary cover. Lock that door and the safety factor increases.
I have heard and I need to track this figure down that twenty three feet is the effective distance that a human can cross before another human armed with a firearm can effectively draw, aim, and fire. But I would not want to be in that situation.
Firearms come in two main types for pistol; revolver and semi automatic. Revolvers have a cylinder that holds the ammunition. That cylinder turns and brings one shell in line with the firing pin. The firing pin hits the round and the resulting explosion propells one bullet through the barrel and past the muzzle. The bullet then finds its way at a given speed to its target. (1)
The semi automatic on the other hand has a different. The clip holds the ammunition and a slide strips off one round from the clip and loads it into the barrel. The firing pin then impacts the back of the round and the round travels down the barrel and out its muzzle. (2) Every time a person pulls the trigger, a round fires. Some individuals claim that semi automatic pistols jam. But the choice in either amounts to an educated choice.
The person defending against such a weapon should avoid the situation if possible. If avoidance is not possible, then do what one must do to survive. Keep the weapon pointed away from you at all times. Only well trained martial artists should even attempt to "grab the gun." But if you must, then do so and keep it aimed away. If you survive the encounter, then you have won.
Remember that in an encounter that involves the use of deadly weapons that one person will probably be dead and the other changed forever. I will continue to update this post as I become more informed.
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(1)http://www.personaldefensesolutions.net/snubbymaint.htm
ReplyDelete(2)http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/GUNANAT.html
T.Einsel (HPE 120-1361-FALL-2010)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I remember, the effective range of a proficient handgun-user is 50 yards. I think that in a number of circumstances this can be hard to escape from. However, I am aware that not every individual carrying a firearm with deadly intentions will be proficient at shooting. Some conditions would increase your chances of escape, such as concealment in the night.
In light of this, I favor escaping over disabling the gunner. The chances of not only being killed but having a stray bullet kill/injure a bystander is of extreme importance to consider.
I think there is a chance the gunner will not fire, if you manage to put enough distance and obstructions between you and the gunner. The gunner might assess that the chances of hitting you might not overcome the problems of bringing attention to himself. Also, it is likely that a gunner will not fire well if doing so on the chase. I doubt my attacker is Mr. Smith from the matrix.
Lastly, the ideal that we can not be where the problem is tends to appear as wishful thinking in my mind. We all want to avoid these conflicts, but this is why we should prepare ourselves for when conflict finds us off guard.
Hello T. Einsel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for a thoughtful post. You are correct that the range of most handguns allows for a proficient shooter to target within the 50 yard window. An attacker will usually get in closer, if robbery or intimidation is their intention. Concealment and more importantly cover will assist the defender in escape.
Escape is always the best option. If one can accopmplish it in a safer manner than facing down a handgun, then do so. The proficiency of armed individuals varies widely, so one may have the opportunity of escape.
Avoidance may be wishful thinking, but it should be the first option, if possible. Awareness allows one to "see" the possibilities ahead. It can be trained like any other skill. But when it is not an option, be trained in all the other options. You must be comfortable with the methods you choose for self protection. An excellent post and I thank you.