Firearms in Self Defence

by Rob Watson

This post contains graphic descriptions of people killing people with firearms. If you are upset by such information you should not continue reading this.

I have moderate experience with firearms. Early in my life I was allowed to have air rifles, a CO2 pistol, and a small shotgun. The pistol and the shotgun were both relatively expensive to shoot so I did very little with them. The air rifles were a nickle for 100 shots, so one or the other of them were almost constant companions. Eventually I learned to point and shoot them, without aiming, with moderate accuracy. This skill translated to long guns and persists today. In competition, where accuracy counts, I still shoot without using sights, unless the targets are small and at a distance, and I am using a long gun. I can "shoot from the hip" at center of mass size targets, at 40 to 50 yards(meters) and still score a high percentage of hits.

Handguns are a different matter. I almost always use the sights of a handgun. When not hurried, shooting at 6 inch diameter (20cm) targets at 50 yards (meters) I still get a high percentage of hits. When hurried, not using sights, frequent misses are the result. This is true even when the targets are large (center of mass size) and close at hand, 12 to 15 feet away. But then, I have never faced a loaded firearm or been shot at with anything more powerful than an air rifle.

There are a number of problems with using deadly force for self defence. The main one being hitting the target. Most people, under pressure, frightened, hurrying, do not hit their target, even at very close ranges. One video, I saw, showed two men on opposite sides of a normal retail counter. Each had a semi-auto pistol with high capacity magazine. One would pop up fire a shot or two then duck down. Then, the other would pop up, fire a round or two then duck down. At no time were these two more than 5 feet apart. They both fired all their ammunition. Neither was harmed.

At a timed shooting match, the regular champion was to shoot a series of targets. The fastest time, hitting all the targets in the series, wins. The first target was a 6 inch steel disk at about 20 yards. In his rush to hit and move, this guy fired 3 magazines full of ammunition, about 50 rounds, before taking down his target... much to the amusement of all of us whom he regularly bested.

If you recall your firearm training, it was mostly talking. Then you went to a range, fired a number of rounds from a fixed position, at a fixed target, and came away, perhaps thinking yourself trained. How will this help you when, as recently occurred in Missouri, a person twice your size reaches in your car window and proceeds to beat you about the head and face... then when you pull out your pistol trys to take it away from you.

The idea and practice that you will, when faced with possible assault by a deadly weapon, calmly retrieve your firearm from its hiding place, prepare it to fire, take careful aim, then slowly squeeze the trigger, is so far from reality as to be dangerous, even fatal to you. What you train to do is what you will do.

In the past I was friends with the firearms instructor for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers. He relates the following encounter by a team of his officers. ( a 'double tap' is two quickly spaced shots on a target ) Two officers pursued a poacher to a cabin in the mountains. One officer was cautiously walking along the length of the cabin's front porch. The poacher walked out the front door, rifle in hand. The officer did exactly as he had trained many times. He drew his pistol, flicked off the safety, cocked it, double tapped the subject, decocked the weapon, and holstered it. Fortunately, the badly, but not fatally injured, subject turned and walked back into the cabin instead of shooting the, now unarmed, officer. My friend has altered his training practices to include the step of determining if the target is down before disabling and holstering his weapon.

My point is one should practice frequently with one's weapon such that drawing and preparing to fire is quick and automatic. If one participates in various timed handgun competitions often enough , one will develop this skill.