Three general training rules for today's defensive shooters
July/01/2016 11:37
Learn to Pilot Your Pistol - by Jay Wurts - Guest Instructor
After one handgun class, a student came up to me and said, "you know, most trainers show students how to ‘run’ a gun. You teach us how to fly it!” At first I thought he was joking, but the more we talked about it, the more I realized he was right.
Coming from an Air Force background (which included both small arms training as an airman and flight training as an officer), my subconscious had been pretty well soaked in the military way of teaching and learning a complex skill. I began to realize that self-defense with a firearm and the Latent Force training concept of Avoid, Remove and Defend shared a lot in common with flying high performance aircraft in a threatening and unforgiving environment. Maybe my student was onto something!
3 General Rules for Any Emergency
Before they go near an airplane, Air Force student pilots learn three general rules for an airborne emergency: (1) Maintain aircraft control, (2) Analyze the situation and take proper action, (3) Land as soon as conditions permit. Naturally, details depend on the specific situation and equipment; but so do the dynamics of a gunfight. Unless a pilot keeps the aircraft flying, knows which problem to solve first and which buttons to press, then turns that airborne emergency into a ground maintenance problem in a timely way, his number of takeoffs and landing's won't be equal. Similarly, unless defensive shooters keep their cool, maintain situational awareness and adopt proper tactics, then find a way out of danger (cover, concealment, or removal) they may not be home for dinner.
Here, then, are the Air Force's three general rules adapted to the need of today's defensive shooter: (1) Maintain SELF control, (2) Analyze the situation and take proper action, (3) Secure a safe position as soon as conditions permit.
Train By-the-Book or Go with What You Know?
Another lesson military pilots learn before they fly solo is the difference between a procedure and a technique. Veterans joke about the military's love of doing things "by the numbers" - that is, slavishly following a set of rules even when those rules don't seem to make sense. When a task becomes too complex and dangerous, however, common sense and real-world experience prevail among die-hard, by-the-book fanatics. In this context, a "procedure" is a series of steps performed in sequence - usually for reasons of safety. A "technique," on the other hand, is how a properly trained and experienced individual performs those steps - usually to accomplish a task more efficiently and effectively. Procedures abound in aviation; but because flying (let alone combat) is unpredictable and situations can change quickly, veteran flyers are prized for their adaptability and technique. In the world of defensive shooting, range safety procedures are often discarded once gunfire erupts on the street - and rightfully so. With procedures of safe gun handling and basic marksmanship engraved in our subconscious, we can chose to deviate from standard practice and prevail over threats we have never faced - the core of Prepared Defensive Action (c). Since defensive shooters don't "rise to the occasion" but default to their level of training, the standard for that training should be high and it is the cornerstone of the Latent Force - Prepared Defensive Action (c) philosophy.
I could site more examples, but the point is clear. When faced with any dangerous situation, we should not be mindless robots but resourceful actors who put sound principles, logical procedures, trained responses and practical techniques to good use: "piloting" our pistols in a way that brings us home at the end of the day.
Stay Safe and Fly Right!