Shoot And Move

Shoot And Move
by Syd from http://www.sightm1911.com/

"The faster you shoot, the less shot you will get."
Act decisively. When your internal "go" signal is tripped, don't hesitate. He who hesitates loses.

Use hard cover when possible. Learn the difference between hard cover and concealment.
"Hard cover" is a barrier that will stop bullets and protect you from incoming fire. "Concealment" is a barrier that hides you from the adversary but does not stop bullets. Weapons like the AK-47 will penetrate most building materials. They will also penetrate car bodies.

Move!
Moving targets are hard to hit. Especially when hard cover is not available, keep moving. Retreat is an honorable strategy. "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day." Practice shooting on the move, the faster the better.

Do a "gut check"
Are you really able and willing to pull the trigger on another human being? If you aren't, don't draw a gun on someone who is. I have talked to a number of people who choose not to carry a firearm for personal defense. Almost without exception, the reasons given are, "I just don't think I could do it," (meaning, "I can't shoot someone."), or "It would probably just get me in trouble," (Meaning, "I don't feel competent to fight with a firearm."). I respect that position and I respect that level of self awareness. If that is your personal truth, then find other means and strategies for self-defense. On the other hand, no right thinking human being ever wants to shoot another, and being repelled by the idea does not necessarily mean that one would be incapable of armed self defense faced with a real threat. But in all things, "Know thyself." Many folks seem to subscribe to a notion that I have come to call "The Magic Talisman" theory of pistol craft. They seem to believe that somehow simply brandishing a handgun will solve the problem and make the bad guy act right. It might and it might not. The reality is that pistols require skill, training, and self control to employ effectively. If you draw it, be prepared to fire.

"A man's got to know his limitations." - Dirty Harry
Despite some of our negative stereotypes about police officers, most police officers have years of specialized training that the rest of us don't have. Police officers will always appear more tentative than we might like in situations such as the Tacoma mall because they are trained to gather as much information as possible before acting. They know that sometimes bad guys set bombs and lay ambushes. They have to determine how many bad guys there are, their locations, if there are hostages and the locations of possible hostages. Many have seen colleagues fall because they didn't have adequate information or backup. Armed citizens are not police officers, but sometimes it pays to take a cue from the way law enforcement approaches these kinds of situations.

Know what you can do. Know what your gun can do. Know what you can do with your gun. A fight is a terrible venue for new product testing.

Practice hard shots
Practice shooting from weird positions. Practice weak hand shooting. Practice for head shots. Practice on moving targets if possible. Practice malfunction clearances. Practice emergency reloads. Practice everything. Practice a lot. Get some training. Ammo is cheap and Murphy is alive and well.

Be flexible.
If what you are doing isn't working, do something else.

"When going to a gunfight, take a long gun and a friend with a long gun."
Pistols are close quarters self-defense weapons. All pistols are a trade-off of performance for convenience. When you go on the offensive, i.e., attack, all of the shortcomings of the pistol come into play with a vengeance - puny ballistics, limited firepower, limited range and difficulty in achieving accuracy quickly. Despite the silly propaganda from the gun grabbers, no pistols are "assault weapons." If they were we wouldn't bother with equipping our soldiers with rifles and machine guns.

Epilogue

I still feel a great reluctance to say anything at all about these two incidents. No matter how carefully one proceeds and chooses his words, commenting on the sacrifices made by McKown and Wilson still feels disrespectful. My reluctance to talk about these incidents was only overcome by the idea that lessons should be learned and by doing so we honor the fallen and make their sacrifices more significant by applying their lessons to the next incident that may arise.

I have tried to avoid using the language of "winning" and "losing" in reference to Wilson and McKown because winning and losing is not a simple matter in these incidents. McKown and Wilson did what they felt they had to do. They were true to themselves, and both men saved the lives of others even though they paid a terrible price. You can't call getting shot "winning" and you can't call standing up for what you believe and saving the lives of others "losing."

Analysis such as this traps us at a point of abstraction. We can't be there and we can't get into the heads of the people who were. We can guess and speculate about things which might have been done differently but we cannot re-create the situation in order to test our theories. Ultimately, we are left with our revulsion for the bad guys and reverence for the good guys, fear that we may face a similar test and hope that somehow things will turn out better for us.

WOW! What an article!! A HUGE 'THANK-YOU' to Syd from http://www.sightm1911.com for letting me share it with you... Everyone- please check out his website... it's simply fantastic!!!