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Are You Ready? By Mike Boyle
Are You Ready?
A few weeks ago, I attended the 2012 installment of the SHOT Show which is best described as the world’s largest gun bazaar. For more than 30 years, the industry manufacturers have used the SHOT Show to launch new offerings and to familiarize buyers with their product line. With over 1600 displayers on hand, it is impossible to see it all. Even though I focused solely on products intended for the law enforcement and personal defense market, I still came up short on time.
Tactical gear remains the hot ticket at SHOT and this year was no exception. I’ve lost track of how many companies are putting their own spin on classic designs like the 1911 pistol and the AR-15. I did note a few new striker fired pistols about to make their debut along with a plethora of high intensity illumination tools. Just about all the major handgun manufacturers are now turning out small, concealable subcompact or micro-size pistols chambered for service calibers and this is very good news indeed.
I’ll confess to being a gadget guy and like the thousands of other folks walking the aisles, my shopping list got a little longer. But despite the sensory overload with the new gear, I got to thinking about what’s really important. Specifically, what does one really need to have together in order to stay safe.
As a career law enforcement trainer, I had precious little time in getting officers prepared for the hostile real world. To make the most of it, I constantly addressed 4 areas in my training which I deem critical to prevailing in lethal conflict. They include a winning mindset, sound tactics, skill and equipment suitable for task at hand. Time and time again, these concepts were addresses in our quarterly firearms training sessions as well other defensive disciplines. These same concepts hold true for responsible citizens who have taken up firearms to control their own destiny.
Although I plan to focus on the hardware side of the equation, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other priorities. Mindset remains the cornerstone of successful conflict resolution. Be aware and be willing. If you choose to go armed in modern society, you have a responsibility to stay switched on and remain vigilant of what is going on around you. Be prepared to do whatever it takes to see that you prevail, including using extreme violence. If you are not prepared to do this, you might want to reconsider taking up the gun.
I would also suggest taking in some serious training from a credible instructor or shooting school. Without this, it will be very difficult to get a serious handle on combat shooting essentials and basic tactics. Books and printed material are good to a point but are supplements rather than replacements for real, hands-on training.
Now, let’s kick around this business of equipment for a bit. Military semi-auto sporters are extremely popular these days and it seems that new models are being introduced weekly. But in the grand scheme of things, where does the rifle fit into the responsible citizen’s personal defense plan? Don’t get me wrong, I really like rifles and own a few myself. However, unless you are a soldier or a SWAT cop it’s unlikely you will have one in hand when a threat presents itself. Confrontations are fast and typically unpredictable allowing no time to access a rifle. You solve the problem with what you have or you lose.
To my thinking, most of our energy should be focused on the tool you will likely have at the moment of truth. That fair reader is a handgun, capable of stopping a determined adversary. If you’re serious about personal defense, a good shoulder weapon, rifle or shotgun, should be part of the picture. When you consider the post-Katrina chaos or the likelihood of similar behavior in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster, this only makes sense. The fact remains, that this would be a most unusual event. You are at far greater risk to falling victim to a common criminal than bands of looters, terrorists or the undead in the zombie apocalypse. Long guns are part of the mix, but most of our effort should be spent on becoming proficient with the pistol.
If you have made the decision to go armed, I consider it an all or nothing proposition. Either you do or you don’t. You simply cannot predict when danger will visit. If I could predict the future, I would have spent my time at the racetrack making a fortune rather than being a civil servant. Violence comes when we least expect it. Additionally, I’m also humored by folks who talk a great game but really don’t walk the walk. At the moment of truth, better a J-frame in the pocket than a customized 1911 in the glove box. Spend some hard earned cash on a good concealment holster and try to blend in. I go to great lengths to avoid the “contractor casual look” (BDUs, vest, boots & stylish shades) when running errands around town. Look like a nerd, jock or biker, not a man with a gun. I want the bad guys to be really surprised.
Like the Boy Scouts, you too should be prepared. Get some training, including some basic empty hands techniques. Tune into the proper mind set and carry that handgun wherever it is legally permissible. With your priorities squared away, you can maintain control over your immediate environment. You will be ready.
Dave Explains The NESS Brothers
If there is one “truth” in all of the lessons I have learned it is combat is 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental. John Steinbeck was absolutely correct when he said “The final weapon is the brain, all else is supplemental.” Weapons are a means to an end, not the end result. Gun people have a fascination with gear which is fine, but gear does not win the fight. The battle is won via the preparation that goes into the fight before it ever happens and the best fight is the one that never takes place. I remain amazed at the number of people who attend combative training and look forward to being in some type of altercation. It doesn’t matter if it is hand to hand, knife or gun training, here is always some wanna- be Ninja at the end of the course that can’t wait to be “tested” or get a “notch in their gun”. It’s as if they feel they will be part of some warrior club or Ninja fraternity with a greater status in life. They picture themselves the heroic victor instead of the dead schmuck. Let me give you a piece of harsh reality…every time one enters conflict they run the risk of losing! It doesn’t matter how much training you have, skilled you are or how many muscles, s@it happens and nothing can assure victory.
Even the great warrior philosopher Sun Tzu understood that the best battle was the one that never takes place. I believe there to be a Hierarchy of Threat Management that goes in this order: avoid, evade and counter. Conflict should be avoided at all costs. Don’t go to the bad parts of town, don’t hang out with questionable people, don’t commit criminal acts…basically don’t do stupid stuff, it’s that simple. That said, Murphy is alive and well and sometimes will deal us a crummy hand. Your car breaks down in a bad area of town, you make a wrong turn and get lost in “no man’s land” or you just happen to cross paths with someone who likes violence. In such situations the best thing to do is avoid conflict. If you have a flat tire, drive on the rim until you get to a more secure place, after all, you can buy a new rim but not a new life. If you see someone walking toward you that doesn’t look right, change directions, go into a store, turn around…do anything but make contact with someone who might do you harm. But if conflict comes your way and after your best attempts to avoid and evade have failed, then you must counter with GREAT enthusiasm! This is not the time to worry about liability or legal ramifications. It is the time to be an active participant in your own rescue! To think about what may happen in court after the fact will just hinder your ability to fight so don’t think about it!
For years I have advocated what I call “The NESS Brothers” as a way to remind me and my students of the proper mode of thought as I go through life. Avoidance and evasion are achieved through greater awareness while countering a threat is all but impossible without the willingness to do so. If I were to make The NESS Brothers look like a mathematical equation, it would look like this:
AwareNESS + WillingNESS = Prevail!
Both of these words mean multiple things beyond the obvious. Yes, awareness means knowing what is going on around you at all times, but is also means knowing what is normal in the environment in which you live and work, what and who should be there and what/who should not. I believe that human beings really do have a Sixth Sense (no, not talking to dead people) that tells them when something is out of kilter, the hair on the back of the neck, gut feeling or women’s intuition…whatever, but listen to it! Doing so may require no more action than just standing back and watching for a few moments but what I can tell you is whenever you are in doubt about something, there is no doubt…don’t! If you don’t know, don’t go.
Willingness is certainly being willing to do whatever it takes to prevail. Forget “survive”, that’s what you do when you have no say in what is about to happen, it means “to remain in existence” and I want to WIN! The concept of willingness has never been better expressed than in John Wayne’s last movie THE SHOOTIST when he explains to Ron Howard about gun fighting:
“It’s not being fast or even accurate that counts, it’s being willing! I found out early that regardless of cause or need most men aren’t willing. They’ll blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger and I won’t!”
After decades of study and many interviews, I have come to realize the advantage in armed conflict does not go to the man (or woman) who can shoot the tightest group or the fastest string of shots, it goes to the one who is the most ruthless, the one who kills without thought or reservation and that is very few of us. Mindset is defined as “a course of action based on a previous decision, a set path based on reason and intellect” and few normal people think about killing another human being ahead of time, most will find such thought disturbing or at least a bit strange, but it is the single biggest factor in whether or not you will win in armed conflict! It is what willingness is all about. Part of my controlled paranoia is having a plan to kill everyone I come in contact with. It’s not that I want to; it’s that I will and to be quite frank, it gives me a certain peace of mind regardless of how demented it might seem.
Willingness also means being willing to train/prepare at your own expense, willing to buy whatever equipment you might need and being willing to stay abreast of new information or techniques. The NESS Brothers is really a lifestyle commitment to ensure that when danger comes to visit you or your loved ones, you will have the wherewithal to take action no matter how much you may not want to. In the end, it is all up to you…plan wisely.
2 X 2 X 2 Drill from Dave Spaulding
The price of ammunition has doubled since I retired from law enforcement and while the supply shortage has ebbed, the price has not receded and I doubt it ever will. Because of this, I remain a supporter of dry fire training as many combative pistol skills can be mastered without ever firing a shot. That said, the most essential of fundamental skills requires live fire and for most of us, a lot of it! Trigger control is the separation of the index finger from the rest of the hand. It is in direct contradiction to how the hand is designed to work which is four fingers working together in opposition to the thumb. We perform functions using the hand like this hundreds, if not thousands, of times a day which makes isolating the index finger while depressing the trigger all the more challenging.
Because ammunition is a costly commodity, I am a fan of drills that reinforce the fundamentals while using a minimal number of rounds. Well known drills like Jeff Cooper’s El Presidente’, Bill Roger’s Bill Drill and Todd Green’s F.A.S.T. are excellent examples of what I am talking about. I shoot these drills during my training sessions as a way to determine where I am lacking and if it is not a trigger or recoil control problem, I will work on it dry. One of my favorite drills is not well known but remains a challenge even though I have shot it for years. I was first introduced to this drill while attending John Shaw’s Mid-South Institute for Self Defense Shooting in the 1990’s. I was talking to a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces and he told me the drill was used as a way to get unit members to keep their pistol skills sharp.
This soldier told me that a call to shoot the 2 x 2 x 2 drill could come at any time…you could be standing in the chow line when called out and if you could not perform it on demand, a remedial course of fire would be required. What is it? It’s shooting 2 rounds in 2 seconds at 2o feet from the holster on a 3 x 5 card. In the case of the soldier who passed it on it was from a leg holster (back then the holster was worn high on the leg just below the armor or carrier vest. The practice of wearing the gun low on the thigh is a new phenomenon and actually slows the draw, not make it faster) but I shoot it from concealment. It’s a matter of your real world of work…if you wear a duty rig, that’s how you should shoot it. Thigh rig, chest rig, concealment? Keep it real. Unless you are one of the characters on the current edition of Hawaii Five 0 and walk around in plainclothes with an exposed gun, shooting it from open carry would be a waste.
Start shooting the drill with the card upright as (believe it or not) it makes the drill easier to shoot due to the path of recoil. If you want more of a challenge, turn it sideways. The drill tests your ability to draw smoothly and direct the gun to a precise location, which could be viewed as shot placement. Then you must control the trigger, not once but twice while controlling the gun’s recoil, i.e. the fast follow-up shot that might be needed to stop a determined assailant. Considering 1/16th of an inch of muzzle movement translates to a 4.5 inch miss at 20 feet it is easy to see just how much control is required. I shoot this drill in all of my classes and while my students think it is great fun, they also find it to be quite a challenge. Give it a try yourself…it tests a number of fundamental…no, essential skills with just a few quick rounds.
Stay safe and check 360 often!
What does it take to become a Gunfighter?
A question that a serious student of the combative pistol has probably asked him/herself countless times. As Dave explained, it is a combination of proper mindset and tactics, training and gear selection, and the ability to use the firearm in an environment that seems to be nothing short of "all hell breaking loose." I describe all of this as a journey in becoming a student of the combative pistol, so we can then in turn prepare ourselves to become a gunfighter. Without all the criteria successfully met, (well-ahead of time I may add) one cannot expect to prevail in a lethal force encounter. It is not something we can dig deep down inside our souls to find and hope it’s there when we need it. Our actions and responses have to be NOW! They have to be well rehearsed and at our disposal at all times.
Any serious student of combative pistol craft will tell you it requires a lot of hard work and preparation. As the SAS motto goes..."Train hard, fight easy." To become better at anything in life you must practice to get better. Early in my law enforcement career, I was told by a veteran officer, "Learn your craft." So I did, especially when it came to the use of my duty weapon, which would be called upon to prevail in a lethal force encounter. As Sean Connery said to Kevin Costner in The Untouchables, “The first rule of law enforcement is to go home at the end of your shift.” Whether you’re a police officer, military personnel, or legally armed citizen, your priority should be to go home at the end of the day. Ask yourself a very simple question: Am I confident with my present ability to WIN an armed encounter? Be honest with yourself. It is your life!
As you will find out in preparation tips, there are a lot of requirements that are needed for you to be prepared. Just because we have a CCW permit or successfully passed the police academy does not mean we are prepared to fight for our lives. Just because I own a set of drums doesn't make me a musician anymore than owning a firearm makes me a gunfighter.
Being a firearms instructor for most of my law enforcement career, I have discovered that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I find myself training officers in spite of themselves. One must understand that being a student of the combative pistol is an education that is never quite finished. It is a quest that we embark upon never quite reaching the pinnacle. My grandfather had a saying..."Good, better, best never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best." If you look at it from a school level, most people never finish kindergarten when it comes to firearms training. Yet so many of these people carry a firearm to defend their lives! Get better—continue your education striving to finish school, onto college, and strive for that PHD in Gunfighter 101!!
"What is a Gunfighter" By Dave Spaulding
The term gunfighter is batted around as often as the over-worked terms “Operator” or “Warrior”, which is too bad, as gunfighter is a name that holds deep historical significance in American society. I am a serious student of the Old West. I have made the “pilgrimage” to such places as Tombstone to see where the gunfight behind the O.K. Corral took place; to walk the ground where the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday confronted the Cowboys. I went to Deadwood to see where Wild Bill Hickok met his demise, and “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson allegedly confronted two men at the same time in front of the cemetery at the end of town. I have tried to find out what Bat Masterson, Tom Horn, Luke Short, Pat Garrett, Ben Thompson and their like thought and felt about the “business” they had undertaken in their own words, a task that is all but impossible due to the lack of “literary quality” at the time. Writers were not interested in the truth as much as they were interested in selling papers and dime novels…something that remains unchanged to this day.
Still, there is much to learn from the gunfighters of yesterday, as not that much has changed. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say that most everything we need to know about gun fighting was invented between 1840 and 1940, with little being new since that time. My grandmother liked to say, “What is old will be new again”, and I’ll be darned if she wasn’t right! If you want to learn something new, read an old book as it is probably in there. Weaver or Isosceles stance?! Nothing new here. I have a book from 1929 that shows a line drawing of a shooter with two hands on a revolver. Point shooting?! Nope! It didn’t start with Eric Sykes (Fairbairn often gets the credit, but the methodology taught was Sykes) as a member of “Shootists” from the 19th Century talk about “directing their fire” via body index. While it is true that men like Sykes and Jeff Cooper refined the techniques and quantified their value, little is really new in regards to pistol shooting.
What separated the gunfighter of the Old West was not technique or the weapons they used; it was their ability to be willing to stand up and exchange rounds with another human being! It wasn’t lack of fear as much as it was an ability to control it, swallow it and put it out of their mind that made them dangerous. Bat Masterson, the legendary law man from Dodge City, Kansas once said that the three attributes of a gunfighter were 1. Deliberation 2. Accuracy 3. Speed, in that order. While accuracy and speed are obvious, the word “deliberation” needs to be explored just a bit. Trying to discover what Masterson meant by this is challenging, but I believe that I have a grasp of it based on his writings and the writing of historians who studied his life. I think that Masterson meant deliberation as the personal attribute possessed by the gunman who would confront and deliberately fight another human being, knowing they could lose their life while doing so, but still undertaking the task. The level of deliberation required to confront another armed and dangerous human being, knowing that you could lose your life, is huge and cannot be minimized…few men have the “sand” to do so, even to this day.
In the novel The Shootist, main character J.B. Books puts the concept into perspective when he tells young stable boy Gillom, “It’s not about being fast or even accurate that counts…it’s being willing! Most men, regardless of cause or need, aren’t willing. They’ll blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger and I won’t” Yep, it’s about being ruthless enough to KILL another human being face-to-face, but only with due cause. What is a gunfighter? He’s a man (or woman!) who understands that his lifestyle might take him into harm’s way and prepares for it, not only by buying the best gear possible, but by “steeling” their mind to confront those that would do them harm. They make ready for this by training and practicing for potential conflict, but they are not overly paranoid…they are prepared!
In the coming weeks and months, Templar Custom Arms will continue to offer this series of Preparation Tips, most of which will be authored by my good friend, Vince Barnes. Vince is a life-long law enforcement officer and student of armed conflict, having graduated from a number of advanced shooting schools. I hope that you will check back regularly and learn from the lessons that Vince will provide. I don’t think you will be sorry. Stay safe, alert and check your 360 often!
Dave Spaulding is a retired Lieutenant with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Dayton, Ohio. He worked in all facets of law enforcement, including SWAT, training, undercover operations and violent crime investigations. He is a graduate of most of the better known shooting schools, and the author of over 1,000 articles in firearm and law enforcement publications. He is the author of the two best selling books Defensive Living and Handgun Combatives.