Why Should You Get Defensive Firearms Training?

… because you can over-train for some things, but not for a violent armed encounter.

… because you want to survive a violent armed encounter.

… because your loved ones and friends want you to survive a violent armed encounter. 

And the rest of the reasons I gave are over on The Personal Defense Network. Go check it out. 

Think Fast.

This video from a successful carjacking in Johannesburg is downright frightening.

Welcome to Worst-Case-Scenario-Land, population: You. 

What could you do in this scenario? Well, not a lot, even if you’re armed because the crooks are on their prey in mere seconds. They’re professional, they’ve done it before and it shows.They have the car blocked in and a gun on the driver on the right side from the start of things, and then seconds later another car comes in to seal off the exit.

This is another extension of the problems of training with just one tool. Sometimes, there’s not a gun solution or a non-lethal solution: There’s no solution: You’ve lost even before the fight started.

We can train, we can practice, we can carry every day, but sometimes, the bad guys win.

The trick is to reduce the number of times they win.

Should you carry a gun?

That’s a fair question to ask. Let’s assume, first off, that you CAN carry a gun with you on a regular basis. There are lots of people (my wife included) who, because of their work environment, can’t carry a concealed firearm around with them on a regular basis. If that’s the case, this discussion is moot. 

But if you can carry, should you carry? Consider this recent post on Reddit.com. 

I live in a small town in Iowa. A couple years ago I applied for and received my concealed carry permit. I have a G26 with a crossbreed supertuck to go with it, and I have a Ruger LCP. I would carry one of these every day, everywhere I went, religiously, for quite a while.

This past summer, I decided to stop carrying. I decided it’s just not worth it for me. It’s not worth the pain in the ass to put it on, it’s not worth the weight and discomfort, it’s not worth introducing a firearm into every single encounter in my daily life. It’s not worth it to me, for the one in a million chance that I might ever maybe possibly need to use it. 

Is that person right? Is carrying a firearm not worth the trouble, given the “one-in-a-million” chance you’ll need to use it? 

Depends. I carry a first aid kit in my car: Am I expecting to be first on the scene at a major traffic accident? No. Have I needed it to patch up the scrapes and cuts of my pre-teen sons? Oh yeah. 

The knowledge and assurance that you are ready and able to deal with what life throws at you can be a powerful, powerful thing, and when you need a gun, there aren’t a whole lot of things you can use as a substitute. 

Should you carry a gun? Can you think of something in your life worth dying for? Would rather die for it or live for it? 

Then decide.

The Gun Solution

Interesting scenario. 

I like this quite a lot, although I’m not a big fan of off-body carry in a purse, bag or anything else.  Why? Because that’s what crooks target first. Heck, there’s even a type of crook that does (what for it) purse-snatching as a primary means of being a crook.

However, the video does make a good point that a person putting their hand into a bag to grab a gun looks like a person putting their hand into a bag, and nothing more than that. 

I also like how they teach that going for the gun first could be a very, very bad thing. There’s a need for civilians with concealed carry permits to get the sort of “Force Continuum” training that cops get. If we carry a gun, we tend to see a threat in terms of a gun problem. If we’re trained in the martial arts, we see it as a punch, kick or throw problem.

If we’re unarmed and unaware, well, it’s a problem. Period. 

Competition is a mind game

There are many reasons why I recommend that at some point, new gun owners shoot a practical pistol match. 

1. There is no better way to find out if your choice of gun, holster and gear will work under stressful conditions than at a shooting match.
2. You are solving somebody else’s problem with a gun in your hand, which is exactly what will happen if you need to use lethal force: Somebody else started the problem, you need to solve it. 
3. You will find out how your brain does (or doesn’t work) under stress. 

To that last point: 

I shot an International Defensive Pistol (IDPA) Match this week with my co-bloggers, and totally and completely messed up the first two stages. IDPA is notorious for it’s rules, which are, in theory, designed to help re-create what might be found if you need (God Forbid) to use your firearm to save your life. Two of those rules are you shoot the targets in the designated order and you don’t discard a partially loaded magazine. 

Watch as I break both of those rules on the first stage, but recover and turn in a pretty good run (for me) on the second stage. 

The stress that a a practical pistol match puts on you is 1/10th (if that…) of the real thing.

But that’s 1/10th more than most people (thankfully) will have to face in their lives, which is why it’s a good idea for anyone who owns a pistol for self-defense to give it a try at least once. 

Who knows, you might like it. 

If you’ve bought a gun for self-protection, you’re not alone.

Gallup polled gun owners asking them why they own a gun, and personal protection was the #1 reason given. 

 

Americans who say they personally own a gun were asked this open-ended question in Gallup’s Oct. 3-6 annual Crime poll. These 309 gun owners were allowed to provide up to three reasons they own guns.

After personal safety and hunting, general mentions of recreation or sport are third (13%) among the reasons gun owners chose to own a firearm, with 8% citing target shooting.

Only 5% of American gun owners cite “Second Amendment rights,” despite its frequent use as an argument against gun control. Three percent say they own a gun related to their line of work in the police or military. Collecting guns as a hobby and euthanizing sick animals or pest control had few mentions.

Ummn, having a gun for personal protection IS an argument against gun control and ever since Heller vs. DC, it IS protected by the Second Amendment. Only 5% of gun owners gave that as a reason why they own guns, but the fact is, the Second Amendment is the real reason we all can protect ourselves and our loved ones with a gun,

What Is “Enough Gun”?

Earlier this month, I wrote a piece on concealed carry guns for women at Shooting Illustrated that’s proven to be quite popular with men and women alike. One of the consistent comments I’ve had about the article is that some of the guns that were a popular choice for concealed carry, like the NAA .22 Revolver and the Kel-Tec PMR30 are in “sub-optimal” calibers for personal defense. 

Which begs the question, what is an “optimal caliber” for self-defense, and what happens if you go over or under it?

Well, that’s kinda like asking what is the best car: You’re going to get a lot of answers, and they all depend on the  context. Most experts will tell you, though, that something in the range of 9mm-.45ACP range is where you want to be, and in that range, I personally prefer 9mm, but smart people disagree on this issue, so there is no “right choice”. 

What happens when you chose a gun that’s in a smaller caliber, like .380 ACP or .22 Magnum? Well, you need to make up for the lighter, slower bullets in those guns by throwing out more of them at your target. 

I carry a Kel-Tec P3AT in .380 ACP on a regular basis, and that is considered by some to be “sub-optimal” because it fires a lighter  bullet at slower speeds than it’s bigger cousin, the 9mm. I make up for this fact by putting a laser sight on it to make sure my bullets go where I want them to. I don’t feel “undergunned” when I carry the P3AT, because I’ve practiced with that gun enough to know its limitations and can work around them. Is it my first choice in a defensive gun? No, if given the choice, I want to have a rifle with me if I can. Actually, I want a whole bunch of people with rifles with me (Like, say, a company of Marines) if *know* I’ll be getting into trouble on any given day. 

But I don’t know that on any given day. All I know is that I can carry small, lightweight guns in small, lightweight calibers almost everywhere I go, which fulfills the first rule of a gunfight, namely, have a gun. 

Having “enough gun” is something I’ll leave for another day.

Stay safe no matter where you go.

Let’s talk for a moment about a few other options for personal defense that DON’T involve a firearm. If you work in a location that bans “weapons” such as most knives and all guns, there are still a lot of self-defense options available to you. Here’s some suggestions that I’ve found might work in more restrictive locations, but as always, these are suggestions, and use them at your own risk.

First off, use your brain, and don’t do dumb things in dumb places with dumb people.

Secondly, have a good, strong, bright flashlight with you, and use it whenever you go out at night. That mugger in the parking lot might pass you by and find an easier target if you walk out of your building shining a flashlight that could light up a small neighborhood. In addition to this, that flashlight makes a DANDY striking tool if (God forbid) the worst happens and you’re attacked.

Thirdly, just because you can’t have a gun or a knife with you doesn’t mean you’re unarmed. Some options for self-defense besides a flashlight might be:

• Keep a can of wasp spray in your desk. It’s nasty, nasty stuff and foams up very nicely, blocking the bad guy’s vision and impairing his breathing.
• Fire extinguishers. Like wasp spray, they block vision and impair breathing and are 100% innocuous.
• A hammer. No one will bat an eye if you have a hammer in your desk for small repairs or hanging pictures, but they make a heck of a weapon if needed. War hammers were the weapon of choice in Western Europe for hundreds of years, so they should work for you, too.
• Multitool blades. No, they’re not a Spyderco or Benchmade, yes, they are better than harsh language, and no one will freak if you have a pair of pliers, a bottle opener and a nail file near you.

But as I said at the start, the most powerful weapon you have (and the only one you really need) is what’s in-between your ears. Situational awareness, or paying attention to what you’re paying attention to, will help you avoid the trouble in the first place. 

And no trouble is just the kind of trouble you want to have.

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