So the student has worked hard with their defensive handgun to the point they can deliver relatively small groups on targets out to at least 25 yards. Now it is time to take those marksmanship skills and apply them to the business of gunfighting.
Once the fight has engaged, or is about to engage, we never take our eyes off the threat. That means that the management of our pistol and getting it into fight mode has to be second nature. We are not only focused on the threat, but focused on the exact spot on the threat where we intend to land our shots. Imagine, if you will, that the threat is wearing a work shirt, the kind with two breast pockets, centered between those two pockets is a shirt button and that is an excellent place to deliver the payload. Among other things, selecting a specific spot on the threat reduces the tendency to just throw bullets at him.
One problem to overcome is that we practice on paper or cardboard targets that are set so that they are squared and facing us. Then we are faced with an actual attacker who is standing sideways, or quartering towards us, something that we’ve never experienced in practice. So let’s go back to that high chest area and imagine that right inside there is an 8-inch balloon. Regardless of how the attacker is positioned and what your shooting angle is, you have to break that balloon to stop the fight. That gives you the three-dimensional perspective necessary to delivering a hit to the vitals.
Marksmanship is an important part of personal defense, but it is not the complete picture. We still need to learn how to apply those skills to this business of gunfighting. Identifying the potential threat (Code Orange) so that we are not surprised when it becomes an actual threat (Code Red) gives us something of an edge. Being able to draw and manage our defensive handgun without taking our eyes off of the threat gives us another bit of an edge. And then knowing just where we need our shots to impact in order to stop the fight is critical.
The crook has the advantage because he chooses when and where to make the attack. The best way we can overcome that advantage is through our superior training and practice. As a trained defensive shooter, attacking you should be the worst mistake that crook has ever made.
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