What Combat Handgunning
Really Requires For Success
SOME people regard the handgun as a target shooting, recreational, sporting device. Others consider the handgun to be a game-getting weapon. Both these objectives are perfectily legitimate. Indeed, there are handguns — and handgun modifications — specifically intended for either of those two purposes.
My view of the handgun is very specific and very limited. I am not a sportsman, and I am not a hunter. I respect fair-minded sportsmen, and understand that there will always be an overwhelming preponderance of shooters who prefer that aspect of shooting to any other. I respect hunters (and, indeed, would hunt, myself, were it not for an abundance of fresh meat and poultry that is easily obtained from local grocery stores), but am not a hunter of animals. For me, personally, the handgun — the sidearm — has one purpose: That of personal defense in situations where lethal force is necessary in order to protect life and limb against a close-range violent attack by a lethal felon.
Using a handgun properly in that particular context with which I am concerned (and for which I teach others who are similarly concerned) has a specific and proven methodology. That methodology is POINT SHOOTING. The system of “point shooting” is not new. It was first developed and systemized during the early part of the last century by William E. Fairbairn. Suffice it to say that there is no one in history who has had more documented, direct, personal experiences with lethal street violence of all types than Fairbairn. He was mentor to one of my own teachers, the late Col. Rex Applegate (who further advanced point shooting doctrine, during and after WWII) and trained both British and American secret servants and commandos. Anyone interested in reading the story of Fairbairn, Applegate, and point shooting, is referred to William Cassidy’s classic, QUICK OR DEAD, published by Paladin Press.
Anyone interested in learning how to point shoot, or learning more about the mechanics involved in this method of using a handgun in combat, is referred to KILL OR GET KILLED, by Rex Applegate, to SHOOTING TO LIVE, by William E. Fairbairn, and — again — to that section dealing with instruction that appears in QUICK OR DEAD.
Right now what I wish to address is something that is all but completely ignored (or not understood) by those who teach the combative employment of the handgun. It seems that even those who, correctly, advocate the proper point shooting method, neglect to stress to their students the literal heart and soul of that which is required in order to be able to prevail against a living, breathing killer. There is something much, much more important still, than the mechanical system of shooting. And, that is the balance that should be understood and appreciated by all who teach and train to use sidearms against human adversaries, that apportions the emphasis due each of the factors required in a program designed for REAL WORLD use of a fighting pistol.
First and foremost — and I realize that this is politically incorrect, socially unpalatable, and offensive to many — is the readiness and willingness to kill a human being, if and when necessary, without the slightest tremor of hesitation.
I know all about the idea of “shooting to stop” (a euphemism introduced by the man who gave us a competition method and insisted that we all regard it as some “new technique” of combat shooting). True enough, we DO shoot a person in order to stop him. But shooting him is applying DEADLY FORCE AGAINST HIM, and until or unless it literally is so absolutely imperative that a person be “stopped” that it does not matter if he is killed in the process, we do not shoot that person. Using any firearm against a human adversary is using deadly force, and we use deadly force when and if — and ONLY when and if — we are fully prepared, ready and willing, to kill that adversary.
Taking a life is something that combat shooting is all about. Unless we are fully and unhesitantly ready to do just that — and fully appreciate the meaning of the act that we undertake — we are not combatively prepared to use a handgun in combat/self-defense emergencies. Period.
Violent criminals often have the edge here. Notice how often violent lunatics kill better “trained” and better armed members of our law enforcement community. This tragedy occurs very often not because the officer who is murdered is “not as good with his weapon as the creature who murders him”, but because the scumbag who shoots the officer has not the slightest compunction about killing the officer! That the felon frequently employs an inferior weapon than that which the officer possesses, and/or that the felon has never had five minutes of “proper instruction” in how to use a handgun in combat, doesn’t matter, either. THE VIOLENT CRIMINAL IS READY AND WILLING TO KILL WITHOUT HESITATION. That’s his edge.
Winning medals for shooting paper targets has nothing to do with conditioning a man to take a human life. And it is, to repeat, TAKING A HUMAN LIFE that is the crux of the matter in preparing to use a handgun in personal defense. The person who is settled — really settled — on the matter, and who has not the slightest degree of doubt or hesitation regarding the act of killing, when killing is necessary and justifiable, is almost certainly the one who will prevail in any lethal, armed encounter IF . . .
He also possesses a proper degree of practical skill in point shooting, and if he employs good combat and personal security tactics.
Point shooting is combat shooting. The method has been proven in WAR as well as in peacetime (by both law enforcement and private individuals) to be the right way to use a sidearm in a deadly encounter at close quarters. There are those who continue to argue that the method has been “replaced” — but these individuals are basing their position upon competition experiences, and upon that which they practice at the range. Those who have done it for real and who do it for real understand that point shooting is the way to use a handgun against enemies who shoot back.
Point shooting enables a man to make the speediest and most efficient use of every phenomenon that occurs, mentally and physically, in a close range encounter. It is the skill that facilitates the mindset. Once ready and willing to kill, the individual armed with a pistol will be able to do it best and most reliably in a close range, quick reaction situation with POINT SHOOTING, than he possibly could by using any other method. Visually locking on to the enemy (the peripheral optic dysfunction phenomenon), crouching, convulsively seizing one’s weapon and pulling (not “squeezing”) the trigger, and losing one’s fine motor capacity while experiencing a jolt of adrenaline and an explosion of blood pressure, etc. — all these involuntary occurrences MAKE USE OF and do not work in opposition to, point shooting.
Good tactics are always important. Having one’s weapon out when one expects trouble; correct use of cover; applying good security precautions and procedures (whether one is a law enforcement officer, soldier, or private citizen); etc. and so on, are all necessary. The person who is 100% prepared to kill his enemy in combat, who has mastered the point shooting method, and who employs good tactic all of the time, is the one who may be regarded as a properly trained combative marksman.
I would sum it up by offering the following as an assessment of proper apportioning of the three key factors when considering how much of what contributes to genuine individual readiness:
• BEING READY AND WILLING TO KILL, WHEN THE NEED ARISES — 90%
• MASTERY OF POINT SHOOTING — 8%
• GOOD TACTICS — 2%
I hope that this brief presentation helps good people, in law enforcement, in our armed and intelligence services, and in the private sector, to be better prepared to use handguns to save their lives when doing so is unavoidably necessary.
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