Posted on 02/23/2015 4:38:31 AM PST by marktwain
Gun people love training. They revel in expertise. They gush over the incredible feats that expert gun users, from Annie Oakley to Jerry Miculek, can accomplish. Do not mistake me. I approve of training. Training is good. I have trained a lot of hours... and days... and years... and decades. I have trained military, police, and civilians. But large numbers of people use handguns very successfully with little or no training.
A case in point occurred recently in Ohio. From 10tv.com:
“She was armed and apparently fired multiple shots at him,” said Sgt. Dave Sicilia.While we cannot be sure that the armed homeowner had no training, the article does not mention any. It is implied that the son never expected his mother to actually fire the firearm. I have read numerous accounts of how people have not handled a gun for decades; then pick it up and use it effectively. Guns are designed to be easily used and to point naturally at the target.
The woman’s son says he bought the gun for her a week ago to keep her safe now that she is living alone, but he never thought she would actually have to use it.
Police believe the suspect also broke into neighboring homes.
Nearby residents heard the shot.
"I got up and looked into my kids’ room and made sure they were all right,” said one person.
The burglary suspect was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. He was pronounced dead shortly before 7:00 a.m.
That’s plausible. I have used a firearm twice for self defense. In both cases I made it clear to the perp that I had one; both perps immediately remembered some sort of pressing engagement elsewhere ...
One just has to watch you tube videos of self-defense shootings to see just how poorly trained some users are.
But yet they prevail over the criminals that are attacking them.
It all goes back to the number one rule have a gun.
“Myth: You Must Be Highly Trained for Successful Handgun use”
True, look at the fuzz. Most of them can’t hit the broad
side of a barn. Their average is 30 rounds fired to one hit.
Why is that? A gun instructor i had said the same thing. I would expect a trained carpenter to hit the head of a nail 90% of the time,
I got involved with action shooting in 2000. I disliked it. I was trained by dad who fought as a Marine in the Pacific in WW 2, how to shoot. I was taught to squeeze off shots. Not run around and shoot a bunch of targets in a certain order with only enough accuracy to hit center mass. Though I shot action matches for 7 years I was much better picking my targets at my leisure and squeezing off bullseyes.
I can draw and get on target pretty fast but my prime gun practice is to use ‘ the Patriot’s’ lesson to his boys. “Aim Small Miss Small “.
That’s just me, everyone needs to pick their own way.
Most handguns never fire 1,000 rounds. But they are used effectively by many people.
Some people, too, have a knack for things.
For example, I was not highly trained (no practice shots) with my new crossbow 6 months ago.
Yet with 4 raccoons (that had killed chickens and pillaged my trashcans), the first 4 bolts I fired from crossbow ever, were direct hits (kills) on the raccoons. Illuminated sight made it easier, too.
“When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk” Tuco from The Good the Bad & the Ugly
Si!
God made man but Samuel Colt made them equal
I have considerable experience driving nails and even though I haven’t done much of it lately I think I could still hit the head of a nail with a hammer about 98% of the time. As for shooting, I laughed at all the speculation about the DC snipers, so-called experts were saying that they OBVIOUSLY had to be trained by the military simply because of successful head shots at relatively short ranges. My father never served a day in the military and would not spend money for ammunition to practice with but he could take the eyes out of a squirrel at a hundred feet with a bolt action .22 loaded with shorts and with open sights. I am fairly certain that something the size of a human head would have been easy for him at a hundred YARDS even when he was eighty years old, especially with a .223 and telescopic sights. If you want to shoot like Annie Oakley you need to shoot every day but someone who has never fired a gun before can hit a man sized target at twenty feet first try if it is just a target. The main reason for all the misses, at least in my opinion, is nerves. A person who is defending his life for the first time with a weapon is apt to be very shaky. It is of no benefit to be able to shoot like Annie Oakley at targets if you are as shaky as Barney Fife when you need to hit a home invader. That is the real need for training, to be able to remain calm enough to shoot back under fire and days spent shooting targets don’t guarantee that.
Watch any video dash-cam of a cop who is surprised by a thug pulling a gun. It is bedlam.
How often is the nail hitting back?
One of my firearms instructors told me the FBI estimates there are between 2 million and 5 million legal defensive uses of firearms per year. Most go unreported to police, many “reported” or called in to police generate no official paperwork. The instructor himself had done that. Stopped a carjacking of his truck, not shots, no personal nor property damage (perp ran away scared). Called it in, no action taken. My own mother scared away someone lurking outside her open bedroom window with the classic racking of here 12 GA pump. He (probably a he) took off stumbling and crashing through the landscaping. Mom fixed it up but never even called it in.
So yes, I believe that literally hundreds of times per day firearms stop bad situations from escalating to worse. I know of these two examples out of a small group of family and friends who own/carry firearms. I also know a few people who did not or do not who have had bad things happen to them including one rape. I am convinced, overall, firearms save lives and reduce violence.
The point of the better action shooting games is to introduce stress into the accuracy equation, mimicking in a small way the stress of a self-defense situation.
Shooting accurately and quickly under stress is obviously a much different thing than carefully squeezing off shots at paper targets.
depends on what they mean by ‘highly trained’
Good advice and worth repeating. My dad (Army Weapons Specialist) taught me the same. 'Bring the sights to target, take half a breath, squeeze the trigger.'
I think many LEO misses are due to the constant message of 'draw, fire, keep firing until the threat is stopped.'
I think that message works as long as you have superior numbers, but what happens when the ammo runs out?
Better advice might be to simply, 'make every shot count'.
I agree. Entirely plausible.
I’ve used a handgun for self defense at least 5 times without firing a shot and a shotgun twice to deter a home burglary without firing a shot.
Those same videos show how poorly trained the criminals are.
I
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