P2
Coming into firing position quickly is essential in Close Contact Focus Firing. The drawing of the handgun or presentation of the long gun should be practiced over and over until it is fluid. Draw or present on yourself in the mirror, it may seem childish, but you may see sloppiness and correct yourself on the spot. When the firing hand goes into the holster to retrieve the handgun that initial grip is your firing grip, you should not have to adjust it once you have brought the weapon out of the holster. Bringing the weapon into a presentation should be smooth not jerky like your yanking lint out of your pocket. Depending on the threat range you can draw and fire from the Close in Ready, High Compressed Ready, Single Hand Cant, and Two Hand Isosceles. The presentation of the long gun should be natural as though it is an extension of your body, not as if you operating a machine, but as if the long gun is a part of you. The firing stance and position of presentation is determined by the distance to the threat and your physical disposition. You?re not going to get knocked down by a threat and wait to get up before drawing and firing, you are going to fire from the ground and more than likely fire with a one or two hand presentation. When confronted with a threat while you?re standing and at very close range, you will more than likely present, fire, and create distance all at once.
A possibility that you would fire from two or three positions are not beyond reason, you may draw or present and fire with one hand with a handgun and transition into a two hand grip firing again while creating distance if the threat is still a danger to you. While in a firearm presentation you must be capable of putting effective controlled fire on the threat. You must maintain that boxer orientation to the target and just naturally point your hands at the threat, present the weapon, and fire if need be. Standing with your feet parallel like on small railroad tracks and occupying the triangular space gives you consistency and consistent action leads to predictable points of impact.
We never know what exactly it may take to protect ourselves. There may be an instance where we could just show a threat our handgun and they will retreat, that would be the best case scenario. A time may arise where we could shoot a threat in the leg and only wound them and they could no longer assault us. How wonderful it would be if we knew what someone was thinking, especially if that person was wielding a gun or a knife and threatening us. A reasonable person has the right to believe that a person assaulting them with a weapon or physical force has full intention to inflict serious bodily harm.
Yes, there are threats out there who use fear and would just runaway if someone even resisted slightly and there are threats who would just as soon kill you as look at you. How does someone tell the difference? You can?t! They don?t wear a sign that says ?Resist and I?ll Runaway?. You can?t tell the difference between the two. There are three things that must be present in order to warrant a response of deadly force. First is intent, a threat has in some way demonstrated intent to inflict bodily harm or death. Second is ability, does the threat have the ability to inflict serious harm or death, like a gun, knife, blunt object, or overwhelming size or ability when compared to you. Third is opportunity, does the threat have the opportunity to inflict serious harm or death. When these three factors are present and you are in fear of your life as a reasonable person of sound mind and judgment you have a right to respond with appropriate level of force.
I shall elaborate and give some examples to clarify the prior statement. Intent someone is being aggressive in nature towards you either verbally or by action ?I?m going to kill you? or coming at you with a weapon. Ability, they are pointing a gun at you or wielding a knife in an aggressive manner that leads you to believe they are intending to do harm. Opportunity, they are close enough to use deadly force, close enough to strike you or shoot you. A threat may have intent to harm you but if they do not have opportunity or the ability they cannot harm you.
Someone holding a knife not within stabbing distance may have intent and ability but not opportunity. Someone wielding a gun may have ability to harm you from a greater distance and they have the ability but maybe intent is not present. If the threat with a gun is pointing the weapon at you, you have reason to believe they have intent and obviously they have the ability and opportunity. A threat with a knife has ability and is too far away to have opportunity but if they begin to aggressively advance on you they are demonstrating intent to do harm and they are attempting to obtain opportunity. Now if a threat is unarmed but is of overwhelming size and ability and you could not possibly protect yourself physically and intent, ability, and opportunity are present you may respond with force. For example a woman being assaulted by a man has more justification to use deadly force if being attacked by the superior physicality of a man. Age can also be a major factor, an old man or woman of limited physical ability can justify the use of deadly force against an unarmed younger physically superior threat. A man or woman threatened by multiple threats has reason to believe that numerical superiority warrants the use of greater force in self defense even if those threats are unarmed.
This is why Close Contact Focus Firing is important in armed self defense, because you never know what use of the firearm is appropriate to ensure your safety. A threat demonstrating intent, having ability, and opportunity must be reasonably met with the appropriate level of force to include deadly force. If you have reason to believe you are going to be killed or suffer serious bodily harm, that reason leads you to use a gun in self defense. If you feel you must fire to protect yourself, do so to inflict the maximum amount of trauma which is the only way to guarantee your survival.
You may face a threat that is prepared for resistance even armed resistance. They could be armed themselves; perhaps wearing body armor and maybe they even took narcotics to reduce the pain. A threat may be trained in the use of arms or has used deadly force before and is mentally prepared to inflict and endure harm. In the case of someone who is mentally and physically prepared, their adrenaline may be just enough to disregard pain and injury. For persons who pose an exceptional threat, there are target areas that can increase the effectiveness of your fired rounds. A threat you have engaged and repeatedly struck that is still posing a threat can be struck in the pelvis to incapacitate. An impact to the pelvis can cause serious arterial and bone structure damage that immobilizes a threat.
A round placed to the head particularly to the eye and nose area can penetrate the Neuromotor Strip in the brain and cause instant incapacitation, without involuntary or voluntary reflexive actions. This head shot is also effective with impacts to the side and back of the head but it must be in alignment with the eye and nose area. An impact to the spine can severe the spinal cord and cause paralysis below the severed section. A shot to the spinal cord must sever the Spinal Cord entirely in order to totally affect bodily function and stop the threat.
The Spinal Cord is protected by the bones in the back so therefore a direct hit by a high power center fire will prove most effective. After the Spinal Cord is severed instant paralysis will take place, however, even after fatal wounding, voluntary action can persist for ten to fifteen seconds. A well placed shot to the Neuromotor Strip is the only guarantee to instant incapacitation and death. However, in the heat of the engagement you must continue to place effective fire until the threat is no longer a threat. Do not rely on one round be prepared for numerous follow up shots.
When you have made the decision to use your weapon in self defense you must ensure there is nothing beyond the threat that you do not want to harm especially people. Even though you may hit the threat every time and use ammunition that is designed to not over penetrate there is no guarantee. You do not want to strike an unintended target. Even if the use of deadly force was appropriate in the given situation you may be fully liable for unintended harm done to others and property. You must use extremely good judgment when using a firearm in self defense. Close Contact Focus Firing greatly increases speed, accuracy, and effectiveness of handgun self defense, but it does not eliminate danger to others not involved.
When we as people are subjected to incidents of extreme stress, such as deadly force confrontations, we experience a heightened sense of alertness caused by increased blood flow to the major muscle groups. We also experience a rush of adrenaline that is enacted involuntarily by the physiological make up of our human body, our conscious mind shuts down and we react rather than think, our pupils dilate, and our vision narrows. This reactive mode is commonly cited by people who have been in combat as the ?fog of war?. They experience a mindset where they simply ?do? or ?do not?. This is called the ?fight or flight syndrome?.
Training cannot guarantee you will not hesitate when you have to do what is necessary to survive. Training, however, greatly increases the probability a person will respond appropriately when subjected to the situations for which they train. Even a person who is seasoned under extreme stress will experience the rush; they just may be able to control it better than people experiencing it for the first time. Management and control of stress varies from person to person, just as the reaction to either take up the fight or take flight.
When learning, we remember things in two parts, the intellectual part of our mind and in the primitive part. The intellectual part controls things we learn like reading, mathematics, recognizing colors, and even people?s faces etc. The primitive parts are things we do naturally like throw our hands up when someone throws something at us or pulling away from extreme heat or cold, the ?survival tools?. When training for high stress we must recognize that in these instances the primitive part, the need to survive, takes precedents. Through training we can bridge the gap between these two parts of our mind. The bridging in the mind is done by filling our head with information and acting it out physically. You can read this all day everyday and not be able to do it under extreme stress. By repetitive motion, we train our reflexes and reactions also known as muscle memory. Training the body goes hand in hand with training the mind for extreme stress. When tactical knowledge is processed from the intellect to the physical action of the body, it is stored in the primitive mind, as well, and becomes part of your survival mechanisms.
