With respect to sights many if not most self defense shootings are close range, arm distance affairs where the traditional two hand point from the shoulder technique is tantamount to giving the threat the weapon. Therefore a good self defense training regimen will include shooting from weapon retention positions, one handed, bent elbow ( elbow grounded to the side) with the free hand grounded on your body as well to prevent shooting it. A good technoque is to ground your free hand on your temple, wrist facing in or to the rear. This protects your neck and head like a high boxer guard and the larger vessels inside the arm and elbow.
You have to create the space first because you do not want to draw on a guy while grappling with them - you need that space first, not much space, but enough to draw and fire on them without losing the weapon.
This is the kind of instinctive shooting to practice. Anything outside of a few paces should not be instinctive at all but deliberately aimed. We train so that our training allows us to rise above our instincts and follow proven procedures to survive, and that includes using the front sight. If you dont, you will miss. You will miss and not stop the threat and worse may even hit an innocent.
Many police officers, especially those in non gun friendly areas are not gun enthusiasts, dont train, but they do qual. They are not the same thing, it is rare for someone in my requals for a federal agency to not pass, and to be honest if they do not train on their own they will not be prepared, "qualified" or not. This is why the hit percentage in police shootings is sometimes very low, leading to incidents such as the one in NY where 16 rounds were fired at a man by two police officers and ended up wounding nine innocent bystanders, three of whom were shot directly and six who caught errant ricochets.
We can and must do better than that, using training to modify our initial instincts. If we do we will not only increase our own odds of survival (a moderate speed hit is far more effective than three fast misses) but greatly increase the safety of others as well. The whole point of training is to learn to modify our actions to produce a specific result. Outside of weapons retention shooting positions that should include the front sight.
You have to create the space first because you do not want to draw on a guy while grappling with them - you need that space first, not much space, but enough to draw and fire on them without losing the weapon.
This is the kind of instinctive shooting to practice. Anything outside of a few paces should not be instinctive at all but deliberately aimed. We train so that our training allows us to rise above our instincts and follow proven procedures to survive, and that includes using the front sight. If you dont, you will miss. You will miss and not stop the threat and worse may even hit an innocent.
Many police officers, especially those in non gun friendly areas are not gun enthusiasts, dont train, but they do qual. They are not the same thing, it is rare for someone in my requals for a federal agency to not pass, and to be honest if they do not train on their own they will not be prepared, "qualified" or not. This is why the hit percentage in police shootings is sometimes very low, leading to incidents such as the one in NY where 16 rounds were fired at a man by two police officers and ended up wounding nine innocent bystanders, three of whom were shot directly and six who caught errant ricochets.
We can and must do better than that, using training to modify our initial instincts. If we do we will not only increase our own odds of survival (a moderate speed hit is far more effective than three fast misses) but greatly increase the safety of others as well. The whole point of training is to learn to modify our actions to produce a specific result. Outside of weapons retention shooting positions that should include the front sight.
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