The 2nd (arbitrarily ordered) rule in my collection of rules that may save your life is “Get Away ASAP”.
After each range test, I usually ‘de-brief’ the class by asking a few questions:
- Did you notice that it was actually hard to miss the target at 3 yards?
- Did you notice that it was a little more challenge to hit the center-of-mass at 7 yards?
- Did you notice that it was a little more challenge to hit the target at all at 15 yards?
So far, I’ve only had two students who shot a ‘one-hole’ range test in the 9 years that I’ve been teaching this. One was a retired Los Angeles cop, and the other was a retired air marshall. Most CHL instructors, including me, don’t shoot a one-hole range test.
As an interesting side note, one of the inserts in my instructor packet refers to the 3-yard test as the “point-shoot” test, although the instructor trainer never referred to it that way, and I have never taught or encouraged “point-shoot” technique. I’ll get to my reasons for that in a later post.
One advantage that most (not all, unfortunately) CHL holders have is that they actually practice marksmanship, and a 15-yard shot to the center-of-mass should not be much of a problem for someone who gets out to the range frequently. The bad guys tend to have little or no practice with their handguns. There are exceptions, of course, but the typical low-life is so caught up with the movie stereotypes that he tends to have a number a misconceptions about gunfighting, one of which is that it doesn’t take any skill or practice.
If you should find yourself in a situation where someone is pulling a gun on you, your best course of action is usually to RUN, in a crouched position in a zig-zag path. The bad guy is usually under a lot of stress, which, lucky for you, hurts marksmanship a lot. Shooting under stress usually (not always) causes the shots to go high (which is the reason the DPS re-designed their standard target a few years ago), so running crouched reduces the chances of getting shot. The zig-zag path also interferes with the bad guy’s aim. Your immediate goal should be to get at least 15 yards away, preferably behind something, before trying to return fire. If you are really lucky, you might not have to return fire, but if you do, you will at least have the advantage of superior marksmanship. (You DO practice regularly, right?)
Of course, one of the things you should do in your dry-firing practice is practice drawing from concealment while running crouched in a zig-zag.
Please note that this will not guarantee your survival, only increase your chances.
