Conservative Scalawag has some links to a few shooting videos, as well as some commentary. When say shooting, I mean these are actual shootings, of the self-defense variety. Most of us will never be so unfortunate to ever find ourselves in the situations these gentlemen do, but since we are people who sometimes go about armed, it’s important to study, learn, and to remind ourselves from time to time that self-defense with a firearm is a deadly, ugly business.
First the good:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3AA_dgRdDhk[/youtube]
This was a bad situation to begin with, the kid being on the counter. Truth be told, I wouldn’t blame anyone who decided, with the kid in the possible line of fire, the best thing is just to let the robbery progress and hope no one gets hurt. But we can’t see what the Robber is saying or how he’s behaving, and robberies can turn sour quite rapidly. For whatever reason, we don’t know, the clerk made the decision to shoot. The clerk smartly uses the woman to shield his draw from the robber, then surprises him, probably while his focus is on the register. Looks like his shots managed to find their mark, because you can see him covering the robber on the ground. It looks like this guy had thought about what he would do, trained, and executed it brilliantly.
Now for the not so good:
[youtube crtc7AN_Fxc]
I don’t like to ding anyone’s performance in a situation that’s fluid, charged full of adrenaline, and something that no one can ever prepare enough to find themselves in. But I think it’s important to try to look at what happened, so we can learn from it. To me it looks like he didn’t realize the guys had run off, and was taking un-aimed, blind shots over his concealment until he realized he wasn’t shooting at anything. If the robbers had decided to get into a shootout with him, he very well may be dead with an empty magazine. Wild, poorly aimed shots don’t end gunfights. Hits end gunfights. I think the lesson here is that we need to look at our environment. What’s cover, and what’s concealment in areas you frequent? We probably all need to practice shooting from cover more often that we do, and think about what we’d do in different situations. The unexpected will happen, but in a gunfight, having a gun helps, but having a plans helps more. Which one of these guys do you think had the better plan?
Since I have left the military I have on and off tried to get the kill kill kill training out of my system.Also does not help that I have also been in actual combat, once you been it stays with you, your entire life. But I have tried to have more discipline and have fallen back on all things hunter safety of all things. the first golden rule being Shoot at only what you can see. This also includes doing drills with a buddy of mine who is a Deputy Sheriff in a county near me. I hope that those who see the videos I find can learn what not to do and maybe what to do in the horrible situations. I know I have.
Thanks for the mention too.
It’s interesting that you say combat experience isn’t conducive to self-defense scenarios in civilian life, because I wouldn’t have imagined that. I’ve never been in a gunfight, or even near one. I honestly have no idea how I would react. I know some people freeze up once bullets start flying, but I would hope I wouldn’t do that. You revert to training I guess, which always makes me think I need more.
Which theater did you serve in? Was this the First Gulf War?
I was in both the ’91 Gulf war and Kosovo. I was a 54B (chem/bio/nuc weapons and for some odd reason smoke screens) NBC/NCO attatched to the 24th Mech out of Fort Steward. My unit was 81st chemichal BN out of FT. McClellan. In Kosovo, I transfered to the 91st BIDS(bio intergrated detection) where I was a .50 gunner on the M93A1 Fox.
But, yes combat and self defense are just as different as being a solider and a police officer. One is trained to kill, the other is trained to protect. Same is true here. I just can’t start shooting up the place because I feel threatened, there are laws I must obey. Unlike combat, if I feel threatened I’m not really thinking about what is behind a building or much anything else. I just want to survive and go home. So if have to level a city block to do that, so be it.
http://archive.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=443057
The first video was posted on AR15.com a while back; the shooter is a member there. There was a pretty long discussion about it, and the lady/kid weren’t as close as they seemed and the bad guy fired first. I think. I haven’t read it again because it is so long, but the link is above, see for yourself.