damn, glad you’re ok
2 Likes
Shooting someone should NEVER be viewed as a binary decision – finger on the trigger only when you’ve already made the decision to shoot 'cause that’s how you trained. The real world requires one to think, think again, incorporate and react to new information under stress. In my case, presenting the big revolver caused 3 now-very wide-eyed boys to raise their hands and freeze. If “finger on the trigger” meant I had made an irrevocable decision to shoot, there woulda been unnecessarily dead child. One of the benefits of a DA firearm is that touching the trigger under stress does not result in a discharge.
4 Likes
I do like DA/SA semi’s but for other safety reasons.
2 Likes
I don’t think there should be any binary decisions in a self defense situation. In every sketchy situation I’ve ever been in I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to walk or talk my way out of them by reacting to the situation as they evolve.
From my training I don’t touch my firearm until there is a clearly imminent threat and I feel no choice but to use my firearm to defend myself. If the threat ceases as my firearm is being drawn then I can stop the process.
But my finger does not go to the trigger until I have decided I have no choice but to pull it and I am sure the firearm is on target. Once that signal has been sent to my finger I don’t know of any way to override it. According to studies I have read it takes a minimum of .3 seconds to recognize a situation has changed and another approximately .3 seconds to send the signal to your body to react to those changes. Not to mention the time it takes to decide how best to react to those changes and send the signal.
I just don’t see how a heavy trigger can physiologically or mentally change the signal to fire unless you are taking almost a second to pull the trigger. That seems like an eternity to me from the SD videos I have seen.
I can see a heavy trigger potentially stopping a subconscious reflex reaction but that is why I keep my finger off the trigger until the command to fire has been sent.
3 Likes
Training also gives you an idea of what your limitations are.
I decided early on that I needed more training than standing idly at a range shooting at a target some yards away. I specifically sought out classes which taught me to draw from concealment while moving off the “X” and making accurate shots on target.
In a gunfight everyone will be moving. If you aren’t moving you had better be shooting and when you’re not shooting you had better be moving.
I’ve learned over time that firearm skills are perishable and must be constantly worked to be maintained.
We all hope none of us are ever called upon to use our firearm in the defense of ourselves or our loved ones but I personally believe not to be trained for such a situation would be foolish in today’s society.
As the saying goes “you don’t rise to your expectations, you fall to the level of your training.” So train as though your life depends on it, because it actually may
7 Likes
The exact reason I’ve stayed with DA/SA pistol
1 Like
I’ve been a certified instructor for almost 13 years. Our instructor was not only darn good, supremely qualified, but instilled in us that it’s our responsibility as gun owners to TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN. I don’t mean cute little round targets once in a while. I train on law enforcement targets with real life sized bad guy photos. Our security team trains together when we can, but each member shoots regularly. Move and shoot, if you’re on a church security team even set up chairs in a row at your range, try to imagine scenarios…will he come through the back door, storm the side door etc. Our growing church meets in a tent in the summer in the mountains by a lake. We’re literally sitting ducks. We get hundreds if not thousands of visitors every summer. BUT we also have a “dark underbelly” of some folks who are questionable at best. Our team is at 12 members.
A really great experience during my training was that our instructor had a good friend from Israel who had been with the Israeli army as a sniper…talk about WOW…night shooting, moving and shooting with flashlights, different scenarios of kinds of threats to attacks.
I wish everyone who carries could be blessed enough to have that kind of training
One thing both admonished us to do was TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN, and not the same way every time. Diversify.
5 Likes
P.S. Re: law enforcement targets. These also have faint outlines of all internal organs, spine etc. The only place I’ve been able to find them is Sportsman’s Warehouse. The photos are black and white, life size. The bad guy is wearing a black cap pulled over his face, carrying a .38 in his right handstrong text**. Mean and ugly.**
6 Likes
See your point. Each of us have different experiences which help teach us and shape us. We can get used to a certain style. It works for us, more practical.
3 Likes
I encounter people like this all the time. I was in Walmart a couple of years ago buying a .22 rifle for my son and while I was waiting on the background check, a woman comes up and asks the clerk for some ammo for the pistol she had recently purchased. When the clerk asked her what specific type of ammo she was looking for (self-defense, range ammo, etc.) she replied “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I don’t ever plan to shoot it. If someone breaks into my home, I just plan to scare them with it.” Both mine and the clerk’s jaws hit the floor. I told her that she needed to sell that gun as quickly as possible because she is more of a danger to herself than anyone else. If you haven’t settled it in your mind that you are prepared to pull the trigger and potentially end a life to save your own or the lives of others and aren’t willing to train to be as effective with that tool as possible, DON’T BUY A GUN!
9 Likes
I, too, have sought out training. One of the better, humbling courses were the classes at Front Sight. One of their exercises involved man sized silhouettes that turned ana faced you for 1 1/2 seconds from 3 yards away, during with time students were expected to draw from concealment and fire two rounds in the body. You would be shocked at how many people, even after 4 days of training fail to make hits under such pressure from 3 yards away.
That’s why reports of police shootings frequently report something like “30 rounds fired only 3 of which hit the bad guy.” It’s also why bad guys who have little or no training probably won’t hit you in a real world gunfight from any distance.
2 Likes
Not my experience as a LE officer (admittedly in the Stone Age). Targets were bullseyes set at 7 yards or so. We were given a box of ammo (50 rounds of 38 special) twice a year and had to qualify with a score of at least 70%. No time pressure, no movement, no malfunction drills, point in and shoot at an indoor range. That was considered “training” in a medium-sized department of several hundred officers.
2 Likes
Excellent point! A bad decision on our part potentially deprives us by landing us in jail
.
2 Likes
Triggers may be viewed differently by police since they regularly (compared to non LE) point guns at people who are not an imminent deadly threat.
2 Likes
I was in the Army and still don’t know if I can shoot someone. I think I can if someone goes to harm my family or me but won’t know till it happens . I was always worried about the ones who said they could kill someone without any problems.
4 Likes
I often buy reactive targets from a company called Thompson Targets. They have several life-size targets with various anatomy depicted. They have a very good website and I like their targets very much.
3 Likes
How are they priced? The targets I get from Sportsman’s are $30 for 50 targets…
the way things are now a bargain is like a mini-goldmine!
1 Like
Bingo ten times over…I’ve also encounter those folks. One of the first things we were taught in training is “always be prepared to shoot…but hope you don’t have to.” Now with the overturning of Row VS. Wade…churches and pro-life centers are being fire-bombed and workers attacked. We have a small pro-life clinic here in my town that I volunteered at years ago. Fortunately at that time the whacko’s hadn’t “organized”. All 12 on our security team are literally crack shots but we also pray we’ll never have to take someone down…we have had credible threats in the past that didn’t come to pass. I had a young college girl in one of my classes that was a crack shot…at a paper target. I put up one of the life size photo targets … she stood there, and stood there. I asked her what the problem was; “I could never shoot someone”. That ended our lesson for the day.
4 Likes
The only thing that really help to increase my speed of drawing from concealment to shots on target was constantly practicing my draw dry fire. It eventually became so smooth that speed naturally followed. Notice something as simple as switching holsters or the location of my holster messes my timing completely
4 Likes
I imagine the first time many people ever point a gun at a human being would be during the defense of their life. I can only imagine the hesitation that might cause. Enough hesitation to maybe get them killed 
I regularly practice my draw in front of a mirror so as to be able to check my form. It also allows me to see what it is like to aim at a human being.
6 Likes