| If someone stands in front of you and threatens | | | | hurting him?" |
| your life and limb, you need to take him out as | | | | They were speechless and could just look at me in |
| quickly and effectively as possible. | | | | amazement for a moment until someone snapped |
| Period. | | | | out of his daze long enough to ask: "Is that supposed |
| A lot of people don't understand this simple, | | | | to be a joke or something? This guy is trying to kill |
| underlying concept of all hand-to-hand and, even | | | | you and you're worrying about hurting him? How are |
| more important than by H2H, hand-to-weapon | | | | you supposed to pull something that complicated off, |
| combat. | | | | anyway? You'll never be able to hit him in the elbow |
| I was presented with this problem for what seems | | | | or shoulder joint in a real conflict." |
| to have been the 10-millionth time in my life while | | | | "Yes, that is supposed to be a joke, but I learned it |
| training a group of civilian security personnel in | | | | from you people today! If someone attacks you, you |
| weaponless combat. I would teach them how to | | | | draw your weapon and shoot, you shoot to kill, |
| cause damage to an aggressor as quickly as possible, | | | | which is the correct response, but if someone |
| but, as soon as we started to train on this, they | | | | attacks you and you don't pull your gun, you |
| would forget what I taught them and start acting | | | | suddenly become over-concerned with his personal |
| defensively,either by attempting to use "defensive | | | | safety. Even to the extent of endangering your own! |
| moves" or "disarming techniques" that they learned | | | | I don't want to hurt the nice man with the firearm / |
| somewhere else or, even worse, by just covering up | | | | knife / clubbing weapon, so I'll try to block his attack |
| and hoping that the attacker would soon stop. | | | | and disarm him without hurting him, which probably |
| I tried to repeat what I had already taught them | | | | won't work and will most certainly get me killed in the |
| about the importance of damaging your opponent | | | | process, but its ok, as long as the nice attacker |
| and the dangers of defensive actions in a real | | | | remains unharmed." |
| combat situation, then realized that they all carried | | | | Think about every fight like a gunfight! |
| weapons while on duty, which enabled me to use a | | | | A serious attacker will not stop until either you or he |
| very effective analogy to finally get them to | | | | is seriously injured or dead. That means you need to |
| understand my point. | | | | hit him in the most vital area that you can reach |
| "If someone attacked you with a gun or knife and | | | | under the circumstances as soon as possible and |
| you had time to draw your firearm, what would you | | | | continue doing that until he is no longer able to |
| do with it?" | | | | continue his attack. Any disarming, blocking or other |
| "I'd shoot him," was the answer. | | | | unnecessary defensive techniques will only prolong |
| "Good. Where would you shoot him?" I asked. | | | | the fight, which will increase the chances of the |
| "In the most vital area that I could hit under the | | | | aggressor having the opportunity to seriously injure |
| circumstances in order to get the most effect in the | | | | or kill you first. |
| shortest time." | | | | Please, read and re-read this article until you fully |
| "Right, tactically correct once again," I said. "But why | | | | understand the point that I'm trying to make. |
| don't you shoot the gun or knife out of the | | | | Without the proper mindset, no weapon or defense |
| attacker's hand to disarm him or shoot him in the | | | | will ever help you when your back is to the wall. |
| elbow, wrist or shoulder to break it without seriously | | | | |