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If your involved
in a lethal fight with one target you already are having a bad day, if you are
attacked my more than one, the needle on your threat indicator is going to
twist off the dial! During a one-on-one conflict there are a handful of planned
for, and possible scenarios you may face. In addition there are hundreds of
variations and unknowns your attacker may use against you. No matter how much
you train, how often, how diverse or how many years, there is always the
possible surprise during an attack we have to adapt to overcome. When there are
two attackers the number of possible surprises increases disproportionately.
Instead of just twice as many surprises for twice as many attackers, the number
of surprises coming from a two man attack may be four, five or six times as
many!
We train to address a specific category
of threats with a specific category of solutions. That training involves our
primary plan and our backup plan. If we are smart, we include a backup plan for
the backup plan. We realize during battle the first thing that fails is seldom
our weapon, or our courage, but our plan! So, having backup ideas and skills we
can switch to, will aid us in overcoming the ever changing attack, more about
this later. When there are multiple targets the odds shift out of our favor, as
additional attackers bring additional challenges dividing our attention and
placing our plans in overload.
"when attacked
by an assailant with a gun, expect to get shot". "when attacked by an assailant
with a knife, expect to get cut". With that said, there are many times
defenders have come through a lethal fight without a scratch, our best
scenario. When you are up against two assailants this slogan applies double. If
you are attacked by a gang, three or more assailants, well your pretty much
toast! Can you survive, of course you can, but more important, will you survive
and win? It is however, unlikely you will win a battle against a gang without
injury.
So how do you address multiple
targets? You might be surprised with my approach…..for our purpose, we
will place ourselves in that gang attack mode and talk about three attackers.
You might get a little cocky or stubborn when
facing one attacker, I can understand that. You train hard, to fight easy. You
train repeatedly and your skills have provided you with a high level of
confidence. You have developed a great distaste for low life scumbags and your
not likely to back-off a threat immediately. Before you know it you might be
sucked into mortal combat, "bar the door Katy, the fights on!" If your packing
your favorite variation of Sam Colts Equalizer, the odds are probably in your
favor because of the training and skills you have developed. But really, if
possible, wasn't the smartest thing you could do, would be avoid the fight? You
could walk away or even run away and more likely would never see or meet that
scumbag again and over time you would get over your cowardly act. Sometimes
being smart is the most courageous thing we can do even if it means turning
tail and running.
My recommendation in a
fight of uneven odds, is do the same thing you should do when facing 1-on-1.
Avoid the fight, get the hell out of there, turn tail and run (I didn't say
turn your back!). If you are facing a showdown against 3 bad guys your odds are
probably better at the blackjack table in Vegas, and I'm sure that's where you
would rather be, so get away, escape and evade. It's easy to win against three
others if you are absent during the fight! Leave that macho bullshit for the
Hollywood clowns. Keep alert, keep ready, watch your six and don't allow
yourself to get sucked into a loosing situation. Now if this approach works for
three assailants it surely will work for any number including one, so the first
rule is "Don't Be There". You'll get over your honor disappointment a lot
sooner than you would get over your recovery in the hospital or the morgue.
Let's say escape and evade isn't possible for
what ever reason…..maybe you let your smart meter run out of juice or
perhaps you pissed off mother nature and she intends to teach you a lesson. Not
being able to run away doesn't mean you have to fight, at least maybe not. You
may want to go to the old "talk some shit" routine and try to negotiate your
way to avoiding an impending battle. Hey it could happen. Some place between
running out and slugging it out, is talking your way out! Many a fight have
been avoided by chatting about the perceived problems. And remember, when
talking your way out of a fight, don't be to critical with that truth meter. A
lie here or there may be your saving grace. You say you are to honorable to
lie, OK, take the alternative, get the shit beat out of you, we all have
choices!!! These are scumbags we are facing, who gives a flying fuck what they
think about your honor, trick them anyway you can…..apply fighting
rules…."there are no rules". So if talking your way out of a fight with
three assholes will work, perhaps it would also work with one asshole. Again,
what works for 1-on-1 may also apply to 3-on-1.
Well I guess we have finally worked our way
up to the moment of physical force. Now in Arizona the law provides you
protection against prosecution if you defend yourself against physical force
with physical force. But let me tell you…..if three asshole scumbag gang
bangers jump my ass, it constitutes a huge disparity of force and I'm going
immediately to lethal threat. But this is not a law class, so lets skip past
all the lawful mumbo-jumbo and put a weapon or lethal device in at least one of
their hands……OK, now we have lawful ret, ARS § Title 13-Chapter
405 Justification, now we can shoot to kill…..oops, I mean shoot to stop!
What you could do if you had time to prepare,
is of little value when it is time to do it right now. So work within your
limitations, now probably isn't the best time to be trying out something new or
something you were thinking about in the shower last night. Use the skills you
are best at, which might not necessarily be the best to use, but they are the
tools you are the best with at this time. "Put'em Down Fast - Put'em Down
Hard"…..if you are good at upper chest hits, use them. If you are good at
face shots, use them……if you aren't good at either, you are
definitely having a terrible day!! "Put'em Down Fast" means the sooner you end
this fight the better chances of your survival and winning. I'm not saying to
shoot faster than you can get good hits, remember we are fighting within our
capability, our limitations. "Put'em Down Fast" implies the decision has been
made, you are going to shoot, you are shooting to stop the threat, this isn't
your local club IDPA match, DO IT NOW.
"Put'em Down Hard" means you have to hit a
vital area producing a stop. No warning shots, no shooting to wound, no
practice shots…..place bullets where you have trained to stop the
threat…..no bullshit…..hit'em hard! There is absolutely no difference
here whether there is one assailant or three, the strategy is the same, work
quickly and work hard.
Now how about that
"tactical order" thing I bet you have heard about? Tactical order implies when
facing off with multiple assailants you make a decision which out of the three
poses the most threat, placing him as number one in the pecking order, and then
which out of the reaming two poses the most threat placing him as number two in
the pecking order, leaving the last assailant as the least threat and third in
the pecking order. It's always nice to have some form of logic during mortal
combat to make us feel better about our fighting and TACTICAL skills and makes
for some really good locker room bullshit! Aah, but how do you determine which
is the most threat and so on, good question grasshopper? You could use
observation, which has the most threatening weapon? The shotgun is usually
considered more lethal than the pistol, the pistol is usually considered more
lethal than the club, etc. Your observation will determine who is the closest,
usually the closets assailant is the most threat. You can also do some analysis
as to which one is in the best position for an attack, which is the most
determined, which has fire in their eye, which one is the leader. Your keen
observation and logical analysis will bring you to certain decisions of which
most, will be a guess! And if you have been regularly praying to the Luck
Goddess, you may even luck out and be right….
We know we can't shoot all three at the same
time, even with an M-16 full-auto spitting 750 bullets a minute, we can't shoot
all three at the same precise moment. We have to reduce the complex problem
down to simple parts. When you have made your decision of the three which one
gets it first, you have reduced the complex problem down to 1-on-1 for a
solution. At this split second, your destiny has been frozen for a small slice
of time, do what you have to do and let nothing else interfere. No second
guessing, no going back, no changing your mind, we are working in parts of
seconds here, just get it done……well, we're back to that, what works
for one, works for three thing again! When you finish with the number one peck,
go on to number two peck as 1-on-1, then the last asshole gets it.
If we follow that, "the sooner you end the
fight, the better chances your survival and winning" thing and we have three
assailants to deal with, how much time do we spend with each one before going
on to the next, after all the second peck isn't going to just stand there and
watch while you are filling his buddy full of holes. He's a criminal which
means he's probably not to awful smart, but he's not stupid. Does he run or is
he making a move on you? You should be spending as much time as necessary to
succeed with the first 1-on-1, but you probably do not have time for Mosambe's,
Failure Drills, Scans and Assesses and all that other neat square range
training stuff. And quite frankly, there is a really good possibility you will
not know until the smokes clear if what you did first before going to the
second, was good enough.
Be careful of
TACTICAL LOGIC! Years and years ago I was trained to put one piece of lead on
each of the multiple targets in tactical order and then return to any of the
multiple targets that the one hit didn't work on. This way you get fire on
everyone as soon as possible, do some damage, get a little lucky and then
finish the job. Seems like this would make perfectly good sense, at least to
anyone who has never faced off with multiple targets!
Think about these, "If one hit is good, two
are better", "Shoot them until they are down", "Multiple shots give you an
advantage", "Don't rely on one-shot stops". Is this how you train? No need to
answer that, I know the answer, of course you do. And how much training or
practice do you get at single targets as opposed to multiple targets? No need
to answer that, I know the answer, a lot more! You say, no, you practice on
multiple targets more than singles…..then that makes you the exception,
the 1 out of a 100 that are reading this, so shut up and let me make my point
to the other 99 (and oh by the way, congratulations, that places you well on
way to warriorhood)! If you spend most of your time placing multiple hits on
your single target, do you think in a fight against multiple targets you are
going to be able to shift gears and go against your training to place only one
shot on each target? Don't you believe, in a fight "you will do as you have
trained"?
One-Shot Stops are really One-Shot
Slows, so let's stick with the logic that when placing inadequate pistol
bullets in the anatomy, our mission is best served by awarding the asshole with
more than one. So how fast can you deliver a second or third hit when you are
already on target? No very long, right. How long does it take you to redirect
fire to the next selected and unfortunate scumbag? A lot longer than it will
take you to deliver than second or third hit! It's a matter of balancing the
requirements. You only have so much ammo, so you need to recognize that
blasting away a magazine full at the number 1 peck is going to leave you in a
sticky position before you can address number two peck. So does your weapon
ammo supply capacity allow you 2-3 shots on each of the three assailants before
you run dry? Something to think about. If two-to-head-makes-them-dead works on
one assailant, it will work fine on all three and placing that second hit to
the face isn't going to take that much longer and a split second well spent.
Most of the overhead time is getting on target, the trigger press and launch is
but milliseconds. Don't allow your strategy to get mucked up with TACTICAL
LOGIC. How well and when you do a reload, is a tactic, bullet placement and
quantity are strategies.
Now lets regress a
moment and revisit this Tactical Order thing….thinking and analyzing
tactical Order I think is a great exercise, best examined during class and in
the friendly environment of the range or training facility. My Tactical Order
strategy is not based solely or even primarily on determination of the most
threat and this is where my strategy runs in opposition with most tactics. It's
based primarily on reducing the odds as quickly as possible while remaining as
flexible to the evolving situation as possible. Can I take out two in 1 second
and then concentrate on the remaining one, or follow the most threat first and
take 4 seconds for all three? Can I reduce the odds while avoiding the most
threatening weapon holder? This doesn't mean to take out the weak first while
letting an asshole with a shotgun put a 12 gauge slug in the side of my head.
It means when facing off with three assailants the biggest threat is probably
"three"! Given enough time even three untrained dumbasses can take down a well
trained defender. My strategy is to deprive them of time. It's
"time-and-distance". If option 1 means I can take down three in 1-2 seconds,
and option two is taking down three in 4-5 seconds….fuck the book, I pick
door number 1!
Let's do some simple math. 1
person threatens you. Reduce the 1 to 0. Zero threat, mean you are not
threatened anymore. 3 persons threaten you. Same bottom line solution, reduce
the numbers from 3 to 0, zero threat, means you are no longer threatened. I
want to find the road of least resistance that allows me to shorten the time my
adversaries have to respond. I want to work so quickly, no matter how good they
are their tiny little pea size brains don't have time to catch up and figure it
out. I'm not ignoring the ever changing dynamics of the fight and threat
levels, but trying not to get locked into a failing plan of TACTICAL ORDER.
In reality, the situation like this 3-on-1,
it's not going to be over until you reduce the numbers against you regardless
of which one appears the most threat. It's also reality when the shooting
starts, there will be little to no analysis time to determine the rapidly
changing dynamics of the fight. The most threat at the beginning may end up the
least threat and the least threat can always get off a lucky hit, and this may
all occur in just a few seconds. The numbers don't lie and the "odds problems"
will continue until you have addressed changing them!
Some things are hard to fight or change, kind
of like paddling a boat upstream against the tide! Experience tells us during
an attack, our best plans go down the tubes because even an unskilled attacker
has a way of surprising us and changing directions, weapons, or tactics. If we
realize during an attack things are going to change rapidly and challenge our
ability to keep up, instead of fighting it, why don't we use it to our
advantage. If we can believe, "when attacked our best plans go to shit" we need
a strategy to address this problem, remembering the problem isn't the problem,
the solution is the problem. So if avoidance doesn't work, and running away
doesn't work, and talking our way out of it doesn't work, what's left?
FIGHT…..if you are at the point there is no way to avoid the fight, stop
defending yourself, it's to late for that. Avoidance, running, escaping,
evading, negotiating…..these are all methods of defense. When the fight is
eminent, it's time to go to the OFFENSE. It's time to become the attacker! So
my plan 'A' is to ATTACK…..if that fails me I will most likely immediately
proceed to plan 'B' which is ATTACK. I'm sure you realize what my backup plan
to my backup plan is!
This is when all that
perfect practice comes into play…..there will be no time to think through
the five step presentation, but where do I want it pointed when I finally get
it out of the holder. There will be no time to think about how to press the
trigger, just when to press it. There will be no time to study the perfect
sight alignment, just what and where to place the aligned sights. During your
attack you can address your assailants laterally, from the middle out or from
the flanks in, divide and conquer or flank and surround them……yes one
can surround three, but you need to work fast, real fast….so get on the
move and avoid getting flanked or surrounded yourself!
Now getting surrounded is really bad, right?
Not necessarily, unless of course you succumb to defeat and allow yourself to
be overwhelmed. The disadvantage to surrounding someone is you are now pinned
to your position. You are locked down on the perimeter if you hope to keep them
surrounded and in the vise. If you get surrounded, unless you have some backup
cavalry on the way, time is against you. Switch to plan 'C', ATTACK, break the
perimeter, suck up your injuries and start working on their flanks.
While we are here, we may as well address
this classroom myth about innocent third parties and "what's beyond",
mumbo-jumbo. Safety Rule Number 4….Know Your Target and What's Behind It.
I know I review this rule at the beginning of classes…..hey I'm a
responsible instructor (read that, responsible "Mil-Neck", that's a redneck
with a military attitude). Well rule no. 4 sounds good in theory, but that's
about the extent of it. The truth about CQB…..when facing an attacker who
is shooting at you, you can expect to be so focused on the threat in front of
you, it is unlikely you would notice the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade passing
on review directly behind your attacker!!!!! During a hands down, no place to
hide, street fight, are you going to stand there holding your fire while the
bad guy shoots you full of holes, because one of your bullets might hit an
innocent bystander that might be behind the bad guy or one of your bullets
might pass through the bad guy and might hit an innocent third party? Not
likely, but hey, we all die some day and you have a right to give up your life
for an unknown possibility! Shoot straight, shoot fast, hit hard, take'em down
and most likely you will have saved innocent bystanders from injury…..for
sure, if you are dead you can't protect anyone else, ever again.
When the threat has be eliminated, we need to
switch back to DEFENSE. The ONLY reason we can ever go OFFENSE is to stop the
threat, so if while going offensive and going to guns our bad guy has a change
of heart and starts shaking in his boots (real Hollywood stuff!), we no longer
have the need to shoot him or them. The reality of the bottom line is, when the
shooting fight starts, it is very unlikely it will end until you have reduced
the numbers…..I say "very unlikely" to keep a balance for legal and moral
grounds…..the time to think, consider and reflect about our
responsibilities is best done before we elect to strap on that super 88
magnum…..carrying a gun or any lethal weapon is a huge responsibility
which should require us to examine our commitment before going out into public.
Having a weapon with you doesn't force you to use, but in a lethal fight
remember…..things are going to happen very fast!
What are the mechanics of shooting multiple
targets? If you haven't learned how to shoot multiples effectively, I can't
answer that for you in this eLetter. There are various styles and methods. You
need to find a range and instructor and start working on it to discover and
develop what works best for you, your personal STS, Skills-Tactics-Strategies.
My recommendation is to break it down into four skill sets. First, multiple
targets, 2 or more. Then moving while shooting at those multiple targets. Then
shooting at multiple moving targets. And, finally putting those three skill
sets together for number four….so you are shooting on the move at various
combinations of moving targets! WOW….
Yeh, I know, your saying where the hell do I
find a range I can do this type of training? Be creative! You could employ
non-lethal force-on-force weapons such as siminutions, airsoft guns or paint
guns. You can use dry practice with inert weapons (red guns). You don't need
live fire to work out some of the moves, but having some partners or a coach
will be helpful. Skill sets 1,2, & 3 are doable with live fire and you will
develop your core skills for each with verifiable results. Without some pretty
elaborate facilities, putting them all together will require backing off real
bullets and going to something less lethal, but the important part is to start
with a set scenario, choreographed and rehearsed. Keep changing it and keep
exploring defeats until you start to master which work and which don't, for
you. When you finally reach a success, keep pressing yourself making it harder
and harder…..embrace the defeats during training….remember you will
never increase your skills and climb to the next plateau if you don't stretch
yourself.
So how do you work all this into
the KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, framework? Start with a reality check. If you
think in a gun fight you will be the best warrior, with the best weapons,
against only ONE assailant, my best advise is for you to stay at home, never
leave the house, bar the door and hope you never experience a home invasion! If
you think in a gun fight you will be the best warrior, with the best weapons,
and can take out THREE assailants, my best advise is for you to stay at home,
never leave the house, bar the door and hope you never experience a home
invasion! First get connected with all that warrior mindset and mental
conditioning thing…..face the reality, fights are non-predictive, they are
seldom equal, there is a superior side, but only determined when the fight is
over! When the fight is on, whether one of them or a handful;
- Go to the OFFENSE
- Work FAST, Work TRUE
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Take the ATTACK to Your ATTACKERS
- Reduce the NUMBERS until they are ZERO
- Be RUTHLESS, Be BRUTAL, Be a SURPRISE
- Never QUITE when BEHIND
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When the Threat is Neutralized, Return to DEFENSE |