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Rules of a Gunfight

This topic is covered often on other forums I frequent... many times with humorous posts that make me laugh out loud. I noticed we have a lot of veterans here so I would like to hear your rules of a gunfight. Most of you have already heard the ones passed around on the Internet Ad nauseam:

1. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap – life is expensive.
3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
4. If your shooting stance is good, you’re probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
5. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are preferred.)
6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun and a friend with a long gun.
7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.
9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on “pucker factor” than the inherent accuracy of the gun. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. “All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket.”
10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
11. Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. Have a plan.
13. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won’t work.
14. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
15. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
16. Don’t drop your guard.
17. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees.
18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)
19. Decide to be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.
20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
22. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
24. Do not attend a gun fight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than “4”.
25. You can’t miss fast enough to win.


If I had to choose just one rule to tell every new shooter (new = less than 50,000 rounds fired) I bring into this hobby it would be:

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Or
Fast is fine but accuracy is final.

I think that helps people slow down and concentrate on muscle memory so when they do get up into the hundreds of thousands of rounds fired their form is good and we don't have to retrain as much. I was guilty of developing bad shooting form when I was 10-14 years old and had to overcome that later in life.

Another one I was thinking of today when looking at my new wooden posts is how to properly shoot from cover. I notice a lot of rookies peeking out beside their cover to shoot where ricochets will tear them to shreds rather than standing back 6 inches to a foot. For new Shooters what I mean is this:

Good cover
$ap-marines-afghanistan_c0-29-700-437_s561x327.jpg

Bad "cover" with ricochet potential off the pillar. It might be better to scoot back a foot or two depending on conditions of the firefight. This is over-simplification but useful for new Shooters to visualize.
$1895357-army-3rd-division-3-7-soldiers-take-cover-in-a-gettyimages.jpg

Here are the results of standing beside cover rather than behind it. Most of what you see embedded in the 4x4 is simple 9mm ball ammo. Ouch!
$20160430_193913.jpg

$20160528_200445.jpg
 
Don't draw incoming fire, it irritates your coworkers

If the bad guy is in range, so are you

Murphy was an optomist
 

simon1

Self Ignored by Vista
Oh! Oh! Oh! I know this one!!! (Raises hand)

Have a bullet?

Dang...that's not it...or is it? Dang, and I took notes.

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OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
1." Get off the X !!!"

2. "Shoot first, shoot fast, shoot well."

3. "You're not shooting for a perfect score, you're shooting to live."

4."Mindset wins the fight. Domination of the situation deals death."

5. "Advance on the threat to gain the psychological advantage. Victims run, predators engage! In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you should be a predator!"

6. "Decide to be Aggressive enough, quickly enough. Indecisiveness will cause you to die."

7. "Be prepared to write a report, articulating and justifying what you did and why you did it."

An oldie and personal favorite, "Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he can't whip you, he'll just kill ya." ;)
 
"Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician".
~ Jeff Cooper

In my experience this also holds true for range time. Not to minimize the importance of practicing, it teaches vital skills and familiarity with the weapon. It does not train a person to react appropriately when faced with various levels of aggression. Put a street smart 16 year old with a baseball bat up against a firearms instructor with 100,000 rounds of range time and his/her favorite self-defense handgun and I'll put my money on the kid with the baseball bat every time. Unless the firearms instructor is a veteran cop or my old DI. Then all bets are off. :001_cool:
 

nortac

"Can't Raise an Eyebrow"
1." Get off the X !!!"

2. "Shoot first, shoot fast, shoot well."

3. "You're not shooting for a perfect score, you're shooting to live."

4."Mindset wins the fight. Domination of the situation deals death."

5. "Advance on the threat to gain the psychological advantage. Victims run, predators engage! In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you should be a predator!"

6. "Decide to be Aggressive enough, quickly enough. Indecisiveness will cause you to die."

7. "Be prepared to write a report, articulating and justifying what you did and why you did it."

An oldie and personal favorite, "Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he can't whip you, he'll just kill ya." ;)

Hey, I resemble that remark!
 

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
Food for thought:
At last quals the "kids" we're making fun of this old man just because I've been in service longer than many of them have been alive.
1st qual I dropped 1 round. So they were laughing harder.
2nd qual, I shot a perfect score. But I shot it using my support hand.
They quit laughing.

Be proficient with both hands. You never know when Mr. Murphy will jump in and "help" you!
 

nortac

"Can't Raise an Eyebrow"
No one who has ever survived a gunfight wished that they had carried less ammunition.
 

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
I was sitting on my thinker preparing for my 16 hour shift today and I really was thinking about this subject. Something really stood out:
Prepare yourself mentally to take someone's life! I've seen videos of many many shooting incidents and good guys lost their lives because they were not mentally prepared to take a life. A target at the range is much different than a person!

Prepare yourself mentally. Decide to win. Decide that no matter what it takes you are going home!!
 
I was sitting on my thinker preparing for my 16 hour shift today and I really was thinking about this subject. Something really stood out:
Prepare yourself mentally to take someone's life! I've seen videos of many many shooting incidents and good guys lost their lives because they were not mentally prepared to take a life. A target at the range is much different than a person!

Prepare yourself mentally. Decide to win. Decide that no matter what it takes you are going home!!

Remember the correct verbiage when the law shows up, and later in court, is you feared for your life and you shot to stop the threat. Avoid using the word "kill".
 
"16. Don’t drop your guard."

EVER!!! Last summer, my son's father-in-law was murdered in a home invasion. He was wearing his sidearm but NEVER SAW IT COMING . Shot in the back of the head. If you don't see it coming, none of the other rules are worth a damn!!!!
 
All great points.
The one I think of most is: don't pull a gun unless you're gonna use it.
Other than that, I fully expect everything to go sideways in a gun fight.
 
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