Self defense shooting lessons

What can you learn from this?

The lessons I see we can learn from this are:

  • One shot probably isn’t going to do the job.
  • Neither the mother or the daughter appeared to be very comfortable shooting. They seemed hesitant even after it was clearly “game on”. Know when to shoot and when to stop. When it’s time to shoot keep shooting until the threat is gone or you have lost your sight picture.
  • An experienced shooter should have been able to place well aimed shots in the guys upper chest at a rate of about two per second or better. These two would shoot then wait, shoot then wait.
  • Shot placement is very important. If the girl had gotten close enough to put a sold hit into the guys head when he was wrestling with her mother he probably would have gone down a lot sooner.

I don’t know what was happening outside when the mother was shooting out the door, but one generally should stop shooting when the bad guy is running away.

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9 thoughts on “Self defense shooting lessons

  1. From the mother/daughter actions, I’m guessing he was standing at the door still threatening them, and that he hadn’t actually left, thus she felt the need to shoot. The daughter should have calmly walked over during the fight and head shot him. She did shoot him at least once during the fight it appears to me, which is tough to do with two moving people. He was bleeding out, as demonstrated by his inability to stand up and move correctly near the end.

  2. I was shocked how long this took. I’ve only seen a few of these store shootout videos, but usually they are short and violent. I was surprised how close they let him get to them after they started shooting. I was waiting for them to pull out a shotgun.

    Another thought – those poor kids in FL would have been a lot better off with one of those ladies as their SRO than what they had.

    • The Keystone Cops level police response at this school has bumped me right past the idea of letting teachers be armed. I now think anyone who can legally carry off of school property should be able to be legally armed on school property. That would include eighteen year old students, who have fulfilled the requirements for a carry permit. In jurisdictions with a twenty one year old minimum for a permit, that should be reduced to eighteen.

  3. It’s a simple rule: You shoot to stop the threat. You keep shooting until you are certain that you have succeeded.

    (Of course, Joe is right, and reality applies; you can’t shoot after you’ve emptied the gun, and you don’t shoot if you can’t put the sights on the target.)

  4. Also, the ladies should have had their guns on them. Having to reach for them under the counter was not a good idea.

  5. My 2 cents:
    Tom is right – each clerk should have had their gun on them, concealed.
    No idea what caliber the revolver was, but it might need to be bigger or have better ammo. That said, a little gun is light years better than no gun.
    Training:
    1) Identify the threat. The sooner the threat is identified the sooner the correct response can be performed.
    2) “Terrain” needs to be considered; does a robber have an easy path directly in and out? Maybe a fixed display as an obstacle to control their path is in order (the display may be partial concealment but it should not be cover).
    3) Shoot the threat until the threat is gone. That needs to be taught, then learned. Rounds on target are what counts.
    4) Wrestling over the gun: scenarios need to be developed, responses practiced. Get a couple blue guns, recruit a volunteer, and after hours rehearse them. The primary defensive firearm should be concealed on body, a backup could be positioned in a concealed but accessible location.

  6. Even if she was shooting him in the back on his way out the door (we can’t say for certain what was going on at that point from the video) couldn’t she have been afraid for her life and the lives of others if the guy was still running around with a shotgun after an armed robbery? If she had the frame of mind to consider such things in the moment, wouldn’t it be unwise to allow him to gain distance and tactical advantage in a pistol vs. shotgun fight? Obviously he came back and attempted to murder the daughter with the mom’s revolver (in addition to slamming mom’s head into the counter), so such an assumption isn’t too far fetched.

  7. Hiding guns, instead of carrying them, seems to be the default condition for clerks. There are pros and cons to this strategy. In some cases, the law doesn’t allow concealed carry for employees, and sometimes not even owners of a business.

    Lots and lots of local and state laws impact how this can be handled. In cases where you may have part-time or shift workers, those guns are typically provided by the owner for general employee safety. Almost always, the law doesn’t allow you to carry a gun not personally owned, unless it comes with a badge attached. In some cases, even if you own the business, unless you also own the property, you can’t carry. Remember those 20k+ gun laws? Lots of “gotcha’s!” involved.

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