We are The People of the Gun. We pack heat and train ourselves how, when, where and why to use it. And yet we can easily find ourselves in a life-or-death situation where our gun and gun training do us no good. The bad guy attacks so quickly we can’t draw our gun. The bad guy injures us so badly we can’t get to our gun. We’re attacked somewhere where we don’t have access to our gun. We lose our gun in a fight. We shoot the bad guy, disable or kill him and then find ourselves with an entirely different challenge (like being upside down in a helicopter under water). Enough with the gun already! It’s not all about the gun . . .
Stunt coordinator Steve Wolf recently walked me through his most excellent PowerPoint presentation for people looking to get their Texas Concealed Handgun License. One of the slides points out that self-defense is not self-defense. Assuming your can’t escape or evade, a defensive gun use is an attack to stop an attack. A counter-attack. Whoever launches the more effective attack wins.
Make no mistake: you have to use everything you can to win. You may have to shoot your attacker and knee him in the testicles and gouge his eye(s) out. Sure, most attackers aren’t Rasputin. But you’ve got to be prepared to use anything and everything to attack your attacker or attackers and keep attacking until they stop attacking. As Lenny Kravitz will tell you, gun or no gun, it ain’t over ’til it’s over.
Once you go to guns, its time to go all out or nothing.
And I hated doing that rolled helo simulator the first time… then I went through it again and thought it was fun.
I had a lot of fun doing the helo dunker.
9D5 dunker & HEEDs day…. fun and they couldn’t smoke us that day so we had the energy for training…. double great day 🙂
Reason number 52,042 why I went into the Air Force…
I got claustrophobic just watching that video. Couldn’t imagine the real thing.
Most of us could swim. In trunks in a pool. First time in the water wearing combat boots and all that other rigamarole is a whole nother experience.
You learn what your limits are and how far you can go.
Been there, done that…. Volunteered! I wasn’t a pilot or aircrew. Did it on my own time. I took two days of leave, so I could take the Navy’s Aviation Physiology course (at Miramar). I wanted to get “back seat qualified” since I was being assigned to an aircraft carrier. In case I ever got the chance to get a ride, I wanted the “quals.” Fortunately, I was an experienced scuba diver and comfortable in the water. Fun stuff!
I thought the toughest part of the 2-day course was treading water in full flight gear for 15 – 20 minutes.
It was all worth it for the day I got to fly backseat in a Viking S-3. Cat shot. Arrested landing. Best day in the Navy. The pilot, “Dangerous” Dan, gave me a full aerobatic experience over a 2-1/2 hour flight. I’ll never top that day. Never.
The Brits add some spice to it by requiring a couple rides while wearing full NBC gear, and they don’t use blacked out goggles to simulate dark, the dunker is inside a building and they turn out the lights. They also occasionally do fund raisers getting a celebrity to take the ride if sufficient donations are raised for some charity.
I think the folks having the most fun are the rescue divers watching the show.
Better than an amusement Park!
… “self-defense is not self-defense. Assuming your can’t escape or evade, a defensive gun use is an attack to stop an attack. Whoever launches the more effective attack wins.”
I never thought about it that way, but it is very true. Once you determine that you are in a situation that requires a defensive gun use, then you need to ATTACK with your gun and everything you have until the bad guy stops attacking you. Kind of changes the mindset of the first second of the DGU, doesn’t it? And remember, “There are no rules in a fight for life and limb.”
It’s a limited counterattack in almost all states. If your assailant retreats you cannot pursue. Once the threat withdraws your legal cover usually ends. However, that’s a good thing because if the bad guy understands that you can’t pursue like police officers he will be more inclined to run away when he sees that you armed. If he thinks you can come after him then you are more likely going to get into a duel to the death situation. Just remember you always win the gun fight that you don’t get into.
Wow, dunker flashbacks… That was a fun time, fours hours of insanity. Looks like they’re using a lot newer and nice equipment than when I did it last. Going through in the dark during the fourth hour wasn’t so much fun though.
F*******ck that thing. Helo dunker and OC spray were 2 of my worst memories from the Marine Corps.
Always cheat = always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose. That should be the core to self-defense when the fight gets going.
Also: Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
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