Common Misconceptions That Can Get You Killed

[rev214]

I've read/heard pros and cons about Piazza and Front Sight, but I thought this article was worth reading...i've edited out some of the Front Sight sales pitch, but you can read the entire article here.

Common Misconceptions That Can Get You Killed
Author: Dr. Ignatius Piazza
June 18, 2008

. . .

In the interest of helping you learn from others’ mistakes, allow me to share with you . . . Common Misconceptions That Can Get You Killed!

These misconceptions are not listed in any order of importance or frequency:

Misconception #1: If I stab my attacker with a knife he will immediately collapse. This misconception has been created and propagated by the movie industry. We have all seen the action adventure hero, throw a knife, sticking it into the stomach or chest or neck of the bad guy, and as the bad guy lets out a groan, he falls to the floor. In reality, a single knife stab is very unlikely to cause immediate collapse simply because the knife stab does not create enough immediate damage to the nerves, arteries, or organs to cause a massive spike and then equally massive and immediate drop in blood pressure. Even multiple stab wounds will not necessarily stop an aggressive dedicated opponent. All the while, your attacker is continuing his assault on you. A knife is better than no weapon at all, but is never a match for a gun in well trained hands.

Misconception #2: If I shoot my attacker with a handgun, he will stop and drop. This is another misconception created and propagated by the movie industry. The reality is that handguns are woefully inadequate in their stopping power as compared to a shotgun or rifle. The proliferation of street drugs that numb reaction to pain, access to body armor, and an overall increase in the number of hardened criminals victimizing Americans, makes the chance of a one-shot stop less likely than ever before. Even the handgun of Dirty Harry (Model 29 in .44 Magnum) will not guarantee a one shot-stop.

Since handguns are inherently not good fight stoppers, you must rely on your skill and ability to deliver TWO, well placed shots, delivered quickly to your opponent’s thoracic cavity to create the greatest amount of damage you can. Then be ready— and mentally prepared— to fire a cranio-ocular shot (between eye-brows and mustache) if he continues his attack. This requires training. Without such training, you can be tragically surprised when your opponent is hit but does not go down. . . .

Misconception #3: All you have to do with a short-barreled shotgun is point it at your attacker and shoot because the WIDE pattern will knock him down. This misconception comes from Grandpa! In reality, most lethal encounters will occur at a distance of three to five yards, be done in three to five seconds, with three to five shots fired between the combatants. At the distance of three to five yards, the pattern on your shotgun is not much bigger than the size of the bore and rarely larger than a couple of inches! It is real easy to miss if you don’t see a flash of the sights on your shotgun before pressing the trigger—especially under the stress of a lethal encounter, when you must shoot first and fast to save your life. We prove this in every course when we place our students into the live-fire tactical simulators. They can’t believe how easy it is to miss at such close distances. Once they understand the concept of a flash sight picture, they are just as fast (sometimes faster) and can guarantee their hits. After all it is not how fast you shoot that counts in a gun fight, it is how fast you hit that counts!

Misconception #4: Give a woman a small, lightweight revolver because all she has to do is grab it out of her nightstand, point and shoot. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this in gun shops, at trade shows, and from husbands explaining why their wives are burdened with a gun that has minimal sights and a long, heavy trigger pull! I could literally write a book on the subject of Misconceptions on Gun Selection. Let me just say that a woman or a man, when confronted with a situation requiring them to pull a gun from their nightstand, needs a gun that they can quickly HIT with on the first and second shot and then be able to deliver a precision shot if needed. (See Misconception #2). If you miss, the only reason you will survive is because your opponent is sloppy. In order to be able to HIT with a handgun, you need high visibility sights and a trigger that provides a clean, crisp trigger break. The small revolver or small pistol is a weapon that satisfies a specific tactical niche and requires advanced training to use it effectively for general self defense.

At Front Sight we have hundreds of students attend every month that do not own a gun or have never fired a gun before attending our course. We rent them all the gear they need. We could provide any gun in the industry. What do we provide them? We rent them a semiautomatic Glock in 9mm. Why? Because it is simple to use, has high visibility sights, and a smooth trigger. By the end of the first day, our previously inexperienced students are operating the functions of the pistol like a pro and hitting their targets. By the end of the fourth day, they are able to present from a holster, and deliver a pair of center hits to a target 5 yards away in less than 1.5 seconds!

. . .

Misconception #6: I will rise to the occasion in a gun fight and be better than I normally am on the shooting range. This misconception comes from people who, in the past, have had great success when facing clutch situations, in activities involving gross motor skills—like the fullback who can be counted on to score the touchdown when it is fourth down and goal-to-go or the underdog boxer who musters everything he has to deliver a knockout punch in the last round. They are successfully responding to the positive effects of adrenaline which makes large muscles stronger and faster. Unfortunately, in a gunfight, your body is going to dump massive amounts of adrenaline (much more than you are accustomed to in any sporting activity) into to your bloodstream from the “fight or flight” survival mechanism. This adrenaline dump will make you temporarily stronger and faster, but it adversely affects fine motor coordination such as your ability to focus on the front sight and press the trigger without disrupting the sight alignment. As a result, you will tend to be about half as good in a real gunfight as you are on your best day on the range.

We prove this to our students in the live-fire shooting house where their adrenaline flows a bit more than on the range! As a result of this phenomena, those who know, train twice as much on the range and in the live-fire simulators, so should they ever need to use their skills to save their life or the lives of their loved ones—in a real lethal encounter— their “half as good” will still more than enough to win! Remember, you will not rise to the occasion in a gun fight. Instead, you will default to the level of your training and then only be half as good as you are on your best day on the range… so you better get great training and train to be twice as good as you think you need to be!

Misconception #7: “Point Shooting” (Shooting without seeing a flash of the sight picture before pressing the trigger.) The point shooting misconception has been around more than 50 years. Point shooting reinvents itself every now and then with a different name or different instructor or different agency and for different reasons, but still falls flat on it’s back because you cannot guarantee your hits unless you see a flash of the sight picture. Only good hits win gunfights and you need to see a flash of the sights to get good hits. “Point Shooting” can be very fast shooting if you want to practice five times as much as people trained to use their sights, but if any precision (cranio-ocular cavity) or distance (beyond 7 yards) is required, Point Shooting will get you killed because you have to see your sights to get good hits.

[JDePietro]

All and all a good read!

I take issue only with this...

Misconception #7: “Point Shooting” (Shooting without seeing a flash of the sight picture before pressing the trigger.) The point shooting misconception has been around more than 50 years. Point shooting reinvents itself every now and then with a different name or different instructor or different agency and for different reasons, but still falls flat on it’s back because you cannot guarantee your hits unless you see a flash of the sight picture. Only good hits win gunfights and you need to see a flash of the sights to get good hits. “Point Shooting” can be very fast shooting if you want to practice five times as much as people trained to use their sights, but if any precision (cranio-ocular cavity) or distance (beyond 7 yards) is required, Point Shooting will get you killed because you have to see your sights to get good hits.

This is an opinion of the author, I have practiced and have worked with people whom are very good at point shooting. It does not make pretty tight groupings on paper but in a combat situation it works only if you train profusely.

Aside from that great article.

[noofus]

All and all a good read!

I take issue only with this...



This is an opinion of the author, I have practiced and have worked with people whom are very good at point shooting. It does not make pretty tight groupings on paper but in a combat situation it works only if you train profusely.

Aside from that great article.

Grouping is for target shooting and bragging rights

In a SHTF situation you need only put a round or two where it needs to go - and they dont need to go exactly to the same place.

[WhiteFeather]

All and all a good read!

I take issue only with this...



This is an opinion of the author, I have practiced and have worked with people whom are very good at point shooting. It does not make pretty tight groupings on paper but in a combat situation it works only if you train profusely.

Aside from that great article.

I also agree with JDePietro but the author make exception in article to point shooting and without, lots and LOTS of real world practice shooting in time of life or death you need to know where you hit the target along with knowledge of vital anatomy hit, I never shot anyone but I killed lots of things over the years and I know where you can determine a lot from shot placement on what or how you should react next.

but still falls flat on it’s back because you cannot guarantee your hits unless you see a flash of the sight picture. Only good hits win gunfights and you need to see a flash of the sights to get good hits.

[dgg9]

Misconception #7: “Point Shooting” (Shooting without seeing a flash of the sight picture before pressing the trigger.) The point shooting misconception has been around more than 50 years. Point shooting reinvents itself every now and then with a different name or different instructor or different agency and for different reasons, but still falls flat on it’s back because you cannot guarantee your hits unless you see a flash of the sight picture. Only good hits win gunfights and you need to see a flash of the sights to get good hits. “Point Shooting” can be very fast shooting if you want to practice five times as much as people trained to use their sights, but if any precision (cranio-ocular cavity) or distance (beyond 7 yards) is required, Point Shooting will get you killed because you have to see your sights to get good hits.

This is MT dogma, pure and simple, not to mention a strawman.

PS is appropriate for up close and fast encounters. Flash sight picture is NOT necessary to make good hits. No one claims PS is for long distance shots.

Further, PS has been used by real people over the decades in some really dangerous parts of the earth and works. So any claim that it "doesn't work" or "falls flat" is simply ignorant. I'll bet that Fairbairn / Applegate / Sykes have been in a few more gunfights than Ignatius Piazza.

And in fact, the observed reality is that it takes LESS practice with PS to get decent hits.

The rest of his litany is not bad, though.

[Montell C. Williams]

Misconception#8-- you cant shoot untill shot at if you wait till yor opponent shoots first you have a good chance of getting killed, another one is you have to wait till a guy with a kinfe gets close enough to use it, if you let him get closer than 7-10 paces he might get a jump n your reflexes, besides unless you make a brain or spine shot handgun calibers often have NO visible effect for a few seconds or longer. Even shotguns and CF rifles don't always take effect instantly especially on a nut.

[skyjerk]

I totally do not know what the author means by "a flash of the sight picture"

[shooter357]

The sight picture is what you see when you look through your rear sight. A "flash" is just a quick glimpse of what you will be shooting at.

[snuffy19608]

Not to be an ass, but what was number 5?

[NoQtr]

This was found on another website:

Others come forward in Front Sight litigation

http://http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes...rontsight.html

Tactical Forums
http://www.tacticalforums.com/cgi-bi...c;f=1;t=001822