I haven't seen any videos of gunfights where folks were running around - not SELF DEFENSE gunfights.
And yet, that's what happens. Shooters tend to empty their gun without realizing it (you WON'T count shots) and move instinctively and erratically trying to avoid being shot. Even when pressing an attack.
But according to the FBI, you can shoot someone in the heart and they still can shoot back, and sometimes have. A shot to the heart doesn't empty the brain of blood & oxygen, so the person can still shoot back, if determined.
Right. Read the link I posted.
Can highly trained shooters shoot rapidly and hit? Yes. Can most shooters? Judging from police shootings, the answer is no. Too many cops have fired a half dozen rounds from a few feet away and missed the guy entirely.
You HAVE to learn to shoot rapidly and hit. Because you're GOING to be shooting rapidly. There's very little you can do to prevent that reaction, aside from leaving the gun home!
If you can shoot and hit accurately in 0.2 seconds, great. Very few of us will practice enough to do that.
That's really nothing magical. Even a fairly average shooter should be able to make those hits in 0.3-0.4 sec, which will seem like a lifetime.
Shots that miss, or hit thighs or guts, MAY stop the other guy because there are guys who will stop just at the sound of someone shooting back.
Now you just lumped being shot in the gut or thigh with a MISS. That's hardly realistic. Yes, there are the whacked-out high attackers we all use as out basic worst-case model, but for MOST people under MOST conditions, getting shot in any part of the body is a very traumatic experience, and likely to both diminish the will to continue an attack, and make their ability to focus and perform a good shot at you greatly reduced. I don't in any way advocate gut or thigh shots. But the first person to get shot SOMEWHERE is at a grave disadvantage. It is VERY important to get that first hit.
But to be certain of stopping, even within a minute, you need to hit something vital. For most of us, that means taking a little extra time to settle and fire - an extra half second or so. If you, or I, get shot in the brain in that half second...guess God decided to take us home then.
There is really no "certain of stopping" in a gunfight. Shoot as many times as you can as fast as you can make hits. If that means you "zipper" up from the thigh across the chest -- so be it. Even if the drug freak you're facing is one of those precious few who will keep fighting with a hole in his heart, he is far less likely to keep fighting with three or a half-dozen holes through his torso, and you can do that in a second or two.
But there isn't one out of 20 CCW carriers that I'd trust to shoot very quickly and hit anything.
Sheesh, that's pretty bad, but I don't train to and I don't advocate being one of those. That's a poor model for success.
And hitting what you need to hit is more important than getting off a fast shot.
Yes, but there's no either-or here. Hit what you're aiming at and do it as quickly as possible. And do it again and again and again until the threat stops. (You'll find this to be a natural, and probably irresistible, response anyway.)
This is self defense we're talking about, not clearing a room a la the US Army or USMC.
Don't draw distinctions that are fallacious. A gunfight is a gunfight. You train to do the most effective thing whether you're the USMC or a practitioner of defensive shooting.
By definition, when you pull a gun, you are already in deep doo-doo. If you aren't, you aren't justified in pulling the gun out. So yes, you may be shot too. Deal with it. If you survive, hope you have better SA than to get in that hole to begin with.
Uh...what? Does this support or detract from one of our arguments?
Nor does everyone need to plan on panicking. Lots of folks don't. I've been shot at in combat. Mostly, I felt annoyed. Doesn't mean I wouldn't panic tomorrow...we don't ever know the future. But all this stuff about how you'll be near blind with panic is bull pucky. The one time I pulled a gun in self-defense, I was really annoyed. I've met others with the same reaction.
Who's talking about panicking? Panic and rapid decisive action are two different things.
The mentality of shooting as quickly as possible is why so many shootings end up spraying bullets all over without effect.
Actually, that's just reality. People shoot and shoot quickly and often. High stress and danger degrade accuracy by ~75%. The less trained and accurate you are (and yes, there are lots of cops and even average citizens who fall into that category -- which is not something to strive for!) the more likely you are to miss than hit.
If the other guy is running, run in the opposite direction.
Absolutely! Unless he's running AT you...
Or wait until he stops, then shoot.
Wait until he stops? Stops where? Over your corpse? 25 yds off? I'm having trouble visualizing this. ... And then shoot him? That's not very good tactics and sounds like an unjustified shooting in the making.
