Justin said: . . . all he's doing is presenting a straw man argument. Among the competitive shooters I know, including Masters and Grand Masters, I've never heard one make the claim that IDPA/IPSC/Multigun competition is any sort of analog to a gun fight.
Not exactly, Justin. Most of the competitors shooting at that level understand that in a match, they're just competiting.
The gun community, and those who compete that don't know the difference,
do think those competitions more or less approximates what occurs in a fight.
I can't be specific about this story because I don't have permission to share it. So I'll have to be vague, and I apologize for that.
A fellow we knew in our community spent a career in Army Special Forces. To look at him, he was the most unassuming guy you'd meet or talk to. To put it short and blunt, his demeanor and look could be categorized as "nerdy". He was involved in action he couldn't talk about outside the community, but it involved going places and killing enemies of the United States, doing things no one would read about and he'd get no official recognition for. When he finally retired from the Army, he went to work for the intelligence agency doing the same things he did for the Army in South America.
He had several dozen personal kills.
Knowing people the way this community does, his reputation got him invited to be an adjunct instructor for
XXXXXXXXX, one of the best known training facilities, with one of the best known names in the study of gunfighting. He accepted, and taught for while.
He liked to shoot competitively. Upon entering an IPSC match, the person taking registration recognized who he was instructing with, and looked at his classification. He thoughtlessly sneered, "Huh, I would have thought an instructor at
XXXXXXXXX would be better than a class C shooter."
This fellow calmly remarked back, "It was always good enough."
That person had no clue what this comment meant. And not being one to brag, he never elaborated.
- Mindset
- Tactics
- Skill
- Equipment
You don't need to be a jedi knight. You just have to be willing; trainers can work to develop everything else.
Like I said I didn't read the whole article. But what I come away with is a warning to the gun community to understand the limits of competition on reality. When I see comments assuming that since Quickdraw McGraw is a master class shooter, that's just by God
got to give him an edge in a gunfight, I know that message isn't being received.