Pistol deployment police vs citizen

Status
Not open for further replies.

mercop

Member.
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Messages
663
Location
The hills of PA
The easiest shortest drill (but telling) can be done with two spring loaded air soft guns and cheap holsters. Get two shooters to stand with guns concealed at arms distance with firearms concealed. I have not done so yet but if you put BP cuffs on them there is no doubt they will show a significant rise in BP and pulse. The shooters are instructed that once you drop a t-shirt or other item on the ground they are to draw and fire on each other. You will see all kinds of crazy stuff in the way of body positions and responses. Just one example.

Recently on another forum someone commented on the low round count in our Combative Pistol Course I had posted (about 400 rounds). I replied that the idea of the course was not to teach you how to shoot or to teach you how to shoot fast at stationary targets. That would be like training a QB by having him stand still and throwing a football through a tire. We train on when and how to get your pistol into the fight during bad situations.

Here is the comparison between police and citizen I will go a bit further. Most police whether on or off duty will not hesitate to draw their pistol in reaction to the sound of a scream, gun shot or whatever. A citizen likely will hesitate for fear or repercussions. It is my experience that police are more likely to pre-deploy their weapon. Because of this just like you stated lots of police involved shootings occur after the police have already drawn down on subject. There is no perceived reason to create distance to draw your weapon since it is already out. People seem to stay flat footed and fixate on putting rounds on target. Even then we have seen some alarming hit rates.

The reaction of the police officer or armed citizen during a spontaneous attack is likely to be the same in regards to trying to get their gun out and into the fight while trying to avoid getting shot. We have seen videos of these shootings where it looks like the officer has hips like Elvis. The primary reason is that humans usually respond to their weak side when trying to get away and their strong side when deploying their firearm. Under combat stress with the trained/untrained minds battling each other you see people falling down, tripping, all kinds of crazy stuff.

When people are primarily trained with an audible que they will likely stand their ground or step back slightly with the strong side foot when the buzzer sounds. Why? Because even if their is a threat it is likely not to be rushing them.

In contrast when you are rushed by someone (visual que) and do not automatically see a weapon your instinct tells you to create distance. To do this you usually step back with your reaction side foot. If you do see a weapon and are trying to get away at the same time you are drawing your gun it will likely be one handed shooting as your barrel comes up horizontal between you and the threat.(picture you pointing your finger at the threat) I realize this can be hard to visualize this but hope I am getting the point across.

So the police are more likely to pre-deploy their weapon even if 99% of the time they never have to fire. The citizen is very unlikely to pre-deploy his weapon (at least in public) and when he does he is usually going to be in a situation where he shooting as he draws. Firing upon drawing in response to a visual que while retreating to the reacting side is one of the missing links in combative pistol. Everyone looks silly doing it but it is a very important survival skill IMHO.
 
I still feel too many cops get shot due to hesitation on their part, and that hesitation comes from fear or apprehensiveness about potential legal fallout resulting from a shooting. As you said, citizens have no "duty to respond", so they don't as often. Also, keep in mind that the training citizens get, if any, varies to a substantial degree; that it is far less "standardized" than is LE training. This means that the potential reaction of many citizens in the same situation cannot be categorized generally as it could be with police officers. Some will hesitate; others will react quite swiftly and efficiently. Most will fall somewhere in between.
While I have no statistics, I'd be willing to be that, per capita, more cops get killed by hesitation, weapon drawn or not, than do citizens who face "righteous-draw" situations. This is probably largely due to the emphasis put on avoiding deadly force that is imparted in police training; that cops should first use verbal skills, impact or chemical weapons, or electrical devices. Regarding avoiding the use of deadly force, citizens are "told" the same thing, but they are not "taught" it.
I can vouch for this, too, as I was taught conservatism in deadly force when I went through LE training in 1987. This got me "killed" a few times in later ICAT interactive shoot/don't shoot drills, and I had to have it trained out of me. Afterward, I was more assertive about presenting my sidearm in tense situations, and actually became one of the quicker ones on my platoon in reaching for the long gun as well when things got hairy.
 
I totally agree. Something else that gets police killed are reliance on tools, first the OC and now the Taser. That and waiting to long to use force of any type. I am of the opinion and have always taught that it is better to attack and decide the level of force to use then to be stuck defending and maybe using too much because things got out of control.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top