Firearms Training

Imagine this scenario. You are a lady walking across the dimly-lit parking lot toward your car. You are tired after a long day of work, you are thinking of your evening activities, and your hands are full of the usual stuff: purse, brief case, etc. A guy steps out from between two parked cars maybe 30 feet ahead of you. He looks to be maybe 20 years old and is absolutely huge and muscular. This is one tough-looking dude. He’s just standing there, staring at you. He’s directly in your path, looking menacing, but he says nothing and has nothing in his hands. You instinctively know that given half a chance, a guy like this could easily tear you limb from limb with his bare hands. You stop dead in your tracks and ask yourself “Is this the real deal or not?” In other words, are you in danger of serious bodily injury, or not? Well, that all depends on three things.

There are three key elements which will determine your next move. Those fundamental elements are Ability, Opportunity, and Intent. If your adversary displays all three of those elements, you are in serious danger and you had better get busy and rely on your training to win the fight.

The first element is Ability. In other words, does he have a weapon, or mechanism, to harm you? Ability might be a gun, knife, baseball bat, or broken beer bottle. Ability might also be bare hands if there is a vast disparity of physical prowess, as in this case. Yes, this guy clearly has the Ability to hurt you. This guy doesn’t need a weapon. Hell, he IS the weapon!

The next key element is Opportunity. Is he close enough to hurt with the weapon that he has? With a gun, your adversary has the Opportunity and nearly any distance. However, with a contact weapon, including bare hands, he must get closer. No, this guy currently lacks the Opportunity because he is too far away to hurt you with his bare hands.

The last element is Intent. Would a reasonable and prudent person interpret this guy’s words and actions to mean that he intends violence? So far, our bad guy hasn’t said or done anything threatening. He looks completely evil, but his Intent is still a mystery.

In an instant everything changes. The bad guy snarls “Lady, say goodbye cuz I’m gunna kill you” and he lunges in your direction. His Intent is now obvious…to kill you! However, what about Opportunity? At what distance is he actually a threat? He started at 30 feet away, but that distance is rapidly shrinking. So the question is “How close is too close?”

The widely accepted rule of thumb is…21 feet. I know that sounds completely arbitrary, but here’s how it came about. This comes from a gentleman named Dennis Tueller who spent decades with Salt Lake City Police Department. Years ago, Dennis conducted an experiment with some of his fellow officers. He timed a number of the officers to see how long it took them to draw their handgun from the holster and deliver a single shot to the thoracic cavity at conversational distances. The average time was 1 1/2 seconds. So, the second question is how far can the bad guy run in 1 1/2 seconds? And the average distance was 21 feet. Basically, that means if the bad guy is running at you with a contact weapon, you are justified in shooting when he is roughly 21 feet away. This is known as “The 21-Foot Rule.” If you wait until he is perhaps five feet away, you will never even get your gun out of the holster. You have simply waited too long.

Let’s put all of this into the context of our scenario. Our bad guy certainly has the Ability; his brute strength. He also has the intent; he clearly stated that he intends to kill you. And now he has the Opportunity; he has crossed the 21-foot mark. Very simply put, if you want to live, you had better drop your brief case, present your handgun, focus on the front sight, and deliver a controlled pair. You don’t have a second to spare… literally.