What a combatives instructor told me about the space before the gun

[Barry]

He put it in a way that stuck with me long after the conversation ended. The gun is the last tool on a long shelf, he said and if you can't manage distance, can't manage position, can't communicate under stress and can't de-escalate, you've already lost the entire shelf and gone straight for the end of it.

That reframed a lot for me. The physical and verbal skills that come before the draw were never optional even though it's easy to treat them that way when all the attention goes to the gun itself. They're the actual majority of what self-defense really is, the gun just gets the spotlight because it's the most dramatic part of a much longer list.

How much of your own training time actually goes toward the skills before the draw, compared to the draw itself?

 

[Adies Gunny]

Unfortunately those are skills that get bypassed far too often.

 

[theLegend]

Distance management is the part nobody wants to spend a Saturday doing, you know? Its way less fun but probably way more important.

 

[Adies Gunny]

Distance management is the part nobody wants to spend a Saturday doing, you know? Its way less fun but probably way more important.

This is coming from a very "Old School" Marine so filter it as you find necessary; Distance is your brother, cover is your best friend and concealment is your cousin. We were taught to fire from a distance. That simple fact carried the battle of Belleau Wood and earned us the title Devil Dogs. Long range accuracy carried the day.

Cover was the primary tool of Al-Qaeda and other terrorists in recent history. They attacked from extremely hard to breach cover with multiple escape routes available. Getting behind a hard to penetrate cover is a very high priority that is too often overlooked.

Lastly we should consider concealment. Hiding is next to last option simple because it doesn't provide the physical protection of cover or distance. It is a tool used very effectively by Recon and Scout/Sniper teams and was modified during the Gulf War to include as much cover as was available. In our urban setting, say a Walmart, I would grab my loved ones and run as far away from the threat as possible while putting as much cover and concealment between us and them as possible.

If none of these are not available, pray and stand your ground! I would rather die standing amid a pile of spent brass than die on my knees begging.