The Significance of Long-Range Handgun Accuracy in Defensive Situations
When faced with a threat, whether it's an active shooter, a home invasion, or a violent confrontation, individuals need to rely on their defensive handguns to neutralize the danger swiftly and effectively. In some scenarios, engaging a threat at long distances may be the only viable option, making the need for long-range accuracy undeniable. Without the ability to deliver precise shots at extended ranges, lives could be endangered, and the situation may spiral out of control.
Yes, this is completely opposed to the vast, vast majority of self-defense defensive handgun use at less than 10 feet. However, we have to be adept at all ranges of combat. Let's take a look at these examples of the need for long distance handgun shots for self-defense below.
Fairchild Air Force Base Active Shooter 70-yard Shot
Air Force Security Officer Andy Brown had to make a 70-yard headshot to stop a man who was firing a MAK-90 (a Chinese made AK-47 variant), outfitted with a 75 round drum at people on Fairchild Air Force Base. Here's how Brown remembers the scene:
“He wasn’t reacting to me, and I yelled again and that’s when he turned his attention and his rifle on me,” said Brown.
That’s when Brown fired the shots that would end the Mellberg’s mental health rampage. As people hid behind cars and trees, Mellberg disappeared behind the Beretta’s front sight.
“When I fired the fourth round, he jumped up in the air, spun around, and landed flat on his back and was motionless,” described Brown.
When police processed Mellberg’s gun, it was still loaded with 19 unused bullets. That’s one
reason why Brown’s 70 yard pistol shot won him the instant praise of the Spokane community.
Brown made this shot with a 9mm Beretta M9. If you've ever fired the civilian version Beretta 92F you probably have a better appreciation of Brown's fight-ending shot.
West Freeway Church of Christ Active Shooter
A criminal with a long record came into this church in the Fort Worth area and shot two people with a shotgun. The photo above shows a church security team member just before he engages the criminal with a decisive headshot across the room.
The responder on the left is Jack Wilson, a firearms instructor and a former reserve sheriff's deputy. Look at his thought process here:
Alarms went off in Jack Wilson’s head the moment a man wearing a hat, long coat and wig walked into a Texas church for Sunday services.
By the time the man approached a communion server and pulled out a shotgun, Wilson and another security volunteer were already reaching for their own guns.
The attacker shot the other volunteer, Richard White, and then the server, Anton “Tony” Wallace, sending congregants scrambling for cover. The gunman was heading toward the front of the sanctuary as Wilson searched for a clear line of fire.
“I didn’t have a clear window because I had members that were jumping, going chaotic,” said Wilson, a 71-year-old firearms instructor who has also been a reserve sheriff’s deputy. “They were standing up. I had to wait about half a second, a second, to get my shot. I fired one round. The subject went down.”
Wilson's decisive shot was a headshot which successfully ended the criminal's actions.
Distance? I don't find a definitive source for the distance and the above photo is most likely a wide angle lens, which could be adding to the perception of a longer shot than it really was. However, we could all argue that this was not a close shot. And to the head. As the adversary is moving. With chaos unfolding everywhere.
And...did I mention the time? I've seen the time estimated for the entire event at 6 seconds.
Indianapolis Food Court Active Shooter 40-Yard Shot
Eli Dicken.
This young man become a sort of example of what that responsible armed citizen is capable of during active shootings.
Reviews of the response by Eli shows he stopped an active shooter -- who had already shot and mortally wounded three shoppers -- from 40-yards away, shooting 10 rounds and hitting the murderer with 8. He is credited with stopping the active shooting within 15 seconds. 15 seconds!
The 22-year-old Eli shot and killed the rampaging gunman with a pistol across the food court reportedly steadying his hold against a pillar. He does not have any military, law enforcement, or formal training. He credits his grandfather for teaching him how to shoot.
Home Defense Scenarios
Imagine a scenario where an intruder gains entry into your home, and the only clear shot you have is from a distance. And distance could be the length of your hallway or diagonally across a great room. Without the ability to hit the target with precision, innocent lives, including your own, may be in jeopardy.
Developing Long-Range Handgun Accuracy: Tips and Strategies
Mastering long-range handgun accuracy is not an overnight achievement; it requires dedication, practice, and the following strategic approaches:
1. Proper Mechanics
Trigger management. This is the key. Having a smooth, steady, and predictable trigger pull is what will allow you to keep your sights on target for the precision shot.
Everything that you've ever heard about the fundamentals of marksmanship are even more critical now with these precision shots.
Concentrate on "pulling" or "pressing" (whatever lexicon you like better) the trigger straight back with little or no deviation. A visual that you can use is imagine pulling your trigger straight back towards your wrist or your elbow. We have to learn to manage our trigger in a way for the context of what shot we need at the time with without pulling the sights off of the target.
Accuracy is the prime directive here.
2. Practice
Duh, right? How could we expect to do something if we have not planned and practiced to develop a skill?
To consistently add this element to your practice, I've found starting training with an accuracy drill and ending training with an accuracy drill is an easy and effective way to keep precision shooting sharp.
Frequent practice is key to developing the mechanics and honing your precision over long ranges. It's better to practice five minutes a day, than one hour at a time on the weekend. How can we do that? With dry fire.
3. Raise the Difficulty Gradually
We don't do a cannonball into the Jacuzzi, we get in slowly getting used to the temperature. We do the same as we train for increasingly complex and difficult skills. We gradually increase the heat.
I've had great success with new students in increasing their accuracy and abilities by starting our distance at extremely close range -- like 3 yards. Gradually increasing the distance, allows us to concentrate on our trigger management without the burden of thinking about the distance. You'll find many students have a mental hangup about their ability to shoot past a certain distance. This might be simply because that distance is unknown to them at this point in their shooting development or they have had bad results and therefore have the mental picture that they "can't" shoot from that distance, or they are "horrible" shooting past a certain distance.
Often times we make a game with classes about increasing the distance. Make it fun. Keep it loose. We do way better when we are relaxed.
4. General Equipment Observations
Specific recommendations for handguns don't seem to really work. I've noticed that people shoot better with the handgun they feel comfortable with, and therefore have the bias that they are better with one gun than another. Handgun preferences are highly personal. So the handgun you swear by might not necessarily work for someone else.
Individual skill matters in that a superior shooter can do well with a average platform, but an average shooter might not do as well on a superior platform. Having said that, I have seen beginning students perform better with higher quality handguns than they are normally shooting. And by higher quality, I'm usually looking at better performing triggers.
Generally a heavy handgun with a light trigger is easier to shoot at distance than a light handgun with a heavy trigger.
Generally we are finding that red dot sights seem to do better at distance because students can see the target more clearly than with iron sites which often obscure the target at distance. (See the Andy Brown section above). It's not because red dot sights are more accurate then iron sights, it's more of a vision thing.
Conclusion
The real life scenarios that I've presented above underscore the critical importance of mastering long-range handgun accuracy for effective self-defense and protection of others. By honing this skill through training and practice, individuals can significantly enhance their capabilities in high-stress situations. Remember, when seconds count, precise shooting at long distances can make all the difference in saving lives.
Let's commit to developing our long-range shooting skills to the highest levels of proficiency. Stay prepared, stay safe, and never underestimate the power of accuracy in defending lives when it matters the most.
NOTE: This post originally included a story of an attempted attack on a church in Burnet Co., Texas. At this point, the event is being treated as a hoax and the security team member who reported it has been arrested.
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