WHY LEARN SIGHT SHOOTING FIRST?
When reading self defense web threads, I occasionally note that advocates for Sight Shooting and Point Shooting say it is best to learn Sight Shooting first.
I find that troubling, because Sight Shooting is NOT used in most all Close Quarters self defense situations. And it is in Close Quarters self defense situations where one is MOST likely to be shot or killed.
Those are the facts of the matter as backed up by investigations and studies like the NYPD's SOP 9 study of 5,000+ Police combat cases.
If you know only Sight Shooting and you are faced with a life threat at Close Quarters, then you likely will end up with nothing in your hand but a lethal noise maker. And that may be more than a problem, it may be terminal.
However, there is a saving grace, at least a sort of saving grace.
It is that since most everyone has been taught Sight Shooting for self defense, then in a real CQ life threat situation, most everyone will not default to their training. they will default to instinctive Spray and Pray shooting. And the hit rate will be the norm for armed encounters of less than 20%.
So, unless one is having an unlucky day, chances are that he/she will survive.
As to the less than 20% hit rate figure, whether such statements are correct, they acknowledge that Sight Shooting is not or can not be employed in CQ life threat situations. Yet seldom does one read of a need for training first in a practical and realistic shooting method for use in CQ situations, namely Point Shooting, that could actually help one survive in such a situation.
Continuing to teach Sight Shooting for use in CQ life threat situations, is like knowing that a certain kind of airbag is faulty and that it will most likely not deploy in critical crash situations, but continuing to install them in cars.
To me that is not only bizarre, but reckless and morally wrong.
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Another and a simple reason for not teaching Sight Shooting first, is that nowadays, most young people already know how to Sight Shoot.
Our grandsons and their friends Sight Shoot when using airsoft pistols.
Our grandsons did that from the get go. No teaching was needed. They just used the sights, and with good to excellent results at CQ distances.
And as they are typical teens, I suspect that the same is true for most all teens. I attribute that to years and years of watching movies and TV, playing video games, plus interactive play.
I have suggested to them that they try Point Shooting, have told them why, and even showed them how; but with limited success.
Brainwashing via TV works, and tradition and peer pressure rules.
However, I will continue my effort's, because in a CQ life threat situation, the truth is that Sight Shooting WILL NOT be used in most all cases.
As such, proficiency in Point Shooting, will better insure the survival of those who use it.
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Another and a practical reason for not teaching Sight Shooting first, is that it is very difficult to use Sight Shooting when moving. And being able to move and shoot in a CQ life threat situation, can be critical to survival.
Those who conduct CQ FOF sessions say point blank, that unless you move, you will be shot or stabbed.
Also, if you move, you can LITERALLY step out of the line of fire or attack.
Getting of the X can give the advantage to you by forcing the threat to respond to your action.
Further, and if possible you should move to the left as:
1. Most people are right handed. So it is easier for them to move left and shoot right, and that also allows you to blade to the threat while keeping the gun "closer" to the threat.
2. Also, under high stress, most shooters will tend to shoot low and to the left (your right), due to grasping and torquing the gun down and around to the left, and/or due to the natural rotation of the wrist at full extension.
So, in a CQ self defense situation, you should always move when drawing/shooting, and if possible to the left.
This of course, goes against what stand-in-one-spot-range-lane shooting (with or without drawing allowed), ingrains in everyone from day one. However; standing in one spot and delivering, may get you stabbed or shot.
Where legal, you should practice moving and shooting with an EMPTY gun or an airsoft gun.
LEARNING POINT SHOOTING
Point Shooting does not just happen, as if by magic.
But, it is simple and easy to learn, and with little or no training.
And once learned, little training/practice is required to maintain one's proficiency in it.
Point Shooting can be used when Sight Shooting can't: in poor light, when there is no time to use the sights and squeeze the trigger, or when fine motor skills, which are needed for Sight Shooting, are lost to use as will be the case in most all high stress situations.
And Point Shooting employs our instinctive abilities and large muscle groups which can be used effectively in high stress situations.
Such, is not the case with Sight Shooting.
In a life threat situation, the mind and eyes of a Sight Shooter will be struggling to try and do many things at once, some of which may not be able to be done due to environmental conditions like bad light, or because of the activation of our SNS (our Fight or Flight response).
They include:
1. identifying the threat and making a shoot/no shoot decision,
2. achieving a proper stance, body index, or hand index, or grip,
3. seeing and focusing on the sights for/while aiming at a stationary or moving target,
4. holding one's trigger finger aloof from the gun and squeezing the trigger for the first, and every subsequent shot,
5. and etc..
In contrast, the mind and eyes of a Point Shooter will be free to identify the threat, and as needed, use a simple and effective method of shooting that is not dependant upon the traditional marksmanship requirements such as proper stance, grip, trigger manipulation, plus seeing and coordinating the alignment of sights onto the threat.
Now, some Point Shooting methods do call for body or hand indexing, or positioning the muzzle on an aim point. But as far as I can determine, they do not require the use of fine motor skills.
Point Shooting methods also can be used effectively in poor light and while moving.
Lastly, Point Shooting is not a bar to the use of the sights if conditions and circumstances allow for them to be employed.
Point Shooting (including AIMED Point Shooting or P&S, which is the simplest of Point Shooting methods), should be the basis of any self defense shooting program.
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Here are links to 2 papers that provide information on what happens in life threat/high stress situations. They support the use of Point Shooting.
Survival Stress in Law Enforcement by Steve Drzewiecki of the Traverse City Police Department
Here is the URL: http://www.emich.edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff/Shift%20Work,%20%20Stress,%20%20Wellness/Survival%20Stress%20in%20Law%20Enforcement.pdf
Perception and Memory Distortion During Officer-Involved Shootings by Alexis Artwohl, Ph.D.
Here is the URL: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/fbi/percep_distort.pdf
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