Defensive Shooting While Seated

Safety Issues With Seated Positions

Where safety is concerned, there are a lot of specific nuances to seated presentation and shooting that we don’t have to worry about when standing. Why? Because when we’re standing and carrying a handgun on the hip, we are generally able to move our body, or make small adjustments, or move our arms in much freer ways than we are when seated.

While seated, we tend to have our legs placed far apart. This presents a safety concern with making sure we do not muzzle our body when drawing from the holster.

Another issue is that when sitting down, we tend not to get into the preferred lowered center of gravity position. When reaching for the gun anywhere on the hip, the shoulder will be above the body or behind the hip, leading to much less stability and much worse recoil management while shooting.

Being able to shoot quickly and efficiently, and without injuring or endangering ourselves, are all important in defensive shooting.

Key Components of Seated Shooting Stance

Whether for shooting drills or actual defensive use, the seated position we want to attain is conceptually very similar to our standing shooting position, some key components of which are a lowered center of gravity, weight forward, arms fully extended, gun in and parallel with our line of sight. While seated, everything is the same except for the lowered center of gravity, a natural instinctive reaction if we are startled while standing.