Handgun Shooting Tips for Lefties Shooting from a Vehicle
Rob PincusDescription
Rob Pincus is joined by left-handed defensive firearms coach Stan Lee to provide handgun shooting tips that cover how a left handed shooter draws a gun from their hip and engages a threat that is on the driver’s side of a car. The technique follows the same principles as the technique a right handed shooter would use in the same situation. The key to success is twisting the body in the seat so that the shooter can lean back from the window and get to an extended shooting position without driving the muzzle into a closed window or extending the gun outside of the car where it could be grabbed or struck.
Today we are gonna take a look at what a left-handed shooter does when they're sitting in the driver's seat of a car. Now, most of the time obviously when I'm doing demonstrations I'm doing them right handed, that's my strong hand. And most of our guests, most of our instructors who Personal Defense Network are also right-handed but today we've brought in Stan Lee. Stan Lee is a defensive firearms coach based down here in Florida and he's also left-handed. So, he's gonna be able to demonstrate the appropriate technique which is gonna look very familiar for those of you have seen the right-handed technique because really the gross body movements are exactly the same but he's gonna demonstrate it as a left-handed shooter.
Now, a lot of people assume that because the gun is so close to the door that there's some magic trick or there's some impossible feat he has to accomplish in order to get the gun oriented properly but the fact is that that's not the case. It's gonna be very simple. Of course, we're gonna start out assuming that he has just turned the car off he's parked, maybe he's gotten home he's gotten to a restaurant wherever he is. He realizes that there's a threat off to his left. So, Stan if you'll recognize that threat off to your left I'm gonna go and put my eyes on.
As you reach down, get your hand on your gun making sure that your leg is clear of the gun as it comes straight up and you start to orient your back towards me pushing backwards in the seat driving straight out extending, touching and pressing getting your shot. And if you'll hold right there again the trick is we wanna make sure that gun is not going past where the window would be. We don't want the gun hitting the window and being knocked off line nor do we want the gun extending outside of the vehicle where somebody's slashing or hitting with a club or even reaching towards Stan would be able to get their hand on the gun. So, either window up or window down we still want the shooter to maintain their position inside of the car. Now, in an administrative training environment Stan is gonna pull that gun back into his chest.
He's gonna reach under the gun with his right hand to open the door safely and for administrative reasons we don't reholster while seated. It's not worth doing. It's a high risk environment to try to reholster inside of the car like this. So, he's gonna step out and he's gonna go ahead and safely get his gun back into his holster. We're gonna get him back into the car and we're gonna put the seatbelt on and we're gonna see that nothing really changes.
Now, with the seatbelt on again same scenario that steering wheel pops up in this vehicle automatically when you open the door. Let's go ahead and reset that. We want that in a realistic position. Whenever you're doing training in your vehicle you wanna try to set it up as realistically as possible and again, you'll recognize the threat. You'll reach down towards the gun not worrying about the seatbelt at all.
Get your grip, making sure your leg is clear as the gun comes up. You're gonna twist your body and extend touch and press. Good. Pull the gun back in. And now again, administratively this may be the trickiest part.
He's going to reach back with his right hand get that seatbelt across his body without getting it tangled up on the gun or covering himself, open the door up, step out and reholster. He's going to come back into the vehicle. We'll reset the steering wheel reset the seatbelt one more time. All right, and notice that Stan also has his concealment garment on. We're not changing anything.
We're trying to train as realistically as possible. Stan is an experienced shooter. He's done plenty of shooting while seated, practice. This is just a little bit different cause he's seated while inside the car you feel comfortable going a little smoother. Sure.
All right, I'll give you one command you can go through the whole process. Up! Excellent. And again, administratively get that seatbelt off and step out of the vehicle. So, again with a left-handed shooter we've got some very specific concerns about the way they're going to be moving the gun but the body position, the orientation back from the window the ability to twist in the seat under the seat belt and leaning back all of that still the same as it would be for a right-handed shooter who doesn't know that the hand is going be coming up close to the door.
So, if you have a sports car if you have something that's more confined that may create some unique situations obviously we think you should practice seated shooting first and then your presentation from seated and then get into your vehicle and you might even do it with a dry gun or a dummy gun when you first get started presentation regardless of whether you're right-handed or left-handed when shooting inside of the vehicle.
It appears to me from watching this that a lefty shouldn't even use a holster on the left hip. It already is in the way and the draw appears awkward. Better to have a belly holster on the right side so you can safely draw up and out smoothly?
Was the full seatbelt with shoulder strap on at the beginning of the training video? I did not see the shoulder strap. Or was the shoulder strap pulled to the left side not being used.
Thanks for the this scenario but you left out the part about having to shoot out the passenger side with a passenger in the front seat to keep the empty case and debris from hitting the passenger in the face.
Glad to finally see a video on defensive tactics for lefthanders. I was a NYC police officer from 1974 to 1994 and we never learned this. Thanks and keep them coming.
IS THERE A STORE IN MY AREA WHERE I CAN GO IN AND PAY CASH FOR VIDEOS ON PERSONAL DEFENSE. I LIVE IN ROCHESTER HILLS MICHIGAN MY ZIP CODE IS 48309 THANK YOU
Something good to try on quiet night shifts in the patrol vehicle (new Explorers-speaking of more confined vehicles!) I have access to our inert training guns and can use that for safer practice just to get the mechanics down.
Great information for left handed people like myself. Thanks
Excellent presentation for us lefties. I am always looking for info that helps us lefties overcome our "handicap" living in a right-handed world when it comes to self defense. I hope to see more info for lefties including some knife techniques.
Great to see left hand shooting techniques, this one specifically addresses an awkward scenario for a very common situation. Keep up the good work, thanks PDN.