Left-Handed Contact Shooting

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. As you know, I'm a big fan of training in context and training realistically. We wanna train most of the time for what is most likely to happen, most of the time. And that's why we concentrate so much on a right-handed attack and a right-handed response. But I realize that some people watching this video may have people in their lives, or you yourselves may be left-handed and wanna understand how these techniques work. Of course they work in exactly the same way. So first let's take a look at what would happen if we were left-handed and our attacker were still attacking right-handed with that threat. As we get into position I'm obviously not wearing a left-handed holster. I'm simply gonna put this firearm in position and we're gonna start from grip. So we're gonna take from that recognition moment, coming in and trying to control the firearm. And obviously we would do this, if we're left-handed, our left hand would be out here. We would not naturally react by putting our hand on our gun and reaching in with our right hand. Unfortunately, we see that kind of choreographed stuff a lot of times in training. The natural reaction, left-handed or right-handed, would be to control that gun in these close-quarters situations. So if we were here, we'd certainly come in like this, again, or maybe with both hands to control the gun and stop it and then transition to this position. Well, if I need my left hand to come back to the firearm, I'm gonna have to transition control to my right hand and get into a position like this. As I do so, I'm simply gonna get my grip with the left hand, once I've maintained some kind of control on this weapon with my right. I need to put this elbow out as best I can and continue to maintain torso contact with the threat, so that as I come up with my magazine well and strong thumb, which is now my left thumb, against my torso, I have my muzzle oriented towards the threat's torso, not going through my arm. I cannot afford to let go of this gun or knife and have a bad tie. I maintain control, check the angle with my safety officer. If he nods and approves, I can now touch and press, and get that shot the same way into the vital area. An area that will significantly affect the target's ability to present a lethal threat. And then I would move on. Assuming that my threat would stop after one shot is not safe, so I would still maintain contact here and assess do I need to shoot, do I not need to shoot. If the struggling and the resisting stops, I can take this gun away, move back into a ready position and assess here, further, what's my next move. Probably to reholster, make contact with the authorities, make sure everyone I care about is still safe or render aid, if necessary. The other situation we wanna talk about is what happens if the attacker is left-handed, or at least if the attack is coming from the attacker's left hand. This attacker is luckily ambidextrous. We can put this into a position here, where now we can simulate that left-handed attack. Again, if I'm right-handed simulating an attack from the left side, I'm not going to pretend that my reaction would be to go to my gun and pin the weapon this way, okay. That's not going to happen. Behaviourally we're gonna wanna use our strong hand, and we're gonna wanna be able to be as efficient as we can and stop that weapon from being pointed at us on the side that it's closest to. So we're gonna come in and control this way. When we control, again, I'm getting my torso in against the threat, in against his opponent. I'm using my legs, I'm using my body, I'm doing whatever I can to stop this person from being a threat and to make sure that I'm aware of where their body is. Again, whether we're against the wall, lying on the ground, whatever position we're in, this is important. Keeping my torso against him is critical, if I wanna know that my muzzle is likely to be oriented in a place that is going to significantly affect the target's ability to present a lethal threat without looking down. I need to have a spacial awareness of where that body is. So by being here, transitioning to a control with my off hand, I can reach back, grip, come up, orient the muzzle towards the threat, again, in an administrative capacity here for training I'm gonna have the safety officer check and double-check. My elbow is up, so my arm is not in front of my muzzle, touch, press, fire the round into the threat. At this point, again, assess the situation. If the threat stops, I can strip the gun, drop the gun, come back into a ready position and be here to assess and make sure that everything remains stable. And I don't need to continue to have a lethal response to that threat. Contact shooting is not easy. It's complicated. You need to think about all the variables. And most importantly, you need to train realistically. Once again, we're not gonna train to shove and shoot someone who's really trying to hurt us. We need to assume that this person is faster, smarter, and stronger, or we wouldn't need to go to a lethal response. So shoving and shooting, may be great on paper, but on real people, it's probably not gonna work. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.