Recognizing and Engaging Multiple Threats

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Next, we're gonna talk about multiple target engagement. We're gonna talk about a drill that we can run. That's going to realistically reflect, what we're probably going to have to deal with if we ever were attacked by multiple threats and had to respond with a defensive firearm or some other type of defensive action. The fact is, we're very unlikely to recognize and focus on two threats at once.

Now, when we're out here on a square range, most square ranges aren't gonna allow us to set up targets in different directions where we can have a target off to our left, and a target in front of us, and another target off to the right, where we could safely replicate a more realistic situation. So our targets are gonna be much like the targets we have own down here where, they're right next to each other. And they're very easy to see both at once. It's very easy to see that they're both there, and to recognize two targets at once. Well, that's not a realistic situation.

We know that the way the body relax and the way the mind reacts to a threat is to orient towards it. And that's not just a physical orientation. It's also a mental orientation and a focus. We know that we have a gain in visual acuity in the center of our field of vision during dynamic critical incident stress. That focus that we have on that threat helps us.

It helps us learn about the threat. It helps us deal with the threat. It helps us to shoot more efficiently and more intuitively, if we need to shoot in order to stop that person from trying to hurt us. and of course, that's the kind of thing that we're visualizing, when we're out here shooting, and we're preparing for defensive use of a firearm. When we're doing our skill development drills we need to be visualizing that threat.

We're not just putting holes in paper. We're preparing to defend ourselves or those that we care about, in an environment that's very threatening, very chaotic, surprising dynamic and all those other things. While we're here, we're gonna do multiple target recognition. We need to make sure that we are, recognizing multiple targets and not simply just shooting one target, and then shooting another. That works in a game that works in competition shooting.

It works in a scenario, that's been choreographed to tell you, "Hey by the way, as you go around this corner there's going to be two or three targets, here's their order, here's their position." It's very easy to plan that out. In the real world, in an unpredictable dynamic critical incident, we're going to need to recognize and address, multiple threats separately. So in this drill, what my shooters my training partners are gonna do is shoot either the left target or the right target first, depending on my command. My command will be right or left. After they engage that first threat, and deal with it, they feel that they have significantly affected its ability to hurt them or others, and they do not need to deal with it any longer, just like in the real world, they're going to come back into the ready position, and assess the environment to see if anybody else may pose a threat to them.

If someone else is posing a threat of course they're going to recognize that fact, and then address that threat appropriately with good efficient defensive firearm skills. So what you're gonna see here is, my first command will initiate a lateral movement and a presentation from the holster, and engagement of that threat, and then the shooter is gonna come back and suspend for a moment the fact that they know there's another target there. And they're gonna go through the process of visualizing an environmental assessment to see if anyone else is trying to hurt them. And if someone is, they're going to address that threat and of course that'll be the second target. Whichever one they didn't shoot first.

Come back in, ready position assess one more time, reholster and of course at that point in the real world, they would be checking to make sure that they're okay making sure that everybody else in the environment was okay their family, other bystanders making that phone call the 911, letting people know what happened. And then of course standing by to be prepared to defend themselves if necessary. Multiple target engagements. It's important that we're visualizing recognition. That's what we're doing here.

We're going through the motions of visualizing multiple target recognition, and of course getting all that good efficient shooting practicing while we're doing it. You ready guys? Yes, sir. Excellent. Thank you.

Face down range, standby for your commands to fire. Right Now, you can see in this situation with multiple shooters, if we had two, three, four, five guys out here, as they're doing their lateral movement, it's certainly possible that they might bump into one another. Well on a range, we need to make sure that we're keeping safety first and foremost in our mind. The guns are oriented down range, our finger is not on the trigger unless we're ready to shoot, and of course, we're gonna remember the big picture rule. Just because we bumped into someone, doesn't mean that it changes the dynamic of those first two safety rules.

So we're gonna be safe, we're gonna be coordinated, but if we happen to bump into one another, no big deal, stay in control. Just like in the real world, and the range when you bump into someone, you're not gonna let it distract you from what it is you need to be doing down range, or of course from good basic firearm safety skills. Same thing here on the training range, same thing in the real world, It's a crowded place, dynamic situation, you've got to be able to control your firearm. Left. Left.

Good shooting guys. That's how we train multiple target engagements in preparation for defensive use of firearms. Check out more videos, just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.