Reality-Behavior Based Police Gun Fighting Lesson I: What Actually Happens Trevor S. Thrasher High Threat Systems Highthreatsystems.com
Reality-Behavior Based Police Gun Fighting
Lesson I: What Actually Happens
Trevor S. ThrasherHigh Threat SystemsHighthreatsystems.com
Main Themes
Reality of police shootings Most Use of Force is Reactionary Stress Response To The Pointed Gun Defensive Response First Closing On A Threat Counter-Attack Shooting Under Duress Offensive Response
Reality of Police Shootings
Most police shootings involve close range, high stress situations that are often completely different than what an officer experiences on the range Spontaneous Close Range Reactionary Life Threatening Duress Little Time Complex Environments Decision Making
Reactionary Use of Force
Most police use of lethal force is reactionary in nature even if it is officer initiated
This especially applies to deadly force incidents due to the rarity of the event in similar situations- traffic stops, warrant service, hold up alarms, etc…
This even includes most situations involving SWAT or times when officers are pro-active and initiate the contact with guns drawn but haven’t already made the decision to shoot
Officers often give a verbal warning, many times when it is not legally required and places them in greater jeopardy. This most often give the suspect the first shot and makes the officer’s shooting reactionary
Reactionary Use of Force
Police officers, and more recently most soldiers, are conditioned through repetition and expectation to be hesitant. It is the nature of their work.
Good nature requirement for employment Expectation of good relations with populations Requirement to use minimal or reasonable force Precision environments with no to minimal collateral
damage Hesitancy for political, occupational, and legal
survival Multiple repetitions in similar circumstances without
resorting to deadly force
Suspect’s Almost Always Point A Gun Or Shoot First
A gun held in the hand can be directed toward an officer and fired from any position within a quarter of a second
This is so fast that most of the time an officer with an aimed in gun will not be able to get off the first round
Even in the rare case that an officer can get off the first shot, one round is not guaranteed to stop a threat
If the situation is in any way complex, this reaction time is greatly increased
If the officer waits until a weapon is seen, the time it takes to see the weapon will allow the suspect to shoot first or at least point the weapon at the officer before the officer can fire
At close range, this creates tremendous survival stress on the officer
Survival Stress Response
Short on time and information Driven by the need to survive
Square to a threat Crouching Target lock on the threat Loss of near vision Loss of fine motor skills
Three Types Of Decision Making
Instinctive- genetically hard wired; near instantaneous low brain response; simple gross motor actions and skills
Intuitive- learned stimulus-response; very quick; low to mid-brain response; can involve complex motor skills
Deliberate- taking time to weigh several options; relatively slow; high brain activity; can involve attempts at fine motor skills
Key Concept: Anticipation- knowing ahead of time what action you are
going to take; having time to plan a certain response- (certainty, time, knowledge)
Three Types Of Decision Making Instinctive actions are almost unavoidable against a sudden
threat unless there is sufficient anticipation and over-training of a response
If no intuitive trained response is available due to lack of relevant training/conditioning or emotional control, the officer will be stuck with an instinctive response for an extended period of time
Conditioned responses tightly matched to instinctive responses will occur more quickly
Deliberate actions need time/anticipation and lower levels of duress and aren’t available until the officer has cycled through instinctive and intuitive responses
In real life circumstances, sighted fire is a deliberate action Conditioning/Training reduces the amount of time that it takes
to get through each type of decision making
Reacting to The Pointed Gun
In a high stress, spontaneous police encounter, when a gun is pointed at an officer before the officer can fire, the officer will be in an initial defensive-reactive situation
The pointed gun will immediately be registered as a threat An officer’s body alarm system (amygdala) will react through the
low brain and subconscious pathway first because it is quicker Due to physical reaction time, the officer cannot fire first(fight)
once the threat is realized Absent a initial “fight” option to prevent the attack, the first
reaction will most often be defensive (flight) The initial reaction will be instinctive/intuitive similar to the startle
effect; officers will most often flinch and move away from the danger
Officers will move through the instinctive response into an intuitive and deliberate response based on their training/conditioning and level of duress
Defensive Actions First
Gabe Suarez- “A gunfight is 50% shooting and 50% not getting shot; not getting shot is the most important half”
It is rational, reasonable, and instinctive to try to survive
Instinctively people do not want to move towards a threat or stand in place facing an oncoming bullet or other threat
This initial instinct is nearly impossible to overcome absent some specific situations
Initial Defensive Response
1. Generally moving away from danger2. The flinch (first and foremost)3. Stopping if closing on a threat4. Dodging the muzzle, especially at face to
face range5. Moving behind cover if it is near6. Moving laterally to avoid fire7. Moving away from danger8. Pushing away danger- at extremely close
range (often swatting at the weapon with one hand)
Closing On A ThreatMovement towards a threat can occur when:
The threat has ceased, is not immediately oriented on the closing person, or is in flight
The perceived threat is lower (expected, longer range, less intensity, confidence to deal with it)
Momentum carries the person forward The person is close enough to physically attack and
is “primed” or conditioned to attack The person is experiencing rage, suicidal intent, or
has no other alternative Has time to make a deliberate decision to advance
or fight regardless of the threat
Closing On A Threat
Closing will often be a shuffle step as the body tightens with the combination of fear under duress
This can also create “the stress dance” where a person constantly feels the need to move their feet during a shooting, possibly fighting the urge to flee
Closing on an oriented, ready threat will most often get an officer working within restricted rules of engagement and expectations of good social behavior, wounded or killed, unless there is an overwhelming advantage in capability of at least 3 to 1. This does not apply if the threat is hesitant or choses not to fire.
What Happens Next
What happens next will be based on the officer’s mindset, emotional control, level of anticipation, and stimulus-response conditioning in similar situations
If the officer has been well conditioned, the intuitive brain will quickly take action and turn the initial defensive response into a tactically sound action that can include shooting
If the officer has no well-trained, confident, conditioned response for the situation at hand, the officer will freeze, or be stuck with instinctive actions for an extended period of time
Control of stress and stimulus-response conditioning will outweigh raw marksmanship skill in most spontaneous situations
Deliberate (choosing between several alternatives) action will only take place with sufficient time past the instinctive and intuitive phase
A good decision can be made if the officer can control their level of duress and has trained available options
If the officer lacks the will to aggressively kill another human being, the officer will wait until it is too late, will choose not to fire, or will only fire after another officer or person fires.
Shooting Back as a Counter AttackShooting back defensively will be far different from what most officers are trained to do on the range: The instinctive need to see the threat will keep the officer
from bringing the gun up fully into their line of vision, because this would block the view of the threat
They may perceive that they do not have time to use their sights
The effects of stress will reduce the effectiveness of fine motor skills, like pulling a trigger carefully, and may reduce the ability to use near vision (see the sights)
Once officers decide to fire, they will often fire nearly as quickly as possible due to being behind the reactionary curve
This, along with situational factors, will sometimes cause an officer to fire one handed if they have not already drawn their weapon
Time competitiveness and body balance will be a major factor in shooting one handed from the draw
Shooting Under Duress
Officers are rarely taught to shoot like this and will now be performing an unfamiliar action which will increase stress
In spontaneous close range encounters, officers will most often point shoot, pulling the trigger quickly and without fine motor precision immediately after or while taking defensive action
This will degrade accuracy well below static, range-based expectations Most “Stand and Deliver” range training (the majority of
training that now takes place) is useful only in offensive situations where the officer has an advantage, or in situations that allow extra time. It is wasted in the majority of situations.
This has all been confirmed by medical studies, scientific experiments, gunfight statistics, reproducible stress and reality based training, and large collections of real world video
Some people will not believe this even though they cannot offer similar contrary evidence; they will base their beliefs on the range, stories, anecdotes, or a small sample. (DOGMA)
Shooting Offensively
If an officer is mentally and emotionally primed to attack, has good control of stress, anticipation, and is properly conditioned to attack through stimulus-response training, an officer may react offensively Anticipation/Deliberation (Time and Knowledge) Lower Duress/Stress Control Proper Conditioning
It is difficult for officers to make the switch to offensive fire unless they are conditioned to fire offensively in specific situations.
Shooting Offensively
Most often occurs when1. The suspect is fleeing (has become the
prey)2. The suspect is not pointing a gun or
firing directly at the individual officer3. The officer has an extended amount of
time and anticipation (knife attack at longer range)
4. The officer catches the suspect by surprise and is “primed” to shoot immediately
How To Train
Most pistol training should include: Point Shooting as the most likely and heavily trained method Precision Sighted Fire when possible under certain trained
conditions Initial Flinch or other movement prior to shooting most of the time Conditioned use of lateral movement, dodging, and use of cover
most of the time Appropriate use of commands with dedicated training on when not
to give commands Multiple officer shooting together at one threat Hard Targets and targets that illicit stress Targets that are sometimes facing away from the shooting officer Decision Making Complex and Cluttered Environments “Stand and Deliver” should be a very small amount of the training
past initial stages
EXAMPLE VIDEOS CHECKLISTType of Encounter Spontaneous or Non-Spontaneous Close or Long Range
Initial Defensive Response Flinch, Immediate Stop, Dodge, Backward Move , Lateral Move, Use Of
Cover Shuffle stepping, “Stress Dance”
Advancing on Threat Threat reduced Threat Stopped Shooting Threat was shooting at someone else
Shooting technique Point Shooting (certain, probable, unknown), or sighted fire Rapid Fire One Handed Or Two Handed Stand and Deliver Used Offensive Shooting Conditions that could have allowed deliberate sighted fire