Is having a sub one-second accurate draw with an accurate shot a worthwhile drill or is it just something you do to be Tacticool!

If you are doing it, are you doing it for the right reasons?

There is something to be said about “instinctive shooting” and “flash sight picture” alignment.

Speed and Accuracy are relevant terms, and usually never go together, especially in firearm shooting, unless your an Olympian. HOWEVER, when practiced enough and often, your “instinctive shooting” will play a very key role to your self-defense and overall reactive mindset when put in a threatening firearm defensive situation.

What do we mean by instinctive shooting? Sim[ply put, Instinctive shooting is shooting without aiming and concentrating on the target. WHAT !?! Yes, without aiming and concentrating on the target. In other words, forming a habit of drawing your pistol over and over, hundreds, if not thousands of times using your correct holster and arm draw with sight picture and alignment to your eyes that it becomes muscle memory or shooting INSTINCTIVELY. This is what can get you a sub-second shot, or shots, if your really quick!

However, in up-close, life threatening DEFENSIVE SHOOTING situations, of less than 10 yards, where there are very rapid violent attacks, there is no time for perfect, precise, aligned shots, and a quick response with center mass hits is critical. So a shooting technique called “Flash Sight Picture” (FSP) can be used here. Jeff Cooper invented the FSP as part of his Modern Technique to pistol shooting and it has been refined over the years. Cooper’s basic FSP technique is a way to get your sights immediately on target with a lot of hits on target, not necessarily bullseye hits.

As I described above, the FSP is a method of allowing the cognitive, innate muscle-memory responses of the shooter to align the target and the sights without the delay involved in the conscious alignment of sights. In Point Shooting (PS), by contrast, the pistol is drawn from the holster and fired from the hip, or forward of the hip, without bringing the gun to eye level and without the sights being aligned at all.

This is the method I used in the video. It may seem like I brought my pistol up to my eyes and shot, BUT, my shot was well on its way, before my pistol reached my extended arm length or my eyes. If the video was slowed down, you will be able to see that my shot is gone LITERALLY, a split-second before it even gets close to my normal shooting position.

In closing, range time shooting live rounds and hundreds of hours spent on “dry-fire” practice is the key to building cognitive muscle memory alignment between your arms, eyes and draw pattern, will give you the results of speed and accuracy so you can one day have a sub-second accurate shot and be Tacticool as well!

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There are no right answers in a defensive shooting situation; with an infinite number of possible situations, there is an infinite number of responses. Know your laws, use good judgment and mentally prepare yourself for something to go wrong.

In no particular order, let’s go over three important topics that you may want to consider before it comes time to unholster your pistol:

• Have a plan
• Use common sense
• Know your rights

All three of these topics combined should take only a few minutes out of your daily routine to review. Join ATS for a CCW Defensive Class and get all the details and learn much much more!

This diagram is a visual depiction of a use of force model. Remember, a critical event can start or stop at any point on the continuum: don’t feel locked into following all of the steps if the situation has escalated quickly.

It looks like gun owners will be on their own when it comes to the legality of firearm accessories.

The Firearms Technology Industry Services Branch (FTISB) is the division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that provides classifications on how firearm accessories may change the legal status of a firearm once attached. Until now.

The Prince Law Offices Blog reports that it received “an email that ATF’s Firearms Technology Industry Services Branch would no longer offer classifications on accessories, effective immediately.”

Up until now, manufacturers and members of the general public could submit an accessory and have the FTISB provide a classification on the part, stating whether the item would alter the legal status of a firearm it was attached to, subjecting the resultant firearm to the Gun Control Act or National Firearms Act.

Typically, the ATF would return a letter that the manufacturer would make available to buyers of the product, stating its legality. Examples of this include the braces that are popular on pistols now, which currently do not legally change the handgun into a short-barreled rifle. The SB-Tactical website hosts several letters indicating the ATF’s determination.

The notice, posted on the ATF website states, “Effective immediately, any requests for a determination on how an accessory affects the classification of a firearm under the GCA or NFA must include a firearm with the accessory already installed. Except in cases of conditional import determinations, FTISB will not issue a determination on an accessory unless it is attached to the submitted firearm.” The notice also states that those that have recently submitted products will be receiving them back without classification.

Time will tell what the implications of this policy change are, but the looming national bump stock ban does come to mind.

Don’t move the gun when you pull the trigger! Regardless of the speed you are moving your trigger finger, you need to avoid dipping/moving the muzzle. Otherwise known as Trigger Control

How can you tell if you’re falling victim to this bad habit? Set the trigger on your unloaded pistol by racking the slide. Next, place an empty casing on its base on the top of the slide, just behind the front sight. Now, press the trigger without causing the case to fall off.

The speed in which you can do this will be a limiting factor in how quickly you can shoot accurately. If the case doesn’t fall off, congrats! You’ve pulled the trigger correctly.

Why should I carry a firearm? As we have learned, a dynamic critical incident can be a very scary situation, especially considering that, after the fact, prosecutors will pick apart every action and dig through whatever they can to put blame on the defendant, even if the situation involved a perfectly “legal shoot.”

Of course, even though the legal aftermath of using a firearm for self-defense is not likely to involve a criminal case, it can – and does – happen. A civil case can cause great concern as well. The criminal and/or his or her family members may claim that they are in the right or believe, somehow, that they are owed something. With that, it’s the idea of the “reasonable person test.” Unfortunately, today’s definition of what a reasonable person would have done in the same circumstances doesn’t always match up to what a responsibly armed individual would do.

The possibilities of going to jail and being tried in court can certainly make someone think – or even reconsider carrying a gun for protection. I’ve had some students take our USCCA Concealed Carry and Home Defense class and tell me that they aren’t ready to carry a gun. I applaud that decision because it means that they are really thinking about the circumstances, the possibilities and the outcomes. But I also make a point to find out where they are in their concealed carry journey and how to get them where they need to be.

Nevertheless, with all the talk of the aftermath and with all of the unsettling information regarding the seriousness of using a gun to protect life, an intriguing question was recently brought up in class: Knowing what we know about the body’s responses to a threatening situation, and recognizing what problems may occur legally, financially and even emotionally after the fact, why should anyone carry a firearm?

Because You can.
Because Bad People Exist
Because You Can’t Depend on Others.
Because Guns Save Lives
Because Everyone Deserves a Chance
– By: Beth Alcazar