Lenasia Watch

The most life threatening threat of all is a firearm threat. A lot of people teach you that you have no chance of surviving against a firearm, which is totally incorrect information. If you are about to die you will do whatever it takes to try and defend yourself, even if you die trying. Obviously, there is no defense if someone walks up behind and shoots you in the back of the head, just as there’s no defense should a sniper turn your skull to ‘pink-mist’ from a distance. But in close proximity hostage-type situations, or hold-up (robbery) situations there is an opportunity for defense.

With firearm defensive tactics it is imperative you know about firearms. To have a thorough base of defensive knowledge against firearms threat, it is important to know how the firearm works. If you remove this threat from your opponent you may also need to use it against them to hold them until the police arrive. It might even be a high risk military situation and to survive you may have to kill. Irrespective of the situation, you need to know how that weapon operates. People that teach firearm self defense tactics without knowing how a handgun or rifle operates are not teaching correct methods of self defense. They must and should encourage you to learn firearm operational safety, otherwise your weapon can be taken off you and used against you. Firearms can kill YOU in seconds with a pull of the trigger

There are two major firearm threats - handguns and long arms. A long arm is a rifle (or shotgun), and a handgun a shorter hand held item. The primary response is once again compliance. Can we comply with this person? If it’s as simple as handing over car keys do it - you can replace your car keys but not your life. But, if you know there’s a real impending threat to your life and that you’re about to die, you must take action.

First and foremost is to use a basic maneuvering skill and grab the firearm. Maintain control of the weapon - don’t do what the martial artists do and grab the hands and limbs - maintain control of the firearm. Why? In different circumstances with different weapons (such as certain hand guns), sometimes grabbing the weapon can knock it out of operation leaving the attacker unable to fire a round. Grab the weapon, disarm him and then start damaging the person heavily. Look at trying to remove the threat from your opponent, and then using that threat against them as an impact weapon first, then as a firearm. We want to ensure that we get in there and batter the opponent using that big piece of steel, knocking them around. Then we can consider getting the gun back to action and back on target as quickly as possible.

This is why you need to know the operational procedures for firearms. If you don’t know how to reload, remove a stoppage or how to put a gun back in operational mode, you’re not going to be able to thoroughly apply firearm defensive tactics. Firearm defensive tactics are not a game - its not about an instructor pulling out a replica object in class and making it feel like a cool atmosphere - it’s a complete realm of survival on its own. If you’re ever going to learn firearm defensive tactics, make sure your instructor has a good knowledge of basic weapons handling.