More than 22 million Americans have a concealed handgun permit. With constitutional carry being the law in 29 states as this was being written, the number of citizens legally carrying is likely much higher. According to the 2021 National Firearms Survey, conducted under the supervision of Georgetown professor William English, lawfully armed citizens use guns to defend themselves an estimated 1.67 million times annually. Most of these citizens do so without firing a shot. That’s a lot of defensive gun uses, but how tactically sound are they?
Defensive handgun shooting skills and defensive tactics are not the same. You can break shooting skills into a finite number of practicable physical activities, but defensive handgun tactics are varied, constantly evolving and situational. There are, however, some basic tactical principles that provide a foundation to build from. We’ll get to those, but first, an example.
As I detailed in the last issue, two rapid shots directed center mass to a threat is a common tactical response to a life-threatening situation. Skill determines their quickness and accuracy, but if those shots fail to stop the threat, quickly transitioning to a precise head shot is an accepted tactic. Shooting is a skill-based activity driven by tactical decisions. Your ability to make those decisions is largely contingent on your awareness, so that’s where we’ll start.
Awareness
Gunsite Academy founder Jeff Cooper explained awareness with a color code as part of his Modern Technique of the Pistol doctrine. Cooper codified awareness with white, yellow, orange and red conditions to establish mental readiness.
• Condition white is when you’re totally relaxed and unaware—like walking through a parking lot while staring at your phone. If trouble finds you here, you’re depending on luck for survival.
• Condition yellow means you’re calm, but alert. This should be your default state in public—always aware of who’s around you and what’s happening.
• Condition orange kicks in when something doesn’t feel right. Maybe someone’s acting suspicious, or you notice an unusual interaction. You’re not reacting, but you’re thinking, planning—if X happens, I’ll do Y.
• Condition red comes with threat verification and requires action, but it does not always mean you must fight. Your goal should be to only arrive at condition red through condition orange, so you’re prepared to implement a tactically sound plan.
Core Tactics
The foundational tactical concepts are objective, protection and security, mobility, shock action and firepower/mindset. If you’re operating in the proper awareness level, you can utilize these core tactical principles to best address a situation. Let’s examine each to see what it entails, but let’s also use them to scrutinize the actions of some real armed-
citizen encounters.
It’s worth noting that because it’s impossible to have all the facts or to fully comprehend a victim’s perception, I’m not a fan of hard critiques of self-defense incidents. (Perception matters. I once arrested a suspect who claimed he thought I was a giant snake. Yes, he was as high as a grocery bill, but it explains why he resisted my contact.) Still, by taking a 20,000-foot view of real-world reports from the NRA’s “The Armed Citizen,” we can make at least a casual appraisal of victim actions to learn from them.
Objective
In any self-defense situation, you must establish an objective. It could be as simple as extracting yourself from the situation, but it could be the need to defend loved ones. Also, as a situation develops, you may need to change your objective. At best, your default objective should be avoidance.
Armed Citizen—Discretion or Valor?:
In January, three men began arguing in a busy area of Miami, Fla. The men were circling each other, and one was making threatening advances. Suddenly, the aggressor lunged with a knife, wounding one of the men. This wounded man then shot the assailant. Afterwards, they separated. Police arrested the knife-wielding man, and no charges were expected against the defender.
Critique:
With violence initiated, you must respond accordingly, and in this instance, the victim seems justified and shooting to stop the threat was a successful tactic. However, avoidance seems to have been an option. He might have avoided the need to shoot by disengaging earlier.
Protection and Security
This core tactical principle gets the most attention because it covers concepts you can practice. Primarily, it deals with light, cover and concealment. If you cannot see a threat, you cannot avoid or correctly respond to it. Try to stay in well-lit areas and, if you can, illuminate shadows that may conceal threats. Light also helps you transition from condition orange to condition yellow or red, based on what it reveals.
Similarly, concealment prevents detection, and cover shields you against attack. When working tactical problems during training, you learn to maximize the use of light, concealment and cover to help you reach your objective. Communication also plays a role, as it helps you convey the objective and plan to any partners and to a 911 dispatcher when necessary.
Armed Citizen—Flashlight Finesse:
Last February, a homeowner saw video surveillance footage of a burglar breaking into his property. The homeowner grabbed his gun and gave his wife another gun. He then grabbed a flashlight and went to investigate. “I saw him in my courtyard by my front door. I pulled my gun on him. I told him, ‘Freeze. I’ve got a gun. I will shoot you.’ He looked at me, and he started running away from me.” The suspect was later located and arrested.
Critique:
This man executed sound tactics by securing a flashlight and his gun, and communicating his plan; plus, he clearly flushed the assailant from the scene. One tactical misstep was in seemingly not having his wife alert authorities of the situation and that they were armed.
Mobility
Movement makes you harder to hit. Use movement to create distance, and move to concealment and cover with a purpose. Don’t freeze in place, linger in doorways or fail to put barriers between you and a potential or confirmed threat. As a guiding principle, put as much distance as practical between you and a potential threat. Here you’re acting on facts or perceptions formed under condition orange. When condition red requires action, put as much distance as possible between you and a verified threat.
Armed Citizen—Drive Away:
Police say a group of teens approached a man and his wife in a Jeep on January 29. The suspects got out of a car and approached the Jeep, and one suspect approached the passenger side, brandishing two guns. A second suspect, also armed, opened the rear passenger door. According to police reports, the victims “heard gunshots,” prompting the driver to shoot back with his own concealed firearm. A third suspect then entered the Jeep and began to fight with the armed driver, prompting him to put the Jeep into reverse and hit the car. The victim was then able to drive away from the scene.
Critique:
The victim in this incident was wise to use his vehicle to get as far away from the incident as fast as possible, as opposed to trying to fight it out with multiple armed suspects. The question is why he waited so long to utilize the cover and mobility he had at his disposal.
Shock Action
It’s difficult to surprise an attacker with shocking action if you’re not in the correct state of awareness. Predators seek those who appear to be weak and unprepared, and a surprise counterattack can be a best defense. This core tactical principle reinforces the importance of awareness. As you go through the world in condition yellow—head out of your phone and alert—you may observe a situation warranting condition orange, in which you begin to formulate a plan. It’s how you tactically navigate the world that can initiate surprise when attacked.
Armed Citizen—Counterattack:
In March, a robber, simulating a gun in his pocket, entered a Menlo Park, Calif., market and demanded “all the money in the till.” When the clerk cleaned $190 from one register, the bandit moved him to a second register and demanded its contents. Simultaneously, another employee, armed with the market’s revolver, attacked from the rear. He jerked the robber’s hand from his pocket and trained his gun on the perpetrator until police arrived.
Critique:
Bravo for the bravery of the second employee. He triumphed with shock action, but was his approach tactically sound? Distance is your friend. If you’re armed and have the advantage, avoid hand-to-hand interaction. The attacker might overpower and disarm you. Though it worked well for our hero, had the robber really had a gun, when the employee jerked his hand, it could have discharged and injured the other employee.
Firepower/Mindset
From a military standpoint, firepower relates to volume and type of fire. In a self-defense situation, firepower relates to what, and how much, you shoot and to competency. It could also mean some lesser, non-lethal attack is more appropriate. Another element related to firepower in self-defense situations is mindset and willingness. It’s the ferocity and decisiveness with which you must act. You must, in a sense, become dangerous. As the modern philosopher Jordan Peterson has observed, “If you’re not a formidable force, there’s no morality in your self-control. If you’re incapable of violence, not being violent isn’t a virtue … . Life is a very difficult process, and you’re not prepared for it unless you have the capacity to be dangerous.”
Armed Citizen—Competence and Ferocity:
In March, a robber accosted a Saint Louis restaurateur and two female companions in an alley as they entered the restaurant. The robber put a gun to the head of one of the women, demanded money and pulled the trigger four times. The gun didn’t fire. The restaurateur pushed the gun aside and shot the robber twice, fatally wounding him. Police found two unfired rounds in the deceased’s revolver.
Critique:
There are several things to look at in this account. The first deals with skill at arms, which the robber clearly lacked. We’re not rooting for the criminal, but a lack of gun skills foiled his attack. On the other hand, our restaurant man acted swiftly and violently and solved the problem with sufficient skill and the proper mindset—the necessary firepower.
Tactical Training
Tactics influence all gun skills, not just shooting; for example, there are two different tactics taught for reloading. One lets the expended magazine fall to the ground, and with the other, you retain the partially empty magazine in case you might need it later in the fight. Objectives, tempered with protection and security, mobility, shock action and firepower/mindset, determine the proper tactical approach to self-defense situations. Competent gun skills allow for holistic implementation.
Training is key to developing these skills. Gunsite Academy is the oldest, largest and most respected civilian firearms academy in the world, and their basic 250 Pistol Course helps develop basic shooting skills and offers an introduction to tactical defensive handgun application. A course like this is a great foundational building block, but optimally you should supplement it with scenario-based training requiring tactical solutions. Force-on-force training with simunitions (high-tech paintball guns) helps integrate gun skills and shooting into the tactical decision-making process.
When it comes to tactics, there is almost always more than one correct answer to any problem. Your goal should be to learn to employ tactical principles as they apply to varying situations. This is best accomplished with proper awareness, the correct mindset and with a professional critique during interactive dynamic training scenarios. Sometimes, just having a gun is enough, but when it’s not, proper tactics can save your life.
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