Originally Posted by
26 Inf
I do this quite a bit in training with NLTA teaching guys to move off the draw - take a guy aside brief him and drill him without the other folks seeing it - then face them at 4-5 yards - virgin bad guy (never seen drill before) has 17T in back waistband, set up FI, bad guy moves for gun, officer drops DL, moves and draws diagonally in, almost always beat bad guy, first time. That time it was all about OODA. Generally, after that the officer will never beat the non-virgin bad guy, because the bad guy knows what the officer is going to do, he expects movement, so he has already decided what to do in response, all he has to key on is which way.
Since 1976 just a tick over 50% of the police shootings in which an officer was killed happened within 5 feet of the offender; over 80% within 20 feet. I would be willing to bet that those distances are not the combat gunfight distances that Paul Howe was quoted as talking about.
As someone said earlier, LEO's need to train beyond those distances, because LEO's need to be thinking about tactics they can use to make initial contact and assessment beyond those distances.