How to Train for Counteroffensive Shooting

When it comes to training and your personal defense, you must first determine the problems you are training to face. Most training is for self-defense. Sometimes, we teach mindset. At other times, we teach fighting.

In this world, safety is a relative concern. How safe we are depends on the circumstance versus preparation. In some cases, the equipment deployed has a bearing on our survival. I have nothing revelatory to state in this report, but I have made some critical observations.

Some of the thoughts have been the result of working with exceptional students. Exceptional is always interesting. Some have taken greater interest in active shooting counteroffensive tactics and training. Also, they have shown an interest in the information coming from Israel.

Israel underscores two things. First, unarmed peaceful citizens are helpless before armed monsters. Our monsters — serial killers and spree killers for the most part… domestic abusers and child molesters on a smaller scale — have usually acted alone, but not always. It is terrible to contemplate an armed group of such monsters. Yet, recent protests supporting Hamas clearly outline we have no shortage of deranged, hateful, and warped individuals in our country who hate America.

The second take away is a person with a clear mind, and moral purpose, can defeat larger numbers of mean and stupid people. As many as 13 Hamas have been killed in a firefight by one defender, perhaps more.

I dealt with many criminals over the past few decades, and all had flexible moral boundaries. All had a narrow range of selfish interests. They are child’s play (compared to the ones that left me with lifelong scars). Let’s consider a different type of martial art, not defensive shooting but counteroffensive shooting.

Counteroffensive Shooting

In martial arts, we learn to counter attacks. We must learn to block as in boxing — perhaps the most underrated of the arts and the most useful for most. In boxing, we learn to get off the line of attack and to avoid injury. Shielding, is moving to one side of a group of attackers to force them to fight one attacker at a time. These are important points. Counteroffensive shooting is different.

Fighting is sometimes called ‘mutual combat’ when both parties have an equal part in the fray. Using that term should be avoided. After all, it isn’t a good-natured, Irish pub brawl with the constable sending the boys home. Most often, both sides go to jail.

In counteroffensive shooting, you are taking the fight back to the attacker. It may be an active shooter, school shooter, or home invasion. This type of training may be proactive. The usual type of short-range defensive techniques and retention drills are not applicable in this type of training.

Counteroffensive shooting is learning to address multiple targets and sometimes to address shooters at longer ranges. We may violate certain rules we have set in place that are very good rules for most every circumstance. These tactics and the circumstances are empirical, not theoretical. They have been proven operationally.

I am well trained and practiced. I am well studied. I am not SAS or military trained, but I have studied applicable tactics. It is good to take a Shoot Like a Seal class and train with the great men of our age. But remember, their skill is built firing 10,000 rounds a year, and they learned from some of the great instructors of the day. You will shoot better, but only a SEAL shoots like a SEAL.

Physical conditioning is also a part of their skill. So, all’s fair and you had better have more than a minor idea of what to do. You need extensive training and a good idea of application and your own limitations. This means a certain performance (on demand) and calling shots when they are very difficult.

Lockdowns and run-and-hide are good for unarmed children. If there is no adult to stand and fight it is a complete embarrassment. Then again, witness the shame in Florida, an officer frozen with fear in Las Vegas, and the (in my opinion) gutless Uvalde police response — perhaps an armed presence doesn’t mean much.

Contrast that to the Texas Tower incident when brave cops fought their way to the Tower, and the Virginia Tech incident in which cops arrived in minutes, smashed through chained doors, and formed a human chain for victim rescue. The officers in the recent university shooting UVLA acted swiftly and with counteroffensive tactics. With all due respect to the right kind of officer, many agencies are a dubious guarantor of your safety.

We often learn to respond to a fight in a specific context — an assault on the street, robbery, or perhaps a home invasion. A home invasion from a vest pocket yard is one thing. But you should also know enough about institutional architecture to understand movement in a mall, school, or large building. As a student of the mind, I know life is seldom a surprise party.

People and events are predictable. We also must consider the unpredictable and our response. Moral dilemma training is a small part of psychology I consider valid in self-defense and especially counteroffensive shooting. As an example, can move your wife and child to safety in the parking or move into a position to address an active shooter? I cannot answer that as all examples are unique.

Another consideration is that we never fire unless we are sure of our target. Don’t fire if you are not likely to strike the target. In active shootings, this may not be true. As an example, the Virginia Tech shooter shot himself as police approached. Their aggressive movement saved lives.

Many shooters, being cowards, kill themselves before facing armed men and women. Don’t discount the fact that almost every shooter was under the influence of drugs, often enough antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs to warp their reality. If you put pressure on their position, they stop shooting and move out of harm’s way.

If there is a chance the shot will hit, it isn’t wasted if they are only wounded or if the shot safely misses and they move out. This is a recommendation for thought, not tactical doctrine. Remember, we don’t have the wherewithal for suppressive fire.

A Few Good Drills

A good drill is to place barrels or obstacles on the range, and practice threading through obstacles. If you do not have a range that allows this type of work, practice dry fire. Have the muzzle of the triple-checked, unloaded firearm pointing downward. Your finger is off the trigger (while you are doing a dry fire drill).

Walk slowly and thread your way through obstacles. If you use a fake gun or unloaded — really unloaded gun — you may run a figure eight through the course. Footwork and movement are very important. Accuracy may have to be practiced separately, but it will all come together with practice. Don’t drag your feet! Don’t cross the ankles during movement!

Whether you use iron sights or a red dot, it is important to know the relation of the point of aim and point of impact — especially with high profile sights from five to seven yards, and beyond to at least 50 yards. It is interesting, and sometimes the difference defies ballistics. As an example, if you are firing a full-size service pistol (in general) when the pistol is sighted for 25 yards, the bull’s eye-hold drop is evident at 50 yards.

At 100 yards, to get a center hit with a 9mm or .45, you will need to hold on the throat or chin of a man-sized target. However, this isn’t always true of compact handguns. Lightweight handguns are usually easily sighted in at 25 yards, as the sights are properly calibrated. But muzzle flip is greater than with a heavier handgun.

As a rough example, in range drills I often perform with a steady supply of .38 Special service loads, required a throat hold for center to abdominal hits at 100 yards. This was using a 36-ounce four-inch barrel service revolver. The snub .38 required holding on the belt buckle to get high chest hits due to extreme muzzle flip. A compact and a long slide 9mm may not exhibit quite as great a difference. However, if you think you may need to fire at extended distances, you must fire at those distances occasionally.

I studied the SAS operation in Malta. In this case they ran at the terrorists and shot them down. As they ran toward the terrorist, the adversary’s only concern was getting away or firing at the running assailant. They did not fire at innocents. Is running toward the threat and firing beyond us?

It isn’t well known, but Ed McGivern taught running movement shooting to police agencies in the 1930s. They were taught to fire as their firing-side foot hit the ground. A young cop, whom I know well, used this technique operationally in 1981 and stopped a hold up man who had fired two shots at him — one over the shoulder without aiming.

One encounter was a shot at 17 yards, and it was over. The cop did this after a surprise shot was fired at less than 10 feet. If the threat is surrounded by innocent victims running toward him, and firing forces him to redirect and defend himself, perhaps there is a balance to the best way to save many lives.

Cover is important, and braced fire is more accurate. It goes without saying that taking cover is a very important part of counteroffensive shooting. Like Cyrano at the gate, force the threat to come to you when you are outnumbered. While movement may be good, and taking cover excellent, also remember that going prone maybe suicide when the threat has a height advantage.

As Benjamin Netanyahu stated, the hardest part of an anti-terror operation is to not let go with everything you have at the first sight of a threat, but to fire accurately. This is as true today as when he stated this dictum decades ago.

Gear Selection

In personal defense, skill trumps the firearms choice. There are plenty of good, mid-size 9mm pistols. A medium-sized .38 is good. A .32 or .380 isn’t something I consider viable. When it comes to counteroffensive shooting, subcompact slimline 9s and snub nose .38s are practically worthless against fast-moving threats and threats at a distance.

You are not likely to have a rifle. If you do, you are far ahead of the curve. Firing at ranges past 25 yards, keeping the shots on target, striking a moving target, and connecting with multiple threats demands a very good handgun with a skilled shooter. A Springfield Echelon or Walther PDP are not too large for concealed carry, but will provide good control and accuracy.

I don’t fire a Glock 17 as accurately as the Springfield Echelon. However, a Shadow Systems 9mm is a good bet. Choose a good handgun that is reliable with good practical accuracy. I know, some of the guys recommend a .32 Magnum or .380 ACP for defense use. Their recommendation is irrelevant for serious defense use. Perhaps they suffer from incomplete digestion of facts.

Consider what may be involved in counteroffensive shooting and take appraisal of your own abilities. Percentage wise, you are about as likely to be struck by a meteor as to need such skills. However, the possibility isn’t completely out of the question.

How do/would you train for counteroffensive shooting? What are your favorite drills? Share your answers in the Comment section.