Ask Lemmy

Self defense shootings almost universally happen within arms reach. Nobody is using a sniper for self defense, because you can’t claim you were threatened when they’re too far away. A mugger isn’t going to start mugging you when they’re 50 feet away; They’re going to be in conversation range. A rapist isn’t going to make their intentions known until they already have hands on you.

Lots of 2A advocates make the mistake of training for a threat that is 50’ away, as if good accuracy at that range is going to help them when an attacker has them by the throat. Instead, they should be training four basic things:

1. Fast and repeatable draw. By the time they mentally process that you have a weapon, you should already be firing it. Your draw needs to be drilled the same way you drill reloads or clearing jams.
2. Aiming by feel instead of taking time to use sights. Sights are very important at distance, but not so important when the attacker is 5’ away from you. It’s still possible to miss at that distance, but less likely if you’re able to feel where your weapon is pointed. Center mass from 5’ away is a pretty fucking large target. Proprioception is a powerful tool, but learning to use it with a weapon takes a lot of practice.
3. Keeping your weapon close, so you’re not sticking your arm all the way out towards the attacker where they can grab your weapon. This goes hand in hand with the second point. Because again, they’re likely already within arms reach of the attacker, and you don’t want to just hand them your weapon before you even start firing. If you need to stick your arms straight out in front of you and get an eye focused on your sights before you start firing, they’ll have grabbed your gun before your first shot.
4. Keeping your stance solid so the first shot doesn’t immediately knock you off balance. A lot of people do not instinctively know how to maintain balance.

But gun owners bitch and moan if you ever bring these points up, because they aren’t actually interested in training for self-defense. That’s just the excuse they give, because “I want to protect myself” is hard to argue against.