Communicate. Move. Shoot. That’s the message [literally] behind Clint Smith’s YouTube video below. It sure beats the A.D.R.E. acronym mooted by the NRA’s forthcoming Carry Guard classes. And really, what else do you need to know?
Have a gun, make sure you can access it quickly and efficiently, point it at the bad guy, pull the trigger until the threat stops and don’t talk to the police without a lawyer present (except to communicate information about the perp or perps should they escape).
We here at TTAG talk a lot about guns, gun gear, tactics and such. It’s fun and interesting (I hope). But we never forget that the basics are the basics. What gun you carry and the caliber it holds and what gear you use are relatively unimportant compared to the list above.
If there’s one thing you should obsess about it’s training. Provided the training is high quality, the more training you take, the more you practice, the better. Even with a 1911.
John Boch wrote an excellent piece on the subject: Guns for Beginners: How to Find Quality Self-Defense Firearm Training. And I can’t recommend force-on-force training often enough — although God knows I try.
Along those lines, we’re thinking about running a F-O-F two-day course here in Austin. What would you like it to cover?
If you’re in the Austin area and available for a sim experiment — we’re testing the “concealed carriers confuse cops” argument — please send an email to thetruthaboutguns@gmail.com with your deets with SIM in the subject bar. Thanks!