I love me some force-on-force training. The more realistic the better. Which raises an important point: simulations are never realistic. Especially when your head’s encased in a plexiglass diving bell, you’re wearing neck and groin protection and you’re surrounded by people similarly encumbered. Which is why I prefer to run some FoF drills without protective gear using blanks only.
Unfortunately, shooting blanks fails reproductively commercially. People who pay for FoF training want to know the answer to two simple questions: did I live and did I incapacitate/kill the bad guy? To fully satisfy their curiosity, you need to use man-marker cartridges of some sort, which requires protective gear.
This tends to de-emphasize (at least in the shooter’s mind) the most important element of FoF training: strategy. ‘Cause a lousy plan deployed with skilled marksmanship is just as dangerous as a good plan carried out with lousy marksmanship. Improving marksmanship is a lot easier than teaching effective defensive strategy, which varies enormously depending on the environment and threat.
That said, there are some basic rules to keep from getting dead and making sure the bad guy doesn’t guide you or anyone else in that direction. The one I teach my daughter: run or ambush. Hiding? I’ve told her that hiding should only be considered a prelude to an ambush. If you’re about to be discovered, attack! And there’s no better attack than an ambush attack, using speed, surprise and violence of action. Extreme violence.
To that end, our hero above missed an opportunity. He could have instructed couple of guys to stand on either side of the door holding chairs in the air (like they just don’t care), then deliver crushing blows to the bad guy’s brain. That would have evened the odds a bit. Or would it? Or would a physical assault by two or more people in front of our armed defender make it more difficult for him to shoot the bad guy without collateral damage?
I’d like to sim that scenario. Which would be exceedingly difficult, given insurance costs and simple human decency. I could equip the good guys with pillows but that would be silly. What’s not asinine: understanding that a defensive gun use is nothing of the sort. It’s a pre-emptive attack or a counter attack. The best attack is the one the bad guy doesn’t see coming. Put that in your sim and smoke it.