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I get that you can’t be 100 percent tactically accurate when you’re a moviemaker going for yucks (or action adventure). But I’m still thinking that this operator should have checked left and right when he brought the new $1142 SIG SAUER MK25 back to his body after firing. The goon check should be so drilled into his subconscious mind that it’s inescapably instinctive. ‘Cause if you don’t practice checking your environment after shooting or brandishing your gun, you stand a pretty good chance of getting shot by someone other than the person you just shot, or shot at . . .
What are the exact odds that you’ll face multiple attackers in an armed self-defense scenario? Who cares? If you train yourself to deal with the possibility of more than one bad guy you lose nothing if he or she’s all by their lonesome. If you train yourself to counter just one bad guy, you run the risk of losing your life, or the life of a loved one. As the Brits say, it’s the bus you don’t see that kills you.
That said, scanning your environs immediately after a Defensive Gun Use (DGU) is about more than identifying—then engaging or avoiding—a secondary or tertiary (or greater) threat. It’s about maintaining ANY situational awareness.
Truth be told (thanks Christian), shooting someone is a fascinating business. Nothing quite captures your attention like watching the effects of your bullet(s) on the bad guy’s body. The tendency is to stare, transfixed, at the bloody aftermath of your ballistic defense.
Perhaps it’s an evolutionary tunnel vision thing; you want to make sure the Bad Guy’s out of action. Maybe it’s a love that dare not speak it’s name (a natural attraction to extreme violence and gore). Whatever. Train yourself out of it.
Through endless relentless repetition at the range, train yourself to bring your gun in and check left and right—really check left and right—after every. Single. String. That way you’ll do it post-DGU. Or at least you might.
If your training holds, you’ll break eye contact with the hopefully scarpering or prone perp and find out what else is happening around you: new threats (including cops), the health and safety of your friends and/or family, the location of concealment and cover, potential escape routes, etc.
Your decisions in a DGU are only as good as the information they’re based on. If you limit your information to the amount of bad guy bodily fluid seepage, you’ll make bad decisions in a life-or-death situation. Great shooting. Too bad he got killed.
You know the old expression it ain’t over until the fat lady sings? Not true. It’s not over until you leave the theater. And maybe not even then.
