Shoot ‘Em to the Ground
By: Richard Wright
What happens
when someone is shot? Typically they will do 1 of 3 things; first,
they may run away. Second, they may just give-up and stop what they
were doing, and third, they keep on doing what they were doing
before. The third person is the one that we want to address. Why
he stays in the fight does not matter. He may be extremely focused
and motivated. He may have on body armor or he may be full of
drugs. It doesn’t matter. He has to be stopped. Years ago, this
situation was addressed and ended-up being called the Mozambique
Drill; two in the body and 1 in the head. This was accepted
doctrine for decades and typically went like this. Upon seeing the
threat and being in immediate fear for your life, you draw you gun
and fire 2 quick shots into the cardiac triangle and even though he
has not reacted, you drop to a low ready to assess. Then seeing
that he still poses a threat (incoming rounds perhaps?), you present
the gun and fire the head shot hoping that you hit the ocular
window
Question? How
much time does it take to lower the gun to low ready, assess the
situation, and then raise the gun to fire again? The rest of your
life perhaps?
We are all
familiar with the term follow-through. That is the act of always
preparing to fire another shot. For example, you fire three rounds
but follow-through has you prep your gun for a fourth shot. You
fire 1, you prep for 1 more. You always prep the gun to fire an
additional shot should the need arise.
Regarding the
failure-to-stop drill above, why not instead do the following. Upon
the threat of someone trying to kill you, you draw and fire your gun
3-4 times into the cardiac triangle (CT) and on the 4th
or 5th shot; your follow-through is to the ocular window
(OW). If you see his face, you execute the shot. If not, then
follow him to the ground. How much faster is that?
Doesn’t it
make sense to keep firing as long as he remains a threat? If after
3-4 rounds into the CT he is still there, will additional rounds to
the same area help? Maybe, but while you are doing that he is still
trying to kill you. This is a classic failure-to-stop situation.
If after firing 3-4 rounds in to the CT and he is still standing,
let your next follow-through give you an OW site picture.
Front sight,
press!
