Don’t Shoot to Wound: Lessons from a Near-Tragedy in Jerusalem ~ VIDEO

Opinion

Shooting to wound?

From a friend in Israel (yesterday):

“Happened a few hours ago, on my road into Jerusalem.

An IDF reservist stopped his car when he witnessed an individual terrorist attack two Israeli teenagers (pedestrians) with a knife.

The reservist quickly exited his car, drew his concealed pistol, held it in two hands at eye-level, and confronted the terrorist. However, he had to first chamber a round, since he was obviously carrying the pistol with an empty chamber.

Can’t tell from the video, but the reservist also likely challenged the terrorist verbally.

Undeterred, the knife-wielding terrorist aggressively approached our reservist.

The reservist responded by firing at least one round (probably several) at the terrorist’s legs.

This round(s) neither stopped, nor discouraged, the terrorist!

At one time, we here in Israel were instructed to “shoot at the feet first.” This reservist was still (unwisely) adhering to that ill-advised policy

When the still-unimpressed terrorist continued his aggression, our reservist (now back-peddling) continued firing, this time into the terrorist’s chest.

That abruptly stopped the fight!

Terrorist was DRT

The two teenage victims (with multiple knife wounds) were evacuated to a local hospital, but the incident otherwise had a happy ending.”

My comment: This “happy ending” was nearly otherwise, owing to two foolish tactical practices that we, even today, see adhered to in Israel, and even over here, by many among the uninformed.

1) Carrying concealed pistols with the chamber empty. This obsolete practice dates from the late 1940s, when many pistols used and carried by audacious Israeli pioneers were defective, broken, and unsafe, but were carried for serious purposes anyway, because they had nothing else!

“Empty-chamber carry” naively assumes both of your hands will be available when you need to shoot, and it adds an extra step in your pistol’s emergency deployment. Really silly, since it’s contribution to safety (when you’re carrying a modern, fully-functional pistol in good working order) is naught.

2) Even more menacing to your continued good health is the ill-advised practice of “shooting to merely wound”

When your very life is directly and imminently threatened, best practice is to “stop” the threatening individual as quickly as possible. There is universal agreement that the best way (by far) to stop an individual under these desperate circumstances is to inflict multiple, lethal wounds- immediately!

Thus, “stopping” a threatening individual and inflicting grievous wounds that will likely end his life are inexorably linked together.

In the same circumstance, attempting to use your pistol to inflict wounds that are deliberately intended to be “non-fatal” needlessly endangers your own life and needlessly prolongs the incident, as we see!

Who still adhere to these two obsolete and injudicious practices have willfully immersed themselves in self-deception.

We hope “enlightenment” comes to them before it is too late!

“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries—for heavy ones they cannot”’” ~ Niccolo Machiavelli.

/John

About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc

As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor, John Farnam will urge you, based on your beliefs, to make up your mind about what you would do when faced with an imminent lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance if any. Defense Training International wants to ensure that its students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or in-actions.

It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to Planet Earth. Mr. Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com

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