A focus on sighting systems designed for winning a gunfight
By Dave Spaulding
This large fiber optic sight from Hi-Viz is the closest thing to a red ramp revolver sight. It's hard not to see it.
The "point shooting vs. sighted fire" debate rages on with no end in sight. While no one disputes that a handgun's sights should be used during any type of competition, the focus of the argument is on armed conflict, i.e. gunfighting.
Advocates of point shooting maintain that it is impossible to focus on the sights during the stress of a gun battle, while those who advocate sighted fire fall back on the recollections of those who have been there and their steadfast memory of sight usage. Researchers often maintain that these people only think they remember their sights, though they were not standing in the combatant's shoes when they had these erroneous "memories."
I stand in the middle of this debate, seeing both sides of the argument while believing that there is a solution to the problem. I have been a serious student of armed conflict most of my adult life. After entering the police academy and wanting to know the secret of winning a gunfight in the event that I had one, I went searching for the answer, only to find that much of the "expert information" on the matter was mostly opinion and not fact. The firearms training arena is filled with a large number of people who advocate this technique or that tactic, but more often than not their choice of either is based on personal opinion or a desire to be different in the interest of filling their classes with paying customers.
I found out early in my career that this was not good enough for me. If my hide was going to be on the line, I wanted the truth and not innuendo, so I went looking for facts. This journey has led me to interview hundreds of people over the last 30 years who have prevailed in many armed conflicts. They include veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq; law enforcement officers; armed citizens; and, yes, convicted felons, as all have a unique perspective and story to tell.
The author's old stand-by: a standard tritium sight with a piece of reflective warning tape attached. It works well in a wide range of environments, but cleaning solvent eventually breaks down the bond.
I did not undertake this task in an effort to answer any arguments; I did it because I wanted to answer the question in my mind about what I needed to do to win in a gunfight.
Over time I compared what I heard to the situations I faced during my almost 30-year law enforcement career, as I have faced a bit of animosity along the way. I realize now that I will never have a complete answer, as the variables in each confrontation are too great, but I do feel that I have a good handle on what happens and what needs to be done to prepare for these situations.
And preparation is essential; make no mistake about it. As far as sights are concerned, I am convinced that sights can be used in all but extreme close-quarter confrontations--but the shooter must be enabled to do so. Standing on the firing line and shooting a qualification course one to three times a year (the standard of many law enforcement agencies) will not do, as it is not preparation. In order to use the front sight in a tense, fast-moving confrontation, the shooter must have trained in that same way.
Practice must be undertaken on targets that move, spin, wobble, charge and swing while the shooter is basically doing the same thing. Forget the traditional "running man" target found on many police ranges; this device is good for follow through and little more. If you want an education in how a person moves in a fight, watch a boxing match. In conflict, people will bob and weave in an effort to keep from getting hit. In an effort to keep from getting shot, the movement will be even more aggressive and exaggerated.
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