This past weekend, I participated in a Suarez International Force on Force Gunfighting class. This class uses Airsoft pistols to create a dynamic environment, where your target moves around and shoots back. Shooting at a stationary cardboard silhouette target is one thing; when that target charges you with a knife in his hand, intent on driving it into your gut, everything changes.

We ran a series of drills, including bad guy with a knife; bad guy with a gun; two bad guys - one knife, one gun; and two bad guys, two guns. Each combination of these were run with the good guy or bad guy initiating the action. In some scenarios, the bad guys were mobile, in some they were not. We worked these drills from ranges of 21 feet down to about 6 feet. We worked on some close in techniques for managing high and low knife attacks, and worked some pistol disarms. We played out scenarios including getting approached at the ATM, bank robbery, convenience store robbery, and a stick up at the gas pumps.

Some of the scenarios were no-shoot drills, like the guy just wanted to know the time. Those drills showed one of the major weaknesses of this class: we all expected something to happen, and so we were hyper-vigilant. The drill loses something when the "good guy" just stares down the potential "bad guy" instead of playing his part. This proved true in any of the one-on-one drills as well. While standing toe to toe with someone, knowing that he's going to pull a gun, you are on a hair trigger, and your reaction time (OODA loop) is much shorter.

I learned a couple of good lessons. First, standing still will get you dead. Not moving against a mobile opponent sucks. I "knew" that I need to move at the start of a fight, but this was eye opening. It's not about a step to the left or right, it's an explosion of speed in an unexpected direction that makes your opponent process what just happened. A street thug expects you to hand over your wallet when he sticks a gun in your face. He doesn't expect you to slam him into a wall and pump rounds into his side.

Lesson two: Fight to the end. This isn't a new concept to me, it's a mindset I've developed over the last couple of years, but it was a good reminder. If presented with violence, I'm going to shoot, stab, beat with a chair, or choke with my bare hands - but I'm going to win.

Lesson three: The fight happens up close. This "realization" has made me consider looking into some good hand-to-hand or martial arts class. The ability to deflect the initial attack and create space to bring a weapon into play is key. Having a "weapon" that can't be taken away in a "gun free zone" in an added bonus.

A couple of notes on the equipment we were using. Airsoft pistols are gas powered replica of common handguns - in my case a clone of my Glock 19 as posted previously. The majority of students were shooting glocks, although two were shooting 1911 style guns. The gun shoots a 6mm, .20 gram plastic pellet around 300 fps. Students wore heavy sweatshirts and paintball masks to protect from injury. Most wore gloves. Even through that clothing, these pellets sting, and frequently leave small welts and/or blood blisters. A few pellets managed to catch some folks on bare skin (throat and forehead), and left open, bleeding wounds. That said, Airsoft guns really are toys. They are rather delicate / finicky in use, and don't take well to getting dirty. They require ample lube to continue to run. They don't have positive extraction, so malfunction drills are not as effective as they should be.

Overall, this was a pretty good class. I would recommend this class to trained shooters. That said, there were a few things in the class I didn't care for. First, pre-class communications were lacking. I would have expected an e-mail a week or so in advance, confirming the class was on, and providing start times, directions, et cetera. Second, the class seemed a little bit disorganized. I couldn't tell if this was the curriculum, or the instructor. There was a lot of downtime that consisted of storytelling, rather than working drills or interesting scenarios. We probably could have completed the shooting drills in one day - that's disappointing.

I will be doing more FoF classes - most likely with Tactical Response.

I realize I'm coming late to this thing, but I wanted to throw my thoughts out there.

First, if you didn't watch Diane Sawyer's hatchet job on guns, it's available on ABC's website. I just watched it, and it did very bad things for my blood pressure.

There are many good write-ups about what happened, like this one at Found: One Troll and the VCDL rebuttal, so I'll spare you the play by play.

It seems to me that the students they armed for their simulation were set up to fail. It appears to me that all of the armed students sit in the same seat, which makes me think that they were put there - front and center. The "active shooter" who bursts into the classroom is the firearms instructor who trained them, which means he knows exactly who is a threat in the scenario. Simunitions have no ballistic effect - getting shot with them doesn't hinder your ability to fight. While we can't resolve the last point, a shooter who was not involved in the training would not know who might engage him. With sufficient training in tactics, an armed student would likely have chosen a better seat. From what I can see in the video, I would have been in the top row, closest to the door.

Even given "more training then most states require" to carry a firearm, when matched against an experienced shooter a new shooter will have little chance of success. Those of us that carry routinely practice, a lot. We practice drawing a firearm from concealment, because we know that yes, that cover garment can get in the way, and a fouled drawstroke is a failure. Those of us with a little more than average training learn to move and shoot. Those of us who carry make a point of being aware of our surroundings, so that we don't have to use our firearm.

I'm not surprised at how this report played out. I'm not even disappointed. It was the one sided, emotional garbage I would expect from ABC.