Table of Contents
What will we have remember from our training in a stressful situation, during a firearm attack?
In the event of a firearm attack, you will naturally be alarmed, your “reptilian brain” will blink red and scream “Danger! Danger!”. Then, your attention will be focused on a single thing: the gun.
As you can see, the barrel represents the greatest danger.
Once you have successfully escaped from the situation of imminent danger (i.e. you are out of the range of the weapon), the greatest danger arises when you try to knock out your attacker with impacts while he still has the weapon in his hands.
Indeed, while you are going to try to put him out of harm’s way, be aware that he will naturally defend himself. All it takes is one wrong move, one missed opportunity, and the situation can immediately turn against you: gun pointed at you, finger on the trigger, gun ready to fire.
How are you supposed to react? Regardless of the configuration, retrieve the weapon at all costs (for instance, by grabbing the barrel with one hand and turning it toward your wrist to release the stock from the aggressor’s grip), avoiding exposing any part of your body to the barrel while disarming.
Once you have got the gun back, disable the attacker!
Easier said than done, of course, because whereas everything goes well in training, things get complicated once you start moving…
Complex movements (joint locks and other academic techniques) VS concepts: How are you going to disarm your attacker?
Imagine for a moment that you are faced with an individual and by chance you are able to control his armed wing. Then the situation quickly degenerates, and his arm gets out of control.
In such a situation, what do you think you will remember from your training?
It is clear that in a stressful situation, it is not the technique that remains, not the perfection of the gesture, but rather the principle, the concept that stands behind the technique.
You will not make a clean, instantaneous disarmament. You will grab the gun with both hands in a rather messy way, struggling with the energy of desperation to recover the weapon.
So forget about wrist locks, sequences, controls on the ground, etc. These techniques are too complex and therefore too demanding in terms of motor coordination/thinking time to be effectively reproduced in a stressful situation.
On the other hand, there are simple and instinctive concepts that you should work on and integrate into your training, such as “Barrel = Danger! I grab the gun, I try to get it back!”.
Practicing concepts is very unattractive, very unappealing, but it is indeed what is most likely to resists under stress without its effectiveness being impaired by fear, apathy, adrenaline, etc.
Simply because the concept is the simplest version of the technique, and therefore does not require a great effort of restitution, at the cognitive level.
Neutralize your aggressor
It is only once you have “secured” the situation – meaning that you have picked up the weapon – that you can throw massive and violent strikes. It’s not only about throwing your fists (especially since in a quasi-fight, at close range, the amplitude of your strikes may not allow you to knock out your attacker), it also requires you to exert the full measure of your anger. Keep in mind that in addition to having threatened your life, the attacker may be alcoholic or drugged. Consider the inhibiting effects this may have on his pain!
At that stage, you should not hesitate to use everything that can serve as a weapon, that is your elbows, the barrel, your teeth to bite him, everything that can cause him heavy damage.
Mieux comprendre le stress du point de vue scientifique: https://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/dossiers/medecine-stress-comprendre-gerer-stress-855/
