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This article is about training to survive on the street in a law enforcement setting when some normal everyday activity spirals downhill into you being the target in a shooting gallery.

With nearly 20 years experience in law enforcement, many of those spent as an instructor, I have witnessed more and more demands being put upon agencies that bleed them dry of funding that could be used for greater diversity in training programs. Your agency is only obligated to provide you with mandated training and ensure that you meet certain minimum standards for job performance. If they offer more it’s because someone is fighting a long hard battle for the budget to do so. That's why I'm assigning the responsibility directly to you to take up where they leave off. After all it is your life we’re talking about here.

Let’s start by agreeing that one of the most fundamental laws of the universe is, "When things can go wrong they will go wrong, and they will go wrong at the worst possible time, and in such a manner as to make you look like the biggest idiot on the planet." Now that we have established this fact let's move on to what we can do to train for it.

The situations we are about to examine can pertain to anyone, the patrolman on the street, the narcotics officer on a raid, or a SWAT team member on a hostage rescue mission.

Before we go any further let me set the basic groundwork for the situation. You have been put in a position where there is a high probability of one or more bad guys shooting at you. This automatically means you had better be carrying a long gun, preferably a shotgun.

A question you may be asking at this point is, "Why should I be carrying a long gun and preferably a shotgun?" It’s real simple, almost any long gun represents a huge increase in stopping power over any handgun and, in my opinion, a 12 gauge shotgun is the ultimate close quarter fight stopper. I am not telling you this as some pet theory but as an officer who has been in this situation on way too many occasions.

1. Let’s think about a few things that can go wrong during a gun battle and what would happen if they did.
2. What would I do if my strong eye were full of debris during the situation?
3. What if I sprained or broke my ankle during the fight and could not move quickly or at all?
4. What if my strong hand or arm became disabled?

All these questions revolve around a central underlying question. If I am forced into the situation of shooting from a weak hand or disadvantaged position in a gunfight, will I be a survivor or a statistic?

It is a proven fact beyond any sense of argument that under the stresses of a gunfight we will only be able to do well what we can do without thinking. Based upon this, logic dictates that once all our basic skills are fine tuned we practice most to strengthen our weakest abilities.

In plain English, by dramatically improving your shooting skills from your weak or off hand side, your ability to survive when the crap is hitting the fan also dramatically improves. When you can shoot from a lying, sitting, or squatting position as well as you can from a standing position your survival quotient just increased even more substantially. Your ultimate survivability rating is achieved when you become at least reasonably proficient aiming and firing the shotgun with one hand, especially from your weak or off hand side.

I know some agencies train their officers to discard their long gun in favor of a sidearm in the event they lose the ability to use one of their hands in a firefight. Anyone who has been trained in this manner might question why you would want to become proficient shooting a shotgun with one hand.

The answer is quite simple. A single trigger pull from a 12 gauge shotgun is more likely to stop a highly motivated attacker on crack or methamphetamine at close range than an entire magazine of handgun ammunition. And you don’t have to take my word for that. Every sizeable law enforcement agency in this country has it’s own horror stories about raids on a crack house, or meth lab, or some other sleaze pit where the perpetrator was still on his feet shooting at officers after taking hit after hit from handgun or sub-gun rounds. My goal in this article is to keep you from being a victim of one of these horror stories.

Now let’s get to the training. Here are suggestions that will help you practice to become the ultimate survivor. If you are a team leader or firearms instructor you can turn some of these ideas into competition where shooters are competing against the clock or head-to-head against each other. These exercises work even better when you can provide realistic scenarios involving cover and multiple targets.

As with any training program you should start with the simplest and most basic exercises. This would probably mean starting with simple paper target type shooting until you or your group becomes comfortable handling the gun in what will at first seem to be awkward positions. Start by shooting from a normal standing position with your weak or off hand. Be sure to load and reload with the opposite hand you would normally use. Next, try shooting while lying down, squatting, sitting, and from behind cover. And be sure to try it from both weak and strong sides to develop a sense of feel for the differences in weapon position and function. Your final initial challenge should be shooting with one hand.

I recommend low recoil tactical type ammunition for all of these exercises. I also recommend Polyshok IRP ammunition, which is very low recoil, as a replacement for all other types of shotgun ammo for any type of police work. It is probably the best round ever developed for entry teams. We use it almost exclusively in our tactical shotgun program at Elite Safety Concepts.

Something I like to do to shake up a team during training is have the entire group to shoot an exercise normally, then make everyone switch to their weak or off hand side and re-shoot the entire exercise. For maximum training effect I make sure they have to reload multiple times. Be prepared for a lot of fumbling and colorful language. Remember, the range is the ideal place to fumble, screw up loading, and miss the easy shots. The street isn’t such a good place to do any of the above.

The exercise I just described is one you can do on your own equally well. If you are the only one at the range, set yourself up some simple props to mimic cover and try different shooting positions with both your strong and weak side.

The purpose of this exercise is to improve your dexterity, coordination, overall shooting proficiency, and give you a whole new set of backup tools just in case your normal tools quit working. Any such improvement you make on the range will certainly increase your odds of survival under fire. A side benefit will be the added value you represent as a member of your team.

Whether training yourself or every officer in your force, be flexible and imaginative while setting up shooting scenarios. You do not need elaborate stages or a fancy range to reap great benefits from this type of training and practice. All you really need is a safe place to shoot, a couple simple props, and a desire to learn.

I have had very good friends die from gunfights in the line of duty. Could training have changed their destiny? I can't honestly answer that question but I do feel we have to be responsible enough to learn everything we can about surviving violence so that when the situation arises we can change our own destiny.

By constantly being alert to what is going on around you, dealing with danger head on, showing no fear, and by having the deep commitment to survive, you can improve the outcome in almost any situation.

Randy W. Martin, President
Elite Safety Concepts

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