kcshooter,
You have made some assumptions about my level of training & experience which ... well, aren't warranted. I've only been shooting for 7 years. But during that time, I have taken multiple classes from Jim Cirillo, Marty Hayes, Massad Ayoob, Gabe Suarez, and others. I'm an assistant instructor at the Firearms Academy of Seattle and have been active in helping to establish the women's programs there. In short, what I said above was
not because I am an inexperienced new shooter who doesn't know any better. It was the result of personal experience -- both in my own shooting, and in helping newcomers get up to speed in defensive shooting.
Most people have a dominant eye. Not all do.
Most people can be trained to shoot with both eyes open. Not all can.
Peripheral vision is important. Because of this,
if possible, folks should train to shoot with both eyes open. If it is
not possible (as it is not, for a small but not insignificant number of shooters), folks should do whatever they need to do in order to get their hits. In either case, it is very important to train yourself to habitually break out of the stress-induced tunnel vision after you shoot -- to consciously move your head and
look at your surroundings.
When you look around, by the way, of course you have both eyes open, no matter what your eyes did when you were shooting.
Closing one eye to shoot takes only a fraction of a second. As soon as the shot or shots have fired, you train yourself to immediately open both eyes, move your head, and REALLY LOOK at your surroundings, including the areas to the side and behind you.
Again. The ideal is to keep both eyes open. But it is not "the ONLY way to shoot." Not everyone can be trained to that ability.
Everyone
can and
should be trained to break out of the tunnel, by habit, as soon as they have stopped firing.
Techniques have to be adapted to the real world, and that includes working with the wiring people were born with. Just as some 10% of people cannot close one eye independent of the other (did you know that?), some small percentage of people do not have one eye which is dominant enough to take over the sighting task when both eyes are open. We have to work with the wiring people actually have, not with the wiring we wish they had.
pax