I have been vacillating about replying to this article.
1. What I do know from 1st had experience is head shots (properly placed) do end the fight instantly.
2. Usually when things erupt, you do not expect them too, and have little time to prepare your plan.
In 1974 I was working in Colombia as a body guard/pilot for a person in the government. It was noon time and I had stopped at a small restaurant on the outskirts of Bogotá . I was most likely the 1st American to ever have eaten there. Half way through my lunch a man stepped into the door way, scanned the room, lock eyes with me, and started to pull a revolver from his waist band. All my alarms went off, and I started to roll out of my chair to the left and reaching for the Colt 38 Super I carried (38 and 45 are banned as they are "military" weapons). 3 shots were fired at me, the last striking the edge of my shoe sole. I fired one round while on my back without any way to sight, just trying to make the guy duck. The round hit at the side of the nose, and just below the eye. When I finished my roll, and was on my belly ready to engage him, he was just hitting the floor...
Now I trained, and fired several hundred rounds a month, competed in IPSC, it had never occurred to me to do any training from sitting at a table..and certainly not rolling on a floor, with splinters flying up from shots being directed at me. If I had to repeat the same shot...it would never happen..but sometimes you just have to have luck on your side.
I still think about the incident, and wonder who was the gunman? I still do not have a clew..
What would I do different...
A. I would not stay around and wait for the police to arrive...I got beat on for 10 hours by them for what happened even though there was 12 witness. This is something that is never discussed on these boards, but every one seems to want to wait for LEO to arrive and sanctify the situation....Maybe some other options should be considered??
B. Could I have just stood up and drawn my weapon that was in IWB holster under my shirt and jacket? Maybe, but then I had my legs under a table, so I could have tripped on the chair sliding it back, and would have made myself a larger target. (IMO I would have been shot). Once I could return fire there was no doubt I would have taken the gunman down, but it might have been mutual. Simply not enough time to transition from just eating a meal, to drawing a weapon, and keeping alive.
C. Most single body shots do not stop a fight. I had a friend that was shot front to back just above the hip bone, and his adrenalin level was so high he did not realize it until everything was over, and somebody asked about the blood.
D. Head shots....it is so time dependent, I would only try it if myself was unknown to the target, and I was currently really in practice (which I am not at this time in my life), and I had a full size gun, or was 3' away.