Using Your Fire as Cover

Considerations

Marine Corps infantry doctrine calls for 'assaulting the ambush'. The only possible chance for survival in an ambush is to attack the ambushers. This has been shown to disrupt the ambush and break the attack.

However, outside a combat zone this may not be the best course of action. I can see where moving toward an attacker and firing rapidly in the direction of the attacker may not be the best course of action in a shopping mall during the Christmas shopping season.

I have long held tactics must be fluid and adaptable to the current situation. While I was a Border 'Troll in a rather desolate area of Southern California, I could do things I cannot do now working inside at Los Angeles International Airport.

Mr. Matthew Temkin asks the very valid question:
Since the police have a lousy hit rate I would like to hear your suggestions as what to do when up close and personal.
The only possible answer is "Shoot quickly and don't miss."

Police have a lousy hit rate (and that is correct) for two reasons.

Reason number one is departments look at training as a budget item. Firearm qualification and training are done in a fashion to get most of the troops 'qualified' for lawsuit purposes while spending as little money as possible. That's just a fact of life for taxpayer funded organizations. Troops at the range are not on the job.

Reason number two is most law enforcement people are not shooters and look at firearms as a required evil at best. Most lawmen (women) will never fire their weapons except at the range and most simply don't take lethal self-defense seriously. (The lawmen who attend this forum are the exception, I should think.)

No hobbyist falls into reason number two; most work seriously at overcoming reason number one. The fact is, non-police firearms owners have a much better over all 'score' for shooting villains - and the proper villain - than police in general.

My own theory of gunfighting is this: Stay alert for coming problems. Anticipate what can happen and from where an attack may come. Be competent with one's equipment.
 
MT,
Archie answered that one about as well as I could. The support offered by LEO administrators and the skill level among LEOs varies considerably, to say the least. I've found that also true of military, contractor, security force, etc personnel. The best are very good. The average, not so much.

You're offering up some of history's "very good," by the way. But that doesn't mean what worked for them will work for everyone, or that if operating today, given the available pool of resources, that that their tactics and advice would remain the same.

---
On miss rates:

Having a ___% miss rate is unacceptable.
Training to allow for it, more so.
 
Obviously not all, perhaps most, military techniques are completely inappropriate for civilian use.

I assume Archie was talking about reacting to a near ambush. Maybe the marines do it differently, but we drop, seek immediate cover, throw a grenade, fire a couple rounds to suppress while we wait for it to go off, then assault.

For a far ambush we seek cover and lay down supporting fire for the element not in contact while they manuever on the enemy.

Neither of these is a viable option for a civilian who has been ambushed in a built up area.
 
Each case is different. I would love a guy to come at me shooting rather than standing still and taking better aim. I loved the Iraqi's spray and pray. Marines just took a bead and plunked them. An AK47 is a great weapon but that was not a good tactic. I saw a Marine in a trench that ran his weapon dry pull his Kbar and run at a guy who while holding an AK turned tail to run another Marine made sure he did not get far. I would never want to take on a guy with a gun when i only had a knife but at that precise second that was his best option.
 
A good practitioner should be able to draw while moving and get two A-zone hits also while moving laterally, creating several feet in distance between you and the adversary, all in under two seconds.

We teach that in any ballistic encounter, there are at least two targets, you and the BG. We want the student to be the toughest target to hit, and that is the moving target.
 
Yes the Marines taught us to attack the ambush but not to be stupid. Cover fire move, cover fire move. attack but do it right!
 
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