Friday, February 8, 2008

Christian Martialism on a Budget, 9

So far, you have [potentially] spent $46.99 for your first year's training in Christian Martialism. You have an assemblage of some of the best martial/close combat instruction manuals ever produced. You also have access to some excellent sources on tactics and training drills. I hope you have already begun to practice some of what you've learned.

Now I want to approach an area of training that the young man who prompted this series already knows a great deal about: handgun skills. He comes from a shooting family. I'm not sure, however, if he has ever trained in point (or instinctive) shooting.

I believe that learning to use the sights on a firearm is practical and useful at the appropriate distances. You need both aiming and tactical skills. Nevertheless, I am also aware that sight alignment takes that extra second you may not have in a close encounter of the fatal kind.

Over 90% of handgun altercations occur at less than 20 feet. Remember that the pistol originally was introduced to cavalry officers as a less cumbersome substitute for the saber. And it was meant for approximately the same range.

W.E. Fairbairn's work in reducing instinctive shooting to a science is recorded in his book, Shooting to Live(free PDF online). However, you can get a great video instructional aid plus some impressive footage of the techniques being used in a VHS video called Point Shooting. It contains a WWII era declassified training film (black & white) based on Fairbairn's methods. (Video + shipping = $20.44, which brings the total expenditure so far to $67.43).

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