Sergeant's Rules For A Gunfight

norsemanberg · February 18, 2009

1. Forget about knives, bats and fists. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. Bring four times the ammunition you think you could ever need.

2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap - life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap - funerals are expensive

3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.

5. Move away from your attacker and go to cover. Distance is your friend. (Bulletproof cover and diagonal or lateral movement are preferred.)

6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a semi or full-automatic long gun and a friend with a long gun.

7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.

8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running. Yell "Fire!" Why "Fire"? Cops will come with the Fire Department, sirens often scare off the bad guys, or at least cause then to lose concentration and will.... and who is going to summon help if you yell "Intruder," "Glock" or "Winchester?"

9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.

10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

11. Stretch the rules. Always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

12. Have a plan.

13. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work. "No battle plan ever survives 10 seconds past first contact with an enemy."

14. Use cover or concealment as much as possible, but remember, sheetrock walls and the like stop nothing but your pulse when bullets tear through them.

15. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.

16. Don't drop your guard.

17. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees. Practice reloading one-handed and off-hand shooting. That's how you live if hit in your "good" side.

18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don't (In God we trust. Everyone else keep your hands where I can see them.)

19. Decide NOW to always be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.

20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.

21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet if necessary, because they may want to kill you.

22. Be courteous to everyone, overly friendly to no one.

23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

24. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than "4".

25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.

26. Practice shooting in the dark, with someone shouting at you, when out of breath, etc.

27. Regardless of whether justified of not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. It is better to be sad than to be room temperature.

28. The only thing you EVER say afterwards is, "He said he was going to kill me. I believed him. I'm sorry, Officer, but I'm very upset now. I can't say anything more. Please speak with my attorney."

Finally, Sergeant's Rules For Un-armed Combat.

1. Never be unarmed.

ajcain79 · February 18, 2009

Love it! LOL!

superjim · February 18, 2009

That kinda brings back memories of the mid 70's in Nam.

norsemanberg · February 18, 2009

All rules to live by!!

Wingnut · February 18, 2009

Silly Sgt...Bringing a firearm to a MK19 fight.

ALange · February 18, 2009

All very touching. I loved it.

Schmids5.3l · February 18, 2009

25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.

I can see Mikhail Kalashnikov saying this.

pennzoil29 · February 18, 2009

superjim · February 18, 2009

25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.

I can see Mikhail Kalashnikov saying this.

I have one of his in the gun cabinet...it has never failed to fire in all the time I have had it.

GatorFan · February 18, 2009

Also,

Remember, no one gets an award for being second place in a gun fight. One more thing I learned, if the building is still standing, you didn't call in enough support fire.

Distance is your friend when using a Barett .50

and believe it or not, I used to run through my house in the dark with my eyes closed just so I knew I could do it with no noise. I also kept guns all over the house.

I want to make this sign and post it out front but you know it would only provoke all the dumbasses to try their luck! These are the people that ensure we need to have signs and notes on things like fan blades or hot coffee.

MR. BURGLAR, you have made a terrible mistake by entering the house of someone who has been in combat many times and came back from them all which means I don't miss and have no guilty conscience keeping me from ending your existence. For your safety, please leave my home and never return.

BuckFeverZ · February 18, 2009

Hell yeah!

Schmids5.3l · February 18, 2009

25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.

I can see Mikhail Kalashnikov saying this.

I have one of his in the gun cabinet...it has never failed to fire in all the time I have had it.

I want one myself, and for some reason I've never got around to buying it I've shot plenty of M4/16/M249saw/M240's/etc. in the Army, but when I shot an AK47 it was a "I need one of these at my house right now" moment. It's at the top of my list, along with a Glock 18 (We can all dream right? lol).

D&SYukonDenali · February 19, 2009

Ex-Clerk · February 19, 2009

I keep a Mossberg Persuader 12 gauge short barrel with pistol grip loaded with #1 buck in the master bedroom. Hope I never need to use if, but if necessary - ready and willing.

Kenny

LawmanSS · February 19, 2009

Good stuff...and all true!

Practice, practice, practice...when the sh*t hits the fan, it will happen fast...very fast. You won't have time to think about grip, stance, trigger squeeze, breathing, etc. Your subconscious/reflexes will take over, so train train train so that the desired response (read: victory) is automatic.