Book Review: The Art Of Modern Gunfighting

[Paladin]

The Art Of Modern Gunfighting

This book was written by Scott Reitz, a 30 year veteran of the Los Angeles Police department. It came highly recommended to me. The author really does a great job of documenting a lot of truths about gunfighting into a highly readable format.

LAPD Chief Darryl Gates, who was the pioneer of the SWAT concept, wrote a foreward to the book and calls it “a must read for anyone using deadly force”.

I'm still reading it, and the part about the on the ground experience in during the 1992 LA riots was eye opening. I'd never read that kind of detail about the event. It really was a post-apocalyptic style street war.

[chasfm11]

Thanks for sharing this book. I've added it as a priority to my reading list.

My current book, "The Attack" by Kurt Schlicter is a novel but it deals with a potential situation that we might face sooner than many think and offers a perspective about how to deal with it. I think that we have to "war game" situations at least in our own minds so that we don't end up without a mental path forward when things go bad.

[Rafe]

Paladin: I nabbed that book a couple of years ago. Mine's a 2012 publication, 2nd edition. Do you know if there was ever a "Volume 2" since this one is subtitled "The Pistol: Volume 1"?

I don't want to dissuade anyone from the book--it's excellent--but what made me an immediate kindred spirit with Reitz was when, in talking about pistol fit in the "basics" section, he wrote:

I can shoot most pistols fairly well but the pistol that best fits me and that I feel most ‘locked into’ is the single-action, semi-automatic 1911 Colt styled pistol in .45 caliber.

My current book, "The Attack" by Kurt Schlicter is a novel but it deals with a potential situation that we might face sooner than many think and offers a perspective about how to deal with it. I think that we have to "war game" situations at least in our own minds so that we don't end up without a mental path forward when things go bad.

If you're far enough into the book, did you have the same reaction I did to the pervasive pro-Hamas fiascos that spread last week across U.S. university campuses like wildfire? Clearly that was well-funded--from somewhere--and centrally planned if not centrally orchestrated; might have been localized "cells" responsible for operationalizing the "demonstrations." Very eerily similar to the progression of events that Schlicter wrote about.

[Paladin]

I haven't seen Volume 2. Amazon doesn't show any other books by Scott. It's hard work writing a book, so that may have slowed down his plans for a sequel.

Talking with a LEO at TACCON whose jurisdiction successfully handled the BLM riots, these leftists are well organized by professional agitators and well funded.

It's no surprise that the number one funder of the democrat party and lead anti-gunner himself is funding these on campus protests:
George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests

The democrat's #2 funder, SBF is now in jail. Truth is we need to mop up illegal activity, first and for most by jailing and bankrupting the people who fund it.

[Rafe]

I haven't seen Volume 2. Amazon doesn't show any other books by Scott. It's hard work writing a book, so that may have slowed down his plans for a sequel.

I'm betting the sequel was most likely to have addressed shotguns and rifles, maybe even small-team tactics since he had done a pretty good job in Volume 1 of talking about a lot of the basics and mindset that would be cross-purposed for long-guns.

Hope he gets around to Volume 2.

Talking with a LEO at TACCON whose jurisdiction successfully handled the BLM riots, these leftists are well organized by professional agitators and well funded.

It's no surprise that the number one funder of the democrat party and lead anti-gunner himself is funding these on campus protests:
George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests

The democrat's #2 funder, SBF is now in jail. Truth is we need to mop up illegal activity, first and for most by jailing and bankrupting the people who fund it.

Amen to that. A tough row to hoe, however, in the current political clime. The first step is to positively identify and build a case against the illegal activity, and you can't even begin to do that if DAs and the Dept. of Justice are looking the other way.

I don't put SBF in the same echelon as Soros, though. I think Bankman-Fried was 40% idiot and 40% clueless. He just magically ended up with a lot of money and did it badly enough that he got caught. Soros is an ideologically-driven pit-bull, knows exactly what he's doing, and his son is already locking his jaws on the target to maintain the bite when the old man dies.

And speaking of Kurt Schlichter, isn't it interesting that, after having published at least 10 novels and 4 nonfiction books over the course of a decade (and being a senior columnist for Townhall.com, a Los Angeles trial lawyer, and a retired army infantry colonel), he has no Wikipedia page...while others who have written only one or two books (but not of material or opinions that run counter to the left) do have Wikipedia pages?

[chasfm11]

If you're far enough into the book, did you have the same reaction I did to the pervasive pro-Hamas fiascos that spread last week across U.S. university campuses like wildfire? Clearly that was well-funded--from somewhere--and centrally planned if not centrally orchestrated; might have been localized "cells" responsible for operationalizing the "demonstrations." Very eerily similar to the progression of events that Schlicter wrote about.

I have finished the book. I believe that much of the funding for many bad things comes from sources like Soros. They are not all his personal ideology but that really doesn't matter. The American people have no counter to the level of payment. The conspiracy terrorist part of me believes that a good percentage of it might be U.S. funds laundered though other countries.

[Paladin]

I got to the part of the Gunfighting book where the author discusses "instinctive or point shooting".

Really interesting to read his training history. Apparently when he was at the police academy, Jelly Bryce's style of hip shooting was taught for shooting inside 10 yards. Jelly was an amazing shot and gunfighter, but put a ton of practice into what he did. The author rightly points out that hip shooting is difficult to master and takes a lot of practice. But there are some issues with the discussion as point shooting includes both hip shooting and instinctive shooting... but hip shooting and instinctive shooting are not the same thing. Here is scientific research on the topic of "instinctive shooting": FSI Study: The Surprising Deadly Threat Of Firearms Novices.

Overall, while it is possible that the high percentage of
hits to the head area by the novice shooters could be
explained by a novice looking over the firearm sights,
which would tend to create high hits, the high number of
head hits suggest the individuals naturally point the firearm
where the are looking - at the head. This begs the question
regarding police officer firearms training and the current
practice to fire at center body mass at minimal distances:
Is this the best point of aim and is this training counterintuitive
to natural instinct? Therefore, it is recommended
that further research and investigation be aimed at answering
whether this training forces the officer to spend precious
additional time to re-focus and shoot toward an
area that is not one of normal or instinctual visual focus?

New Tests Show Deadly Accuracy & Startling Speed Even Inexperienced Shooters Can Achieve:

An overwhelming majority of the test subjects used point shooting at all
distances when firing rapidly, and almost all used 1-handed techniques at close
ranges. At 5-7 yards and beyond, many shifted spontaneously to 2-hand
stances, with an increase in hit probability noted.
Even though point shooting, the volunteers still tended to extend their arms fully
and bring the gun up to eye level. “Rarely did they use a combat tuck,” Avery
said. “Even at 1 yard, they tended to extend their arm to shoot.”

As COL Applegate discovered during WW2, instinctive shooting is real, requires less training, and it does work for common situations (most especially inside 7 yards). It is ironic that it took Force Science over 60 years to rediscover what COL Applegate documented back in the 1940s.