fm2 wrote:Abraham wrote:It takes time to put the red dot on your target, see it, and respond.
The luxury of that amount of time may not (probably won't) be available in a very quick, very short distance (as in 3-6' or so) attack...
I think that is a training issue. If you are "dot hunting" it will slow you down. If you use it to confirm your physical index, it shouldn't slow you down. The low light, ranged shooting, and shooting on the move scenarios it should also help.
If you're actually in a physical contact confrontation (which is statistically pretty likely) and have to use your handgun, your first shots probably should be fired from a close-quarters retention grip with the heel of both the gun and your shooting hand indexed firmly against your ribcage, just below your pectoral muscle. From there, you're shooting at the pelvic region (there are a few reasons for this) without looking at your sights or even the front of your gun: you're very close to the attacker and your point-of-aim comes from practice with that indexed position against your chest. At that range, you're not tryin' to put a round through a particular button on his shirt; you're just trying not to get stabbed or shot while you break contact and get outta the hole.
IMHO, you never want to extend your gun beyond that one-handed, close-quarters retention grip until you're out of immediate reach of your attacker. And it's a dynamic thing: if you have to start firing from a close-quarters retention grip, you're probably going to need to keep firing as you rapidly move off the "X" at an angle and as you extend your gun for a better sight picture as you gain distance. It's not likely to be a tidy, "shoot twice from retention, take two steps away, evaluate the attacker's condition and, if needed, extend to full two-handed shooting stance and deliver two more with precision to COM."
Things are probably going to be happening a lot faster than that, and the half-pint of adrenaline that hit your system isn't going to allow for precise choreography, anyway.
This is where I bring it back on topic because in that intermediate zone of around five to 10 feet from your attacker, you are almost certainly (we hope) always going to be moving your feet and probably won't yet have a full, two-handed, extended grip. But you may well need to be shootin' to save your life or the life of someone else. A good laser can help here.
If the bad guys decided to come in tandem, a laser can also speed target transition, especially on the move. There are several people on this Forum who can handle that extremely quickly with plain, black iron sights (you know who you are), but I'm slow, gettin' old, the eyesight ain't what it used to be, and a laser can help.
A point fm2 didn't mention (he actually said just about everything I have so far, but in less than 50 words), is use of cover. A laser gives you the option of not needing to have your face directly in line with the barrel of your gun if you have to shoot around cover. You can probably imagine several scenarios where that might come in handy. For example, if you need to take a shot from around the front of a car, you might place your gun-hand on the front of the hood while you peek around the bottom of the bumper.
And if you're like me, you don't do well shooting from prone or near-prone positions. Old neck injury limits some flexibility, and I often have a hard time getting a stable sight picture. Lasers can help with that, too.
A last point: lasers can assist in training your basic shooting mechanics. You want to know how good your trigger work is, turn on the laser and practice. You can tell if you pull or push, or flinch or anticipate recoil. You can practice on-the-move dry-firing: if that little dot is bouncing around on the targets in arcs of four or five feet, you gots a problem. They can come in very handy when instructing beginners in obtaining a conventional sight picture: have 'em obtain what they think is a perfect sight picture, then activate the laser; they get immediate feedback.
As others have said, I want to be very clear that I don't think lasers are a substitute for conventional training. IMO, you should be able to pick up whatever gun might be lying there on the street and be proficient with it. But lasers can be a handy addition to the toolset.
(Just one gripe about mine. My master grip is pretty much ingrained with a relatively high index finger position along the slide. With my Crimson Trace LaserGrips, I have to consciously change the position of my index finger or the light is hitting it, not my target. Not a problem once my finger goes inside the trigger guard. But it's a minor point of frustration for me with an otherwise great product. YMMV.)
