Gun Defense - Angle of Defense

Few martial arts schools deal with gun defense, most of those that do – fail to address key issues. They operate in a vacuum and fail to take into account the difference between real life and the training studio. Sight and Sound

My good friend, retired NYPD detective Louie B address the issue of the effects of sound and sight; the loud noise of a gun going off, the gases emitted and the overall effect of the bullet going off. Failure to take this into account would be a crucial mistake. You must understand what may happen in a real life situation. You must not be caught by surprise. In training we tend to use rubber guns, they don't fire bullets, they don't make loud noises. This is not reality. We must take all this into account.

All Situation

In Krav Maga we learn to take many factors into account; gun threats while seated, a gun pointed at you when you have no room to move, or if you are against the wall. This is reality.

Angle of Defense

Another often overlooked but very important aspect is what I call angle of defense. I have seen many gun defenses, including by Krav Maga practitioners in America, where this vitally important element is ignored. Simply put – you are not alone in this world and you must take innocent bystanders into account.

Many gun defenses, while turning the gun on the assailant, go through a series of motions where innocent people can be shot. In their initial defense they push the gun at angle where it is level to the ground, where a discharged bullet can easily fire at an innocent bystander. Other defenses involve grabbing the gun and moving in around in a circular motion whereby by the time it is pointing at the assailant many people may have been shot. One must take into account that not all defenses work perfectly in real life, and, a struggle may ensue. You want to make sure that during this struggle the gun is not pointed in a direction where innocent people can be shot. There can never be a situation where the gun is pointed at an innocent human being.

In our Krav defenses we take all this into account, we care about innocent bystanders. All our gun defenses are done in such a way that the fire arm is always pointed at the ground or at the assailant.

This training is the result of hard learned lessons, of tragic consequences which were the result of the type of training I mentioned earlier; training, which sadly, is very still very prevalent.

Krav Maga Theory