Video: Are Handgun Disarms Actually Effective?

Every human on this earth would like to think they can take down an armed gunman with their bare hands. It’s the epitome of badassery, with the possible exception of everything Sam Elliott’s character does in “We Were Soldiers.”

But can people take down armed thugs if they’re close enough without the use of defensive tools? Even with training, the answer is decidedly uncertain.

Now, if we haven’t seen someone on YouTube or even in person execute some awesome disarms to the astonishment to whoever’s holding a gun on them, we’ve at least seen it on movies.

UF Pro created a video to see if handgun disarms were something that could really be performed without catastrophic failure to the defender, and it was extremely disturbing:

Can you expect an attempted disarm to succeed without serious injury?

The answer is: not all that often, and definitely not often enough to be your go-to option in lieu of arming yourself or waiting for your opportune moment to either engage your assailant or break contact.

Even when the gunman in this case was expecting it to come at him, the man executing these maneuvers was clearly well-trained and prepared, and although we can’t state with certainty that these roughly cancel, the point is still well-illustrated.

Plus, as one might pretty darn easily notice — these actions are taken when the gunman puts their firearm right in the face or chest in the most convenient possible locations — even an idiot thug isn’t likely to play the game that nicely. There’s just very rarely a good reason for that level of careless regard for positioning and firearms carry.

There’s a simple solution for this, of course — carry your own firearm, and exercise your best judgment as to when — if you ever — need to draw and make use of your defensive tool.

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