A Fight Over The Gun, Who Wins?

We reported on a story in July of an off-duty NYPD police officer who was attacked in a parking garage.  She had her gun in her purse but was kept from getting it because she was being attacked.  The thief made off with the purse and the gun inside.

Bad day.

But this isn’t as uncommon as we’d like to think.

Recently, in Syracuse, a woman was stabbed going back to her apartment.  One of the attackers had a gun and when the woman attempted to grapple for control of the gun, she was stabbed multiple times.

Gaining control of a gun in close quarters can be difficult.

Keeping control of the gun in a close quarters combat situation can be even more so.  As we covered in a review of the Honor Defense FIST Frame, an interruption in the upper receiver can prevent a round from discharging.

In this clip, the robber is able to run up on the man with his own gun at the same time the man draws.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9eAes_nfCM

It ended well — the bad guy obviously not winning and the good guy alive and well.

But if you notice the way they grapple very briefly, there is a lot of danger.  Both have guns.  Both are pointed at one another.  Both have their hands blocking up the upper receivers.  All it takes is for the concealed carrier to bring his gun back even an inch and he’s able to get that first shot.  By shot two, he’s clearly impacted his target and shot three, the attacker collapses.

Before It Gets Too Close, Prepare!

If a close quarters struggle for control of a handgun can be avoided — of course we’d all want to.  A couple ways to avoid that sort of struggle is to learn and train on just a few simple tactics to get mentally and physically prepared.

Just using one arm to bar an attacker’s advance and bringing the shooting hand back a couple inches prevents a person from grabbing the gun.  It also gives you first opportunity to open fire and neutralize the target at close range.

A lot of the fight for control of the gun will be based upon your proficiency with hand-to-hand combat and your attacker’s relative proficiency.  Added to that is just the pure adrenaline and combat reflexes of someone fighting for survival.