Here’s a quick list of 9 instances where good guys with pistols took out bad guys with shoulder mounted weapons:
- May 3, 2015 Curtis Culwell Center in Garland TX. 59 year old officer Greg Stevens began taking rifle fire from 2 attackers at a distance of 15 yards who were both wearing body armor and a hundred round drum of ammo. Officer Greg Stevens drew his .45 Glock 41 and began shooting and advancing, taking both shooters out of the fight without being shot himself. He hit with more than half of the shots he fired.
- 1984, Jerusalem. 3 men armed with automatic rifles and grenades start shooting a crowd. An insurance salesman and an Army reserve officer engage them with their concealed pistols taking out 1. A merchant takes out the 2nd with his pistol. The 3rd is thrown off his gameplan, stops shooting and police take him into custody.
- Feb 12, 2007, Salt Lake City, UT. Less than 4 miles from where I lived at the time. A murderer armed with a shotgun and revolver started shooting people in the parking lot at Trolly Square Mall, entered the mall, and continued shooting. An off-duty officer was having dinner with his wife at a brewpub and engaged the shooter from the 2nd floor behind a see-through railing with a Kimber 1911 subcompact. The shooter shot back, but the incoming rounds fixed his position and he was no longer pursuing victims. A good friend of mine and another officer distracted the shooter and exchanged fire with him to distract him and other officers were able to flank and kill the shooter.
- 1993, Cape Town South Africa. 4 terrorists armed with full-auto AK-47s and grenades entered a church, killing 11 and injuring 47. A member of the church drew his 5 shot snub nosed .38 special and wounded one terrorist. This was enough to cause all 4 terrorists armed with full-auto rifles to flee.
- December 11, 2012, Clackamass Town Center Mall, Oregon. A murderer, armed with a rifle and 145 rounds shot 17 times, killing 3 before being confronted by a guard armed with a pistol. The guard was worried about hitting innocent people and didn’t fire, but the mere sight of a gun was enough to cause the better armed murderer to run, hide, and shoot himself.
- December 9, 2007, Arvada, Colorado. A murderer armed with a rifle and pistol killed 2 people at the Youth With a Mission training center and then drove to the New Life church where he killed 2 more before a member of the church volunteer security team, Jeanne Assam, shot and killed him.
- August 27th, 2010, Salt Lake City, UT. A man armed with a scoped semi-auto rifle with a bipod and 1,000 rounds of ammo attempts to get to an upper floor of a hotel. He’s asked to leave. SLC Officer Downes verbally confronts the man, who responded by firing several rounds at Downes, hitting him once in the calf. Downes fired 3 rounds from his duty pistol from 75 feet away, one striking the attacker in the head, stopping the threat.
- December 1, 2014, Austin TX. An extremist shooter who appeared to be looking to commit death by cop armed with an AK-47, pistol, and .22 rifle shot over 100 rounds at buildings in downtown Austin in the middle of the night. Then he began shooting at Sgt. Adam Johnson with the Capital Police mounted patrol. He was firing full magazines from the AK and reloading. Sgt. Johnson, while holding the reins of 2 skittish horses in one hand, fired a single shot at the shooter from 314 feet away, hitting and killing him. As an interesting twist, the bullet nicked the shooter’s car, ricocheted and tumbled 5 feet before striking and killing the shooter.
- December 29th, 2019, White Settlement, Texas. A man enters a church and shoots a parishioner and armed volunteer security with a shotgun before being shot in the head by 71 year old church security volunteer, Jack Wilson.
- July 17, 2022, Greenwood Park Mall, Greenwood, Indiana. A murderer walks out of the bathroom in a food court and starts murdering people. Within 15 seconds, Eli Dicken successfully engages the murderer with 4 hits from 42 yards away with busted sights from a recent motorcycle accident. When people moved into his line of fire, he stopped shooting, closed to 20 yards, and engaged the murderer with another 4 hits.
The fact is, with a smooth, quick application of the fundamentals, it can be done.
I’m not being cavalier and saying it would be ideal…a pistol vs. a carbine is a horrible matchup, but it’s a LOT better than strong words and good intentions.
You’d want to be at an off-angle so you could ambush instead of going head-to-head.
As Greg Ellifritz has pointed out so many times in recent years, it’s very common for active shooters to experience malfunctions or mag changes…can you identify them by sound and take advantage of the timing?
I would not want to be downrange from a carbine, but I know from experience that in the 40-75 yard range, it is common for a proficient pistol shooter to make hits faster than a less experienced shooter armed with a carbine. (A proficient carbine shooter will still beat the proficient pistol shooter).
You don’t get that kind of performance quickly with traditional training…you get it with training >LIKE THIS<
The times that we’re in are getting crazier every day.
It feels like threats are getting greater from every direction.
And the need for these kinds of skills is more urgent than ever.
I want to encourage you to get this training now. Get it today. Start going through it this weekend. So you and your loved ones can be safer next week.
Leave A Response