166 – The Defensive Shooting: What Do You Do AFTER?

You've been involved in a defensive shooting — ideally a shooting and not a gunfight. What comes after? What should you do post-engagement? Here's a hint: it's not just flipping your head around dramatically in a theatric scan-and-assess. In today's episode, we discuss what to do after. Though important, situational awareness is necessarily different in every situation. However, to develop the proper mindset Daniel presents his system that if used in the course of training will help you prioritize your post-defensive shooting actions. Mindset, mission, purpose, and mental-emotional preparation can help save your life and protect your loved ones. We'll talk about that.

Listen to the podcast, or feel free to jump to a specific topic in episode 166...
Defensive Shooting: what comes next?

02:00 listen to the environment
02:34 what to ask yourself
04:24 access threats
05:37 training awareness
08:40 fighting with no cues
09:45 looking at things not for things
11:23 training in a shoot-house scenario
16:52 mindset focus
18:00 context and discussion: a short story by DS
24:00 comfort in discomfort

https://media.blubrry.com/gunfightercast/s/content.blubrry.com/gunfightercast/166-The_Defensive_Shooting_What_Do_You_Do_AFTER_.mp3

Scan and Assess
Should you scan after a defensive shooting?
2:00 VF says,

"I try not to be dogmatic about (this is what you do [after] every time you pull the trigger), you do this exact procedure.

It's more about trying to find out what the environment is telling me and what the highest priority need is going to be.

The first one is going to be safety, then after that, we look at; do we need to fight more?”

 

2:34 DS suggests the questions you should be thinking to determine your next priority,

"This threat… does it need more bullets? Is it over? Can I stop shooting to evacuate my child? Is there anything else here that can hurt me?

There’s this idea that you can’t leave the scene and where it came from I don’t know.

It's situational…"

 

4:24 VF says, "If it’s important enough to shoot, it's important enough to make sure its shot. From there, the tasks are prioritized by the environment…

[Ask yourself] ...what are the highest threats to my safety and what are the avenues to deal with it?

If someone wants to train scans, I’m ok with it, I just encourage people not to do it every single time they shoot."

 
Mindset: Prioritization
 

Daniel's mindset priorities:

Does he or she need more bullets?
Is there anything else here that can hurt me?
Am I in the most survivable location?
What's my next problem to solve?

 

Training, mindset...is way more important than where you look around -VF

 

5:37 VF says,

"You go to an indoor shooting range, and you got these black ballistic walls that are eighteen inches on each side of your head… you’re essentially training yourself to look at nothing, because you know there’s nothing there, and I don’t support that type of training. I don’t think it's conducive to creating the type of awareness that allows you to prioritize the tasks when you look at the environment."

8:40 DS says,

“I see it all the time where someone doesn’t know what to do, they’re standing in a vulnerable spot, they’re not in a great location, they just had to shot somebody and they’re looking for the next thing to do, and they can’t figure it out because they’re not receiving any cues.

…Third piece of my thought process is; am I standing in the most survivable location? “

 

Vulnerable civilians are seen panicking to find safety after a shooting took place at this airport in Florida.

 

9:45 VF says,

"You need to stop looking for things and start looking at things."

 

Here, a teacher in Arlington, Texas is getting trained to carry a gun in their classrooms, so that if a gunman ever comes to their school they'll be ready to protect their students.