Yesterday I shared an article that was a defensive gun use. The accompanying video is excellent in more ways than one.
You can see the moment the defender pulled his gun and fired the shot. From the other angle you can see the bullet impacting the glass as it whizzes right past the alleged robber’s head.
Then you can follow the bullet’s path in slow motion as it hits other things, like books, in the store.
The part of the video I want to focus on, though, is the fact that the defender’s gun jams after the first shot, and he doesn’t do anything to correct it. The above still shows the gun after he fired his shot, but the gun remains out of battery.
When watching the video, you can clearly see that the pistol is out of battery after the first shot. Thankfully, the alleged robber decided it was better to run away than get into a shootout in the convenience store, or it would have ended badly for the owner of the store.
Why the gun jammed:
We’ve covered this topic before in our article here. There is a common misconception in the mind of men that says when the gun jams it has to be the gun’s fault. While there is a chance it is the gun’s fault, it probably is not.
The problem is, more often than not, most people don’t know how to shoot their gun and they do something called “limp-wristing” or have a terrible grip on their gun. By the looks of the video, I’d say he suffered from both.
When either of the above happen, it can prevent your slide from returning back into the forward-most position with the next round ready to fire (called “battery”) because the slide’s motion is interrupted.
When this happens, it can prevent the empty case from being fully ejected out of the gun, causing it to get caught in the ejection port. This malfunction is commonly called a stovepipe jam.
When it gets caught in the ejection port and the slide closes on it, it prevents the gun from being able to shoot again, which is obviously bad if you need to keep firing.
This is the easiest malfunction to clear when you can recognize it and have practiced it before.
Thankfully, he didn’t need to keep firing because the alleged thief ran away.
The need for training:
I’ve said it before and I’ll saying it again, going to the range to do target practice is not training. Yes, you should practice accuracy as well, but this isn’t what I mean when I say “training.”
What you need to do is go to the range and practice things that matter, like being able to clear a malfunction, proper drawing skills, shooting and moving, etc. Hitting your target is great, but if your gun doesn’t fire after the first shot because you did something wrong, it won’t matter if you keep getting fired at.
The best way to know what to train and how, is to take a class from someone. Seriously, if you’ve never taken a class outside of your concealed carry or hunter education class, you’re missing out.
Stop thinking you’re good enough, because you’re not. Even the best of us admit that there is always something more to learn.
