Bad News: Some Criminals May Have More Firearms Training Than You

[Mick-Boy]

When the time comes for violence; You will not rise to the occasion, you will revert to your level of training.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/mobi...e.php?id=29332

Many people believe that bad guys have little or no firearms training and seldom practice with firearms. That doesn’t seem to be the case, according to one study.

by NRA Staff
March 05, 2014

This story first appeared in Self-Defense News at Second Call Defense.

In a recent article on the Buckeye Firearms Association website, Greg Ellifritz cited some startling findings from a 2006 FBI study on violent criminals.

Titled Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation's Law Enforcement Officers, the study looks at the difference between officers and the criminals who assault them.

According to the study, 40 percent of the criminal attackers received formal firearms training, over 80 percent regularly practiced with firearms (averaging 23 practice sessions a year), more than 40 percent had at least one gunfight experience and 25 percent had been involved in more than five gunfights.

If you're like most people, you operate under the popular assumption that bad guys don't have any firearms training and don't practice shooting. It's a comforting thought, because it suggests that as long as you're armed and have a little training, you stand a pretty good chance of surviving a violent attack.

However, the data in this report suggests that may not always be the case.

Here are some other facts presented in the study:


The offenders were exposed to more violence at an earlier age.

They are more willing and able to use force, including deadly force.

Most are younger and less educated, but obviously have street smarts from their experiences (especially what they learn in jail from other offenders).

Gang members in particular learn "violent values" at an early age and these values are regularly reinforced.

The goal for gang members is to achieve status and respect from their peers, which comes from creating fear through repeated acts of physical violence.

Their behavior is not constrained by social, legal or ethical considerations.


You can download the study and read it yourself. But here are some things to consider.

It's a mistake to assume that bad guys are untrained. It's true that this study on violent attacks on law enforcement officers may not be representative of all violent offenders. However, it does show that some portion of the most violent people in our society take crime seriously.

Just as you may own or carry a firearm "just in case" you are faced with life-threatening violence, you should apply the same "just in case" thinking to who your attacker might be. They might be someone with more training and more willingness to do harm. They may be someone who has actual gun fighting experience and won't suffer the same level of disorientation as you will when bullets start flying. They may also be faster to escalate to a level of lethal force.

What does this mean for you? It means a physical threat may not be the "make-my-day" scenario you've been seeing in your mind when you train. It could be more violent than you imagine. And your range practice, standing in a lane calmly shooting paper targets, may prove irrelevant when you're being tackled to the ground, slashed at with a knife or shot by a well-armed and willing attacker.

It also means you should seek out training that goes beyond a basic concealed-carry class. Do you practice an average of 23 times a year as does the average subject in this study? Probably not. Frequent and ongoing training could help you improve your chances of survival.

Second Call Defense is not a firearms training organization. We focus on protecting our members legally after they've survived a lethal-force encounter. However, one of the best ways to avoid legal trouble is to be highly trained and fully competent with a firearm. The more training you have, the more confidence you'll have. And the more confidence you have, the more likely you are to avoid unnecessary violent encounters and to respond quickly, appropriately and effectively to violence when it happens.

Whether you encounter a dumb thug who isn't expecting you to fight back or a career criminal with a lot of training and experience may be a matter of luck. But as they say, luck favors the prepared.

[SuperiorDG]

Good read. I think if you have ever been shot at it would be a big game changer for mind set. If you have never received incoming fire you really don't know how you will react when it comes for the first time. I have only had some simunitions training and I completely fell apart. I ran like a little girl. That fear of how I reacted now drives me when I train.

[asmo]

23 'practice' sessions per year..

I am thinking their definition of 'practice' and my definition are two completely different things.

[bobbyfairbanks]

I would agree with you maybe. To assume anything is to make a ass out of your self. I may be a great pistol shot, I may have served in war zones, I may have been a Ranger instructor. I bet there is someone out there who is better, faster, meaning and a lot more hungry then I am.

Or I may just be the unlucky SOB that gets caught a fraction of a second slower then the untrained ass that just killed me.

[dan512]

Good thoughts. Again, it just shows that “having” a gun is not a magic wand of protection. Turns out you need to be good with it too, and even then, that is no guarantee.

I take it as a fact that if someone is trying to hurt me they are more aggressive, more acquainted with violence, and less concerned about the consequences than I am. Therefore, the only chance I have to be successful in the encounter is to retake the initiative of the encounter. You know, disrupt their OODA loop; get ahead of the power curve. The only way I can see of doing that is what has been discussed here earlier… be aggressive and go dirty early.

[davsel]

The actual FBI report is a good read, and has a lot more useful information than what the gun training instructors cite it for.
Being skeptical of the main point:

According to the study, 40 percent of the criminal attackers received formal firearms training, over 80 percent regularly practiced with firearms (averaging 23 practice sessions a year), more than 40 percent had at least one gunfight experience and 25 percent had been involved in more than five gunfights.

I read the report and found the following in Chapter 4:

Of the 43 offenders who participated in the present study, 16 received some type of firearms training prior to the incident of examination. Ten of these offenders obtained formal firearms training while serving in the military; 2 enrolled in high school shooting programs; 2 attended basic firearms skills courses; 1 acquired firearm instruction from relatives; and 1 went to a state-sponsored hunter-safety program.

The report also stated:

of the 50 offenders who were interviewed for the Killed in the Line of Duty study, 18 had been involved in shooting incidents (either firing upon someone or being fired upon) prior to feloniously killing a law enforcement officer.

As far as marksmanship, the report states:

Twenty-six of the offenders claimed to be instinctive shooters, which they described in various ways that involved the act of pointing and firing the weapon without consciously aligning the sights.
The offenders who described their shooting techniques as instinctive included those who regularly practiced with their firearms and those who claimed the incident of examination was their first shooting experience.

Again, the actual report has a lot of good information - primarily for LEO interactions.
However, the claims in the gun training articles that cite the report intentionally leave out the details. The "formal training" is suspect, the "gunfight" involves gang member drive-bys, and the marksmanship "practice" is primarily pointing in the general direction of the target and making it go bang.

I have not changed my mind based on this information. YMMV

[hatidua]

23 'practice' sessions per year

-so that's where all the ammo has gone.