On March 7, 2003, the Ukiah (California) Police Department Chief Sergeant said Marcus Young had volunteered for an extra shift to make up for an understaffed patrol. He was accompanied by Julian Kobera, a 17-year-old high school student and police candidate at the time. They were dispatched to a local Walmart, where an employee detained an 18-year-old shoplifter.
After detaining the suspect and putting him in the back seat of a police car, the shoplifter’s boyfriend approached the sergeant. young. As the man approached the sergeant, the young man took a knife out of his pocket and a fight broke out over the knife.
38-caliber revolver and shot the sergeant during the struggle. The youth stabbed him in the back, cheek and upper arm five times. Sergeant Young was on his knees, his right arm paralyzed. He was bleeding profusely from a large two-inch laceration between the index and middle fingers of his left hand. He was unable to draw his gun, so he called into action by asking Julian Kobera to draw his handgun and place it in his left hand.
Kobera had already radioed for help, but the murder suspect was trying to get into the police car the sergeant was in. Young had a patrol rifle and a shotgun. Sergeant Young stood firm and used his blood-stained left hand to fire four shots, stopping the attacker before he could access the long gun.
Today, 20 years after Sgt. Despite the heroic actions of Young Kobera and Julian Kobera, most law enforcement firearms training only loosely focuses on one-handed shooting skills. Even when I go to the practice range and train myself, I tend to practice the skills I’m good at rather than the ones I need to improve the most. There is a very real chance that we will be shot and wounded before we can attract and neutralize our attackers. Now is the time to practice the skills needed to win under these circumstances.
When looking for specific skills to work on, instead of practicing the same habits you’ve been practicing, think about the skills you’ve been avoiding practicing. How often do you practice shooting with only your strong hands? What about just your support hands?
Confession Time: I’m a pretty good shooter. We conduct regular drills, such as dry firing drills several times a week. I shoot several USPSA and IDPA matches each month. I’m kind of bad when it comes to shooting just my strong hand, or just my support hand, even though I practice shooting and practice matches.Therefore, I promised to at least practice Several Train only your strong hand and only your support hand each time you train.
The main reason I made this determination to improve my one-handed shooting skills is because of incidents like Sgt. experienced young man. Sergeant Young continues to have complications from his injury, and while it was a bad day, it could have been even worse for Sergeant John. Young, Julian Cobera and his family, as well as shoppers and employees of the store. Thanks to Sgt. Young’s winning mindset and his one-handed shooting skills allowed him to emerge victorious under the worst possible conditions.
It’s important to practice reloading with a strong hand, as you can actually injure yourself before you can stop the threat. (Photo/Todd Fletcher)
Recently joined in 2023 International Law Enforcement Association Firearms Instructors Annual Training Conference in Houston, Texas. That week I attended some very good sessions, including a class on early treatment of gunshot wounds, a class on optics mounted on pistols that use reactive steel targets, and a class on increasing speed through increased efficiency. Did. These were all top notch classes delivered by world class instructors. But the class that stuck out to me was “Are you ready for the We(a)k end?” taught by Paolo Grandis and Alexandria Nelson of Tadpoles Tactics.
Instructors and students alike do not enjoy it when practicing one-handed shooting skills in training. The main reason is that we are not very good at it. In many cases this is just a mandatory part of the in-service training he does once a year. In contrast, Paolo and Alexandria packed his four-hour class with one-handed skills. Stronghand and support hand shooting was just the beginning. This fun and humble lesson highlighted the self-imposed limits of our abilities. They used the development of one-handed skills as the basis for a variety of creative training, including competitive training, team training, and solo training. Their class proved that one-handed shooting can be both fun and serious at the same time.
When reloading with a support hand, there are several techniques you can use to hold and stabilize your pistol as you insert new magazines. It’s better to try these in training than in a deadly battle. (Photo/Todd Fletcher)
How often do you practice draws and reloads using only your support hand? I thought so too. Before wearing an external vest carrier it was easier. Also, it was a lot easier before his career reached his 25th year. It’s true that my waist is getting a little thicker, but age also affects flexibility. The shoulders and back don’t move like they used to, so it’s getting harder to draw just the support hands. Whatever the reason, you’d better start practicing these skills regularly to avoid disappointing your loved ones. Again, we don’t want a bad day to be made worse by a deliberate indifference to lifesaving skills training.
Why don’t you practice to eliminate the malfunction with one hand while you’re at it? please think about it. If we were in a situation similar to what happened to Sgt. Young man, it is more likely that there will be a stoppage that must be lifted before the battle can continue. Shooting the support hand alone, the support hand was fairly badly injured, the hand was bloodied, and after being shot a few times it may not have been possible to hold the handgun ideally. In this case, a stovepipe-type failure is predictable. I think it would be wise to work on fixing those glitches in the safe environment of the training grounds.
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If you shoot with one hand covered in blood, the grip will be imperfect and the chances of injury will increase. It is imperative to do the one-handed “ready for tap rack” exercise. (Photo/Todd Fletcher)
One training caveat that needs to be addressed is when you’re working on strong hand fire and reloading, only use your strong hand to reload. And when you’re working on shooting your support hand, when it’s time to reload, use only your support hand to reload. It’s training, not the street fighting to save lives, that makes you uncomfortable to understand it.
Stovepipe type failures are bad, but what if the extraction fails? If the tap rack doesn’t work, his one way to fix the pistol is to hold down the magazine release button while manipulating the slide. When the magazine drops and you run out of ammo in question, reload the pistol and put it back on. (Photo/Todd Fletcher)
As a sergeant, Marcus Young demonstrated that getting shot isn’t the end. He is not out even if he is knocked down. With advances in modern emergency medicine and treatment of combat casualties, most gunshot wounds are survivable. In addition to a winning mindset, training your one-handed skills more often and better will maximize your ability to win under these circumstances. These should include strong and supportive practice of skills such as unholstering, shooting, reloading, and clearing breakdowns. Don’t let your worst day become the worst day of your family’s life.