A Drill

I was reading the comments at Taylor's and Eric suggested a self defense scenario in which an attacker was 15 feet away. His concern was with the amount of time a person (the attacker) could cover the distance in question.

THE DRILL

This is a 3 person drill.

Scenario:

1 man sized silhouette paper/cardboard target set up 25 feet away from and directly in front of the shooter.

The shooter assumes the “ready position” (i.e. gun loaded and holstered) on the firing line. The second person assumes a standing position directly behind (not touching) the shooter and facing away from him, i.e. back to back. This person is the runner. The runner should be holding a set of keys or other object such as a mag. The timer/R.O. sounds the start timer. Two things should happen immediately. The shooters job is to draw and fire two shots into the target. The runners job is to run away from the shooter. At the sound of the first shot, the runner should drop the keys/mag. At the sound of the second shot the runner must stop immediately.

See how far the runner gets before he drops the keys and then see how far he gets before the second shot. If you're the shooter ask yourself, "how accurate were my shots and how far did the attacker get?" After you've run it a few times and everyone has gotten the chance to practice their parts and try different roles, consider how your new information will impact your self defense plans/options. The first time I ran this drill it was a real eyeopener. Its a fun exercise if you've got a newbie or liberal in your group too.