Focusing on -> shooting at the assailant's weapon

[Chuck Haggard]

In almost every scenario I have been a bad guy in, and there have been hundreds of these, I get a large group on my right thigh. You guys can diagnose the marksmanship issue on that one.

I have been shot in the gun/gun hand quite a bit also, but not nearly as much as in the thighs.

[skyugo]

In almost every scenario I have been a bad guy in, and there have been hundreds of these, I get a large group on my right thigh. You guys can diagnose the marksmanship issue on that one.

I have been shot in the gun/gun hand quite a bit also, but not nearly as much as in the thighs.

slapping/jerking trigger perhaps?

[David Armstrong]

I shot many of the "threats" in the gun, gun hand, or gun arm because I had a threat-weapon focus. But as I've practiced more and become more habituated to aim/hit the upper torso and head, I find that I don't do that anymore.

I think that is probably the key to it. We are hard-wired to focus on the threat to us. That is where our brain wants us to direct most of our energy. It takes a significant amount of training to teach our brain that in order to handle the threat we need to change our focus off of the threat and toward another area.

[MTechnik]

This also happens in mountain biking. You ride in to what you're looking at, naturally.

If you're looking at that big rock in your path (or giant hole) you're going to run in to it.

If you force yourself to look at the path you are going to take, that route around the rock, you won't be fighting yourself.

[irishshooter]

First, in FOF, you need to consider the participants. If the guy you're shooting at has been trained to bring his gun up in front of his face in a two-handed grip, then his pistol -- and his hands -- are more or less covering his upper torso and face. So if you are aiming for those areas, you have an increased likelihood of hitting the hands, arms, or gun.

+1

[SLG]

This also happens in mountain biking. You ride in to what you're looking at, naturally.

If you're looking at that big rock in your path (or giant hole) you're going to run in to it.

If you force yourself to look at the path you are going to take, that route around the rock, you won't be fighting yourself.

This is called ocular vehicle control, when it involves cars and such.

I think this is a large part of why people get shot in the hands, for reasons that Sean and Todd already gave.

[Chuck Haggard]

slapping/jerking trigger perhaps?

Actually it's more like crushing the trigger, you'd have to see it, rather obvious and dramatic. You can often see similar trigger manipulation on car camera video of officer involved shootings.




The shoot where you are looking thing has lots of real life examples. We had an OIS where the bad guy started playing high speed bumper cars trying to run all the coppers over. As it first went bad the first officer to fire, who was behind the car approaching on foot as per a "normal" car stop, saw the back-up lights come on as bad guy put the car in reverse and started to gun it to run her over.
Guess where her first shot went, even though she meant to put rounds through the rear window?

I note in the FBI/Miami fight, Platt was shot through the gun arm a few times, and Agents McNeill, Dove, Hanlon and Mireles were all shot in the gun, gun hand, or arm that was holding a gun, so better than 50% of the participants in that one fight were shot in this manner.

Whether this was from gun focused shooting or not I really don't care, the lesson I get is to be sure to practice one handed shooting, one handed reloads and manipulations, and to carry a BUG.