Surviving Multiple Attackers Requires Quick Thinking and Quicker Reactions
…by Jim W. Dean, VT Editor
Our Citizen Shooter article of August 14th surprised us with it’s 30,000 readers with many of these came from gun websites.
But it showed us that the public connected emotionally with these everyday people who step up to the table in a crisis to do something they have never done before…shoot people in desperate circumstances.
CNN seems to have noticed this also, which is where I found this clip last night. We are privileged to have video of this one to see the split second reactions.
Security guard work can be some of the most boring imaginable, especially night work. I will frankly say that I don’t think I could be good at it, nor would have reacted this fast. Maybe the guard had just come on his shift. But you are about to see a text book shoot out here at this Melbourne, Florida internet cafe.
Not many people survive being rushed like this. It’s dark, the bad guys have dark clothing, and seeing if they are armed is difficult to do. To start shooting too soon can have tragic consequences, but to hesitate can, also.
Three armed robbers burst in to the Allied Veterans of the World Cafe in Melbourne, Florida about 4 am Tuesday. I have not verified it yet but I strongly suspect this security guard was a veteran. It seems that small stakes slot machine cash was the attraction.
High volume shooters like the Delta and SEAL people, they don’t even have to aim at close range. The pistol has become part of their body and the bullets go where they are looking. For the rest of us mortals we have to rely on the few times a year on the range to maintain shooting skills.
And they are not on the level of the former as the ammo budget is prohibitive.
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With the graininess of the video I can’t really see the bad guy guns, the first one seeming to have a white towel over his, but this guard’s reactions were perfect.
Although the BG on the left is closest to him the building beam has him screened for a split second, so he makes correct decision number one to fire first at number two. He was only able to do this because he got his gun out so fast.
Watch this stop action by hitting the pause button quickly to see how all their positions change in the second camera video. The guard knows his first shot has given him the initiative. Their attack is stopped dead in it’s tracks with the BGs only thought being getting out of there. The guard knows he can maneuver now, and he does.
Watch how he not only backs up, increasing the range between them but uses the building beam as a screen as he moves left to engage number one. The beam also protects him from shots that could be fired at him from the doorway.
This did not happen by accident folks. The guard knew what to do ahead of time. He has spent time on the combat gun range practicing this.
Just having a gun can be an all that is needed as a deterrent. And then taking it out can be more of one. But in a multiple attacker situation it is all in who shoots first, what order to engage the targets, and using your surroundings to make yourself a more difficult target.
And lastly, being able to shoot as you are moving can be critical although there are two schools of thought on this. One is the ’empty your magazine as fast and as accurately as possible’ as a hail of bullets and muzzle blasts makes accurate bad guy shooting less likely. The other is the ‘move and shoot’, which is what the guard did.
You see him immediately begin moving left for the beam cover after he fires his first round. That big steel beam was his pivot point. As the first BG was retreating he was in a terrible position to shoot from so the guard could engage with minimal exposure.
Watch it a couple of times using the quick pause to catch when he fires and their relative positions. This is a text book shoot out and will be used in security guard training, I assure you. A lot of ammo will be shot up during the next month.
Update: Have now learned that due to the slot machines in some of these internet cafes they have been young hood robbery targets. The number one bad guy above is reported now to have been wounded several times for his efforts.
In July Florida had another of these cafe shoot outs. But 71 year old Sam Williams was present when two masked thugs walked into the Palms Internet Cafe in Marion County, Florida. One of the men was brandishing a gun while the other had a bat. They started ordering patrons around and one smashes a computer screen. That’s when Williams took action.
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Less noticed in both of these shootouts is the energy with which these twice shot robbers scooted out the door. Mr. Samuels had a .380 and inflicted a butt and hip wound. The security guard looked like he had a 9mm.
But now you know why many prefer a .45 or more. You see the adrenalin strength that ‘just been shot people’ have when a smaller round(s) hit non vital areas. They can shoot back at you. And that is why you see standard procedure now in a lot of police shoot outs to fire many rounds as fast as you can as wounded shooters have shot lots of cops.
Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.
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