Cooper To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-0983-5668-2
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 367 Seiten

Combat mind-set, trigger control, tactical residential architecture, nuclear war - these are just some of the provocative subjects explored by gun guru Jeff Cooper in this classic illustrated collection of essays. Cooper squarely faces the facts of modern life and concludes that the armed citizen is the correct answer to the armed sociopath. to that end, To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth focuses primarily on the various aspects of shooting - technically, socially, sportively, and historically. Knowledge of personal weapons and skill in their use are necessary attributes of any man who calls himself free. And nobody can speak so eloquently and forcefully to that fact better than Jeff Cooper - one of the greatest spokesmen, writers, philosophers, and practitioners of skill-at-arms in the twentieth century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cooper, Jeff

Leseproben

THE COMBAT MIND-SET Man fights with his mind. His hands and his weapons are simply extensions of his will, and one of the fallacies of our era is the notion that equipment is the equivalent of force. For over twenty years I have been teaching weaponcraft — which may be defined as the aggregate of dexterity, marksmanship and tactical understanding — and perhaps fifty of my graduates have now had occasion to use these skills in mortal confrontations. (I say “perhaps” because I must assume that not every client sends me a report.) Of the thirty-odd who have reported, not one has said that his life was saved by his dexterity nor by his marksmanship, but rather by his “mind-set.” What, then, is the “combat mind-set?” It is that state of mind which insures victory in a gunfight. It is composed of awareness, anticipation, concentration and coolness. Above all, its essence is self-control. Dexterity and marksmanship are prerequisite to confidence, and confidence is prerequisite to self-control. Any state of mind is entirely subjective, varying infinitely among individuals. We do not feel the same about our experiences, and anyone who tells you how you will feel in a fight has not studied the matter thoroughly. On the other hand, we can talk to many who have “seen the elephant,” and we can add to this our own experiences, and thus explore the subject — in a tentative way. In such exploration we should bear in mind that while times change quickly, people change slowly. Abraham would be astonished at electricity, but not at Gorbachev. Lifestyles in Elizabethan England were very different from ours, but Shakespeare’s characters viewed life just as we do. We may dismiss the notion that a twentieth century man reacts differently to violence from the way his grandfather did. He may be told that he will — for specious reasons — but when he looks into the lion’s mouth his response will be the same. Sometimes it will be good and sometimes bad, but this will depend upon his character rather than the popularly held mood of the moment. Combat is an unusual experience for most of us, but then emergencies of any kind always are. However, combat does occur, and any fully educated person knows this and prepares for it. Despite what we may hear, combat is not characteristic of any particular occupation or situation. It may come to a policeman, but it may just as probably come to a barber, a broker or a biologist. Accepting this is the first step in physical security. No one can solve any problem of which he is not aware. In what follows we will consider the combat mind-set in three aspects — before, during and after action. I can tell you how I have felt, but that is by no means my principle research tool. On the contrary I will draw on scores of individual, informal interviews with men who were speaking with complete frankness and with no concern whatever about what their supervisors, their attorneys, their wives or the press might think. I cannot tell you how you will feel when the red flag flies, but I can indeed tell you how a great many others have felt. The pistol is a conceptually defensive arm, intended to stop lethal aggression. Thus when used as intended it will be required with almost no warning. The man who shoots to save his life, or that of his wife or child, will rarely have any time in which to consider the situation, steel himself, say a prayer, sing a war song or go into a dance. His mental reaction will probably be astonishment rather than fear, for fear takes time to build up. Since he cannot anticipate specifically he must anticipate generally. Anyone who carries a pistol on his person is presumably aware that he may have to use it, but there is a large difference between the hypothetical possibility and the actual event. To anticipate generally the shooter must train himself into a state of mind in which the sudden awareness of peril does not surprise him. It is essential for the man who wears a gun to react to a sudden threat with the knowledge and confidence that he can handle it. His response should be not “Oh my God, I’m in a fight!” but rather “I thought this might happen and I know what to do about it.” Instead of feeling that the situation is unheard-of, he must feel that the situation is distinctly heard-of, and that he is in charge of it rather than his aggressor. He must regard the quick and precise use of his sidearm as “Plan B,” and be fully ready to implement it when confronted with a deadly human adversary. In this situation there can be no build-up of emotion and the shooter’s exercise will be entirely intellectual. He will not have time to get excited until after the fight is over. Sometimes, however, there will be warning, and on these occasions emotion will indeed bear upon action. When another human being manifests both the intention and capacity of killing you, personally, and there is time enough between his declaration of intent and the actual engagement, your response will probably be one of intense alarm. (I do not like to use the word “fear” but you are at liberty to do so if you wish.) When you suddenly realize that those men, right there, are armed and prepared to kill you, there will probably be a sudden sinking sensation in the pit of the stomach. The antidote for this hollow feeling is anger. The emotions of fear and anger are very similar biologically and it is not very difficult for a subject to convert one into the other. I have experienced this personally several times and I have talked to a great many people about it. It occurs in military situations, in police situations, and in totally “civil” situations. When a man demonstrates, in effect, that he is ready and willing to kill you, your response should not be fearful but wrathful. I remember one episode involving a car pursuit in moderately heavy traffic and, after the initial understanding that this was indeed a life-and-death encounter, the principal emotional state of the subject was one of cold, concentrated rage. And it worked. The eye remained clear and the hand steady. We may conclude that while there will usually be no time for fear to develop, on those occasions when there is time that fear should be deliberately overcome by anger in order to maintain control for the action to come. A pistol action is usually commenced by firing on the part of the aggressor. On other occasions it can be initiated by an unmistakable movement on the part of the aggressor which indicates that he is about to fire. This triggers the combat response of the properly conditioned defender, and that response should be one of completely business-like attention to detail. Once you have decided that you must shoot, it is necessary for you to employ techniques which will enable you to shoot well. Defensive gunfights do not usually require a high degree of marksmanship, but proper technique must still be used if disaster is to be forestalled. We have known several cases in which a highly qualified marksman fired a series of atrocious short-range misses, not because he couldn’t shoot but because he did not pay attention to his shooting. In these cases he seems to have been thinking about the wrong things — such as the danger in which his life was placed, the anticipation of shock, concern about official policy or other irrelevancies. When you are being shot at there is only one proper thing for you to think about, and that is your own shooting. All other thoughts must be blanked out. In bold red letters across your “heads-up-display” should appear “Front sight. Press. Front sight. Press.” If you concentrate on a clear, sharp picture of your front sight, and concentrate upon a smooth, steady, surprise break, you will almost certainly survive the encounter. If you forget these things, you very probably will not. I have heard it claimed that many police officers interviewed after shootings admitted that they did not see the front sight. Certainly we should not deny this possibility, but neither should we use it as an example of how things ought to be done. In one major police department over the past two years there have been thirty-two pistol engagements involving SWAT members. Twenty-four remembered concentrating on their front sights, and they hit. Eight remembered not seeing their front sights, and they missed. That is a 100% tally. It certainly corroborates my teachings, but I did not make it up. It was given to me by the training officer of that department. I once asked a very prominent and experienced police marksman what he remembered about his initial lethal contact. He said, loud and clear for all to hear, “I was looking at my front sight so hard that I could see the striations across it.” He got three stops for three shots on that occasion. In my most recent field case study, just last year, the subject told me in his letter that as soon as he saw the muzzle of his adversary’s gun swing toward him, he blanked out everything but concentration on his front sight and on a smooth, steady pressure on his trigger. He came out fine. This would indeed seem to be the formula for success. The critical point is the creation of a “mental trigger” in...