As part of range training, we usually and responsibly conduct a range safety briefing. We all know that there are four rules of gun handling. I use ‘Gun Handling’ versus ‘Rules of the Range’ as a method to subliminally manipulate the recipient. One is tactical and one is administrative. The tactical rules will appease the administrative requirements of the range.

Understanding that semantics are involved, my number one rule of ‘Gun handling’ is; “You, the individual shooter, must understand the status of your weapon system.” In a gun fight, the weapon does not belong only to you but to the person you are protecting or the guy who’s ‘Six’ you are covering. If your shit isn’t up and running, you are not only fucking yourself but the one you are protecting or the guy who’s ‘Six’ you are covering. I do not like “All guns are always loaded.”

The same can be applied to the human weapon. Know the status of your personal condition. If you can’t save someone else’s life, or can’t keep up with your partner during a foot chase, you are screwing that guy, that kid, your loved one. That life may depend on whether or not you can keep up to insure he isn’t getting his head kicked in in a dark alley.

You do not have to be an absolute stallion, but you should do your part to ensure that you have put in the effort to make ‘you’ a better ‘you’. Make incremental gains every day. The math is simple. Ask yourself, “If I cloned myself yesterday, can I kick my clone’s ass tomorrow?”

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.

Many of us are wrapped up in the notion that speed is everything. Speed is a byproduct of working the fundamentals with absolute meaning. With any skill set requiring a tempo, beats per minute, or revolutions per second, we do not get faster by working fast. Any professional performer in any skill set works with meaning and in deep practice mode until the tempo at which he is training is perfected. Then, and only then, will he work / train up to the next level.

Regardless of whether you are playing a cello, drums, doing origami, or perfecting a martial arts move, perfection requires keen intellect, introspection and objective self-critique. Gun fighting is no different. If you are working draw strokes from the holster for example, at a certain speed with a shot timer, and your hit ratio is less than 100 percent, you are probably going too fast. Gradually increase speed once perfection or 100 percent is reached. Push until the wheels come off then back down again to a slower tempo. Additionally, work to a point of diminishing return. When you hit that point, a point that is different for all of us, stop or take a break. No need to encourage a bad habit.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.