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by
Sat Mar 03, 2018 12:13 pm
Forum: Books & Videos
Topic: "KILLING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER"
Replies: 26
Views: 10026

Re: "KILLING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER"

One issue is that we don't have many incidents like South Africa, or the Westlake mall attacks (Nairobi, 2013), so there is little information on the interaction between LE and armed citizens in an active-fire environment. Since the '50s, there have been multiple incidents in the US where armed citizens had effective contribution in a shooting. Most of those have been rural, with the most memorable urban incident being Charles Whitman, at UT. Short version- Suarez advocates a full-on combat readyrig to be used to engage an active shooter. How would that have been received by LAPD during the LA bank heist? We don't know. Period.

I'll bow out, as I don't wish to pointlessly disagree.

My objective observations are: Suarez was active LE in California in the early 80s. Yes, it was a time of narco pricing and territory wars, and yes, there were some free-fire zones in multiple metropolitan areas in the US. He is not, however, BTDT in the context of current asymmetrical conflict. He has theories and tactics he's picked up elsewhere, and put his spin on them.

Several excellent Mil/LE trainers have been mentioned who are more practically experienced. Notably, they are far more ecumenical and supportive of each other, though they have expressed differences in some tactics.

Suarez bills himself as the originator and be-all, end-all of all things tactical. Such hubris, in the absence of profound and extensive live-fire experience should be a bit concerning.

I would submit that you can gain more practical, and superior, gun handling advice on Brian Enos' forum. IME, superior threat assessment and interdiction theory, and practice, is available from any of the other names mentioned.

Spend $15 bucks on his book. Get a couple of level 3-4 handgun & rifle classes from other folks. See what meshes, and what may not.
by
Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:17 pm
Forum: Books & Videos
Topic: "KILLING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER"
Replies: 26
Views: 10026

Re: "KILLING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER"

Paladin wrote:
Rob72 wrote:... rushing out a "Kill" manual does not exactly improve my perspective of his judgement. There are better instructors, with far deeper thought driving their work.
Suarez's active shooter book was released many years ago. The book review was from 2014.

Do you have a book or DVD about active shooter interdiction that you would recommend?
I was active on Warrior Talk when this came out ~2010. It was published primarily as GS' response to the Fort Hood shooting (11/2009).

"Active Shooter response," is problematic, for many reasons, not the least of which being that if LE shows up, and you're tooling around with a firearm, you probably won't be walking away. First and foremost is situational assessment: how/when/where should I act? Being a civvie is vastly different than having a badge or uniform.

With that caveat, any good level 3-4 "defensive/combative" pistol class can be applied. Those levels being shoot/no-shoot, reactive targets, non-traditional shooting positions, low-light and force-on-force tactics.

Craig Douglas and Spencer Keepers teach applicable material and have classes in Texas at least annually. Rob Pincus, Paul Gomez(deceased), Paul Howe (semi-retired?), and quite a few others teach very solid applicable material.

As I said, Gabe Suarez has lots of Ooh-RAH! personna built into his stuff. Is it all bad? No. But you can spend more time learning, and less filtering from others. If you have the disposable $$, by all means, check him out. If you allocate limited funds annually, why pick someone who generates such polarizing reactions, unless you shoot GM class, have been on a 2 way range, and want to see if this guy really pushes the envelope?
by
Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:08 pm
Forum: Books & Videos
Topic: "KILLING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER"
Replies: 26
Views: 10026

Re: "KILLING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER"

Gabe Suarez is much like James Yeager, without the time overseas. The thing about "Ooh-RAH!!" as an institutional paradigm, in firearms instruction, is that it can get away from you, pretty quickly.

http://soldiersystems.net/2012/11/14/st ... -shooting/

IIRC, this led to a parting of the ways, as Puzikas was a SI instructor, for some years. Was this GS shooting? No, but solid people seem to rotate out of his stable on a regular basis(i.e., craziness encourages their departure). Bad stuff happens to everyone, at some point, but this go-for-broke mindset has been a Suarez staple, and tends to overshadow calculated thought and planning. FWIW.

This may have changed, over the years, but rushing out a "Kill" manual does not exactly improve my perspective of his judgement. There are better instructors, with far deeper thought driving their work.

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