The "Tueller Drill" Vs. Charging Criminals

Those who question the use of a gun against a charging and dangerous criminal should consider the below.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  

The Tueller Drill is a self-defense training exercise to prepare against a short-range knife attack when armed only with a holstered handgun.

Sergeant Dennis Tueller, of the Salt Lake City, Utah Police Department wondered how quickly an attacker with a knife could cover 21 feet (6.4 m), so he timed volunteers as they raced to stab the target. He determined that it could be done in 1.5 seconds. These results were first published as an article in SWAT magazine in 1983 and in a police training video by the same title, "How Close is Too Close?"[1]

A defender with a gun has a dilemma. If he shoots too early, he risks being charged with murder. If he waits until the attacker is definitely within striking range so there is no question about motives, he risks injury and even death. The Tueller experiments quantified a "danger zone" where an attacker presented a clear threat.[2]

The Tueller Drill combines both parts of the original time trials by Tueller. There are several ways it can be conducted:[3]

1.   The "attacker and shooter are positioned back-to-back. At the signal, the attacker sprints away from the shooter, and the shooter unholsters his gun and shoots at the target 21 feet (6.4 m) in front of him. The attacker stops as soon as the shot is fired. The shooter is successful only if his shot is good and if the runner did not cover 21 feet (6.4 m).

2.   A more stressful arrangement is to have the attacker begin 21 feet (6.4 m) behind the shooter and run towards the shooter. The shooter is successful only if he was able take a good shot before he is tapped on the back by the attacker.

3.   If the shooter is armed with only a training replica gun, a full-contact drill may be done with the attacker running towards the shooter. In this variation, the shooter should practice side-stepping the attacker while he is drawing the gun.

Mythbusters covered the drill in the 2012 episode "Duel Dilemmas". At 20 feet the gun wielder was able to shoot the charging knife attacker just as he reached the shooter. At shorter distances the knife wielder was always able to stab prior to being shot.[4]

Notes

1.   Tueller, Dennis (March 1983), "How Close is Too Close?", S.W.A.T. Magazine

2.   Ayoob, Massad (October 1991), "Explaining the deadly force decision: the opportunity factor", Shooting Industry

3.   Young, Dan. "Handgun Drills, Standards, and Training Page". Retrieved 2008-04

FBI "PC" Downsizing Of Armed Self-Defense

I very, very, seldom reprint other blogger's entire offerings, usually "quoting" and providing URLs (. However, doing so in the below entry would destroy its meaning!

For reference re: justifiable homicide

Posted by David Hardy · 29 August 2014 11:45 AM

In the dispute over how many self-defense cases occur, one data point often cited by those seeking to minimize the number is the FBI Uniform Crime Report's count of justifiable homicides (a legal category that includes self-defense). This is usually in the range of 900 a year, including several hundred by police. While that doesn't count self-defense that doesn't result in the perp's death, it is argued that it is inconsistent with hundreds of thousands or millions of defensive uses annually.
What's not realized is that the FBI count is artificially defined in a way that far undercounts defensive uses. The usual definition of self-defense with a deadly weapon is use of force immediately necessary in light of a reasonable belief that the perp is likely to inflict death or serious bodily injury.
But the FBI UCR Reporting Handbook at pp. 17-18 uses a completely different definition. Reporting officials are instructed, in the case of use of force by a non-LEO, to include under justifiable homicide only killings "The killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen."
The illustration given (do NOT list as justifiable a situation where a citizen shoots a fellow attacking him, in a crime of passion, with a broken bottle -- the author must have watched too many 1950s movies about street fights) makes it apparent that the assault itself does not count as "commission of a felony."

The "Ferguson Drill": Stun Gun VS Firearm

There are those who maintain that the six shots fired into the 300-pound and illegal drug containing body of Ferguson Missouri's Michael Brown by a police officer were too many AND that the officer should have used some non-lethal alternative (ie A "stun gun").

I strongly suggest that all such persons be subjected to the following test/drill.
1. First, they must execute and make public waivers of liability for themselves, their families, their insurance providers and employer(s) such as none of them can bring any action for injuries (Including death) resulting from the drill/test described below.
2. That person is to stand, without a barricade, in the open and "armed" with only a standard (Usually one "shot") "stun gun".
3. Thirty feet  away a 300-pound 18/19-year old male youth (Perhaps provided with a medication to reduce pain) will begin a full speed charge, hands raised, at the subject and to, if he can, run over and strike down at the subject
4. Twenty-one feet from the subject there will be a marker.
5. When the charger is at/past that marker the subject may discharge the "stun gun" at the well paid "volunteer" teen-aged youth. [That paid volunteer would be provided a very large bonus if he could make any "full force" contact with the subject.]

"In lieu of flowers. . . ."

On Killing Michael Brown

As far as can now be determined Ferguson Missouri's Michael Brown:
1. Was legally an adult;
2. Was about 300-pounds in weight;
3. On the day of his death involved in a "Felony Robbery" as defined by the democratically passed laws of Missouri;
4. On the day of his death, was under the influence of illegal drugs;
5. Was endangering others by walking down the middle of a city street dedicated to vehicle traffic;
6. May have physically attacked and injured Officer Wilson before being shot;
7. Appears to have been charging Officer Wilson with hands raised on high as would imply the possibility/probability of preparation to strike down;
8. Was much more massive and physically powerful than Officer Wilson, even if that "clean record" officer had not been injured;
9. During that charge/attack appears to have been within 21-feet for which the Tueller Drill (About which please see on-line data) prescribes the use of deadly force to prevent injury/death to the innocent party;
10. Was struck by six bullets fired by an officer who appears to have had 13-plus rounds available to him AND, very properly, stopped shooting when Michael Brown "went down".

It may be that Officer Wilson's not placing all of his shots in "the center of body mass" was due to his injuries as already inflicted by Michael Brown.