Via Don
For the guerrilla fighter, there is only one reason to carry a rifle: to kill the enemy. The purpose of the rifle is to impose the will of the rifleman on his enemy. Whether the enemy is a home-invading criminal thug, roving bands of looters in a post-societal collapse/Zombie apocalypse, or the jack-booted thugs of a totalitarian regime is irrelevant. If you train to fight with a rifle, you are training to kill. If you are training to kill with a modern combat rifle/carbine, I will take the liberty of assuming that your intent is to kill the enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is not due to some weepy-eyed sense of humanitarianism for bad guys, but rather it is about reducing the threat to your own life and safety.
If your goal is to kill efficiently with your rifle, then you have to know the most effective and efficient methods to utilize the weapon. That is, ultimately, the purpose of rifle marksmanship training. You must become a rifleman.
John Mosby's Mountain Guerilla. Great blog. Just added him to my list.
ReplyDeleteYes, puts out a lot of good stuff.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article, but....
ReplyDeleteAs we learned from Katrina, what we may think of as "the end of the world" usually isn't.
Many cops went on shooting sprees, in front of cameras, foolishly assuming that, since some defecation had hit the fan, it would be okay. Disaster? Well, screw the Constitution; I can kill people and take things with absolutely no repercussions...
Now many of them are in prison. Justifiably so. A "disaster" doesn't mean that everything SUDDENLY becomes a free-fire zone.
This article discusses 600-yd kills, and is quite dismissive of up-close run-and-gun drills. Wow.
Unless society has been broken down for quite some time, I won't be shooting ANYONE at 600 yards. What is the threat??? What is the justification? When the current emergency is over, there will probably be some sort of inquiry as to why a bunch of dead bodies are buried in your pasture.
Perhaps the writer lives waaaay out in the boonies and has a huge amount of open land, and might have a reason to consider such long shots. I'm troubled by the issues of target identification and threat assessment at such long distances.
Is that guy in my pasture a threat? He has a weapon? He's walking toward my barn? KILL HIM!!!
Buuuuuuuut... What if he was a normal guy, like you and me? He got over-run somewhere nearby and had to bail. He ended up in the woods near your land, and is now coming toward your barn to find other good, decent people to ally with. Or to warn about the roaming horde just a few miles away.
But you won't ever learn that, because you blasted him from 650 yards away...
Obviously, a group in armed men, in some sort of uniform, moving as a unit, maybe bounding overwatch, across my pasture, would certainly set off all kinds of alarms in my head.
But again... what if it's the feds? Or the National Guard? What if they are being cautious? And approaching like the trained military personnel they are? You can't be too careful after a break-down, after all, right?
What if you open up on someone like that and they call higher? Now you are in some seriously deep shit... And your property will be quickly receiving a very intimate visit from many armed angry men.
Now you, your weapons and all your stuff will be taken by the "good guys" that you turned into "bad guys" due to violation of the 5 Ps...
PROPER PLANNING... would have prevented all this.
Discussing 600-yr sniper kills is okay. BUT YOU DAMN WELL BETTER HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHEN IT IS ACCEPTABLE TO DO SO... or you will be in a world of shit.
Where I will be has no open areas like that. ANY encounter I would have would be at much shorter, urban distances. The very same distances that author poo-pooed... Plenty of woods in my area; no chance of seeing someone 600 yards away, much less shooting them.
DISTANCE PATROLS would solve much of his problems. Again, part of PROPER PLANNING.
I wonder if that writer has ever been, say an E-7 in a line infantry unit, and had to establish range cards, rules of engagement, back-up plans, quick-reaction forces, deployment and engagement rules, etc etc etc.
Because I have. And there's a hell of a lot more to "force protection" (meaning keeping your home turf safe) than being able to make 600-yard shots...
KNOWING WHEN IT'S OKAY TO MAKE THOSE SHOTS is just as important. I don't this guy gets that.
KNOWING WHEN IT'S OKAY TO MAKE THOSE SHOTS is just as important.
ReplyDeleteSome excellent points.
Mr. Stedman,
ReplyDeleteThe blog article in question is mine, and was posted originally at my blog. Perhaps, before jumping to conclusions, you should read the article, then the rest of the blog (in order to discover the CONTEXT of the article), then do some research.
In response to your question, "I wonder if that writer has ever been, say an E-7 in a line infantry unit, and had to establish range cards, rules of engagement, back-up plans, quick-reaction forces, deployment and engagement rules, etc etc etc."
No, I was never an E7 in a line infantry unit, but yes, I've had to develop range cards, follow rules of engagement, develop 5-point contingency plans, perform as part of a QRF, CALL a QRF, etc..... Again, perhaps looking at the original blog would have answered your question. I was an 11B2V at the Ranger Regiment, and an 18B at Group. I deployed to Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia, LATAM, and Afhganistan during my career. I have trained LN forces, fought with the Northern Alliance, and engaged enemy troops at ranges beyond the 300 meter BRM standards of the Army. I did NOT say that CQM was unimportant. On the contrary, I said it was critical, but...if a citizen-rifleman's only training with his rifle has been the latest cool-guy course taught by a former Tier One SMU veteran, OR worse, by a former contractor with a LEO background, he needs to rethink his focus. So, while I take nothing from your service, I MIGHT actually have some idea of what I'm talking about...maybe.
I welcome you to read the blog, THEN bad-mouth me all you want Sar'nt.
RLTW!
Nous Defions,
John Mosby
Somewhere in the mountains
Somewhere in the mountains
ReplyDeleteBy any chance in Mosby Country mountains?:)
Negatory Batman... Sorry to disappoint. I was raised in the South, but live elsewhere.
ReplyDelete:) I was raised in Mosby Country, so am always interested in any connection.
ReplyDelete