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A Return to Serious Training Part II

Frustrating new arguments are emerging in training courses categorized as “Vehicle Close Quarters.” Instructors with moderate credentials suggest that established tactical doctrine involving the use of engine blocks and wheel assemblies as cover is wrong. Instead, these instructors encourage the use of vehicle pillars or even windshields as cover in a gunfight.

Shooting with varying calibers, these instructors proudly demonstrate the ability of a vehicle pillar to stop small arms. Although pillars stop bullets, they often have to be in line, and even then are only three to six inches worth of material. Six inches of cover to fight from…
Rather than attempting to rethink new points of cover on a vehicle, a shooter’s objective should be to get out of the kill zone by firing and maneuvering on the enemy (not accomplished by moving from pillar to pillar). “But I’m in law enforcement, I’m not planning to fight the battle of Fallujah.” These types of comments are the epitome of complacency. Yes, there are untrained amateurs; however, the most dangerous domestic threats can be well-coordinated criminals (e.g. North Hollywood bank robbers of 1997) or the self-radicalizing lone-wolves of recent (e.g. San Bernardino ISIL sympathizers, Boston Bombers).

Tactics and methodology should always adapt, but robust standards of critique and analysis should guide this process. Techniques should not be endorsed because they are new, but because they are valid.