I once had a student in a pistol class ask me, “Should I even try to take a shot at twenty five yards with a handgun?”
As Jeff Hall likes to say, the answer to every gun fighting question is, “It depends”. Do you have an avenue of escape? Is the person you have correctly isolated as the enemy, positioned in a crowd of bystanders? Another way of putting it would be, what is the danger if you do take the shot, and what are the hazards if you don’t?
Instead of being encouraged to think through these problems, all too often, CCW students are given “always” and “never” solutions to their questions. One of my pet peeves is the oft- repeated rule of gun fighting: “Always create distance”. Always? Really? This rule grows out of the somewhat better maxim: “Distance favors the better trained man”. The assumption is that if a student has any training at all, he will shoot more accurately than the average street villain, and thus would fare better at a long range gun fight than one at close range. However, this idea does not take into account all of the situations wherein it might be advantageous to close with your opponent.*
One- size- fits- all answers may be comforting, but they are woefully inadequate for solving tactical problems. The thinking man would be aided by a device which helps insure he considers all of the pertinent facts. Infantry soldiers are taught to use the acronym METT-TC to sort out these questions, and I believe it is profitable for the CCW practitioner to use as well.
The acronym stands for:
Mission- What do you need to do?
Enemy- Who is shooting at you?
Terrain/weather- Where is this all happening, and what are the conditions?
Troops and support- Are you alone, or with someone else? What tools do you have at your disposal?
Time- How quickly do you need to complete your mission?
Civilian considerations- Are there bystanders to think about?
How is this likely to look for a typical CCW situation? Let’s say that late one night you discover that you are out of milk, and you will need milk for the kids’ breakfast in the morning, thus your wife sends you out to get milk. She also has you take the two-year-old with you, because she’s driving her mother crazy, and mommy would like to have thirty minutes of peace and quiet.
So the breakdown would look something like this:
Mission- Get a gallon of milk at the all- night quick mart, taking the toddler with you. The desired end state of this mission? You the baby and a gallon of milk all arrive back home in half an hour.
Enemy- Obviously you don’t expect to run into an enemy, but if you did how would you recognize him? Street villains don’t wear uniforms, and even the presence of a weapon does not automatically make someone an enemy. We determine an enemy based on his behavior. We are wary of people who act aggressively, hide their hands, and invade our space, among other danger cues. What capabilities do we expect the enemy to have? Are we facing a lone villain with a snub-nosed 38, and no training, or a terrorist organization, armed with carbines and explosives? What if the enemy is armed with a tire iron, or a knife, or maybe no weapon at all? What does the enemy want? Is he after money, a car, a hostage, or does he simply want to kill people? Unfortunately, unlike the infantryman, who should receive a mission brief outlining the enemy uniform, weapons, and organizational and capabilities, we don’t know what type of enemy we might face. We must be ready to identify a potentially threatening person or persons, and answer these questions about the enemy on the fly, as the situation unfolds. It is advisable to study current trends in crime.
Terrain and weather- Are we going to be in a town, with buildings and lighted streets, or on a rural highway? Do you know what parts of a car or a building will stop bullets? Weather is also an important factor. Are you wearing a heavy coat what will slow access to your Glock 19, or has hot summer weather dictated that you switch to your more concealable, but less powerful, and harder- to- shoot .380?
Troops and Support- In this scenario you are alone. If your wife came along, would she be armed? What are her capabilities? Have you discussed how to handle a difficult situation? Do you have cell phone service where you are going? What is the police response time? How will you identify yourself to the police as a good guy? How about ambulance response times?
Time available- Normally we don’t think of time hacks in the way the military does. We don’t have to secure the bridge by dawn, or anything like that, but we do have to consider time as a situation unfolds. Can you wait, and strike at a moment of advantage, or do you have to get rounds on target before a knife- wielding enemy can close within striking range, as in the famous Tuler drill? Again, this is an assessment you will have to make on the fly.
Civilian Considerations- Are there bystanders? How will they react? What will you need to do to avoid harming anyone but the bad guys?
The next time you step out of you door armed, make short mental rundown of the METT-TC acronym. With practice, you will not need more than a minute or two, and this practice will help to solve (and avoid) the tactical questions.
*The use of distance can be illustrated with horses. I’m sure that everyone understands that if you are far enough away from a horse, it cannot kick you. More experienced equestrians know that the horse also cannot kick you if you are too close to him. Only with practice will you understand where that danger area lies, and when it is wisest to move closer and when to move farther away.
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