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Old June 25, 2002, 05:01 PM   #24
Erik
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 24, 1999
Location: America
Posts: 3,479
Point shooting owes its popularity to Fairbane of WWII combatives fame.

It is a effective answer to the following scenario:

Officers will receive a minimum amount of basic instruction in the use of their sidearm, a dozen or so cartridges to practice with, and nothing else but grim advice before being thrust into what was at the time the world's most violent and crime ridden city, Shanghai.

Something, arguably anything, would be better than that.

Point shooting was Fairbanes's answer. His course was simple to teach, simple to learn, and ultimately found to be effective in the crowded, violent streets his men worked.

Skip forward to WWII.

Fairbane ends up tasked with training Britain's commandos. They are taught, among other things, point shooting. Reports from the field indicate that it works.

The USA enters the war, cross trains our special forces with their commandos, and our best learns piont shooting, among other things. Reports from the field indicatge that you don't have to be British in order for it to work.

As the war goes on, the UK and the USA train their spies in point shooting. Decoded reports (bbep, beep-beep, beep...) indicate that it works. Even better, it is discovered/proven that it works years after training, with no practice or requalification in the interum.

The war ends, everyone goes home, and before you know it people "discover" what our best where taught. And as everyone knows, commando/special forces/spy training must be the best, right?

And that's an arguably long winded account (sorry) of where point shooting came from and why its so popular.
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