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Posted by William Lee: Now, in the more garden variety sd situations (in which one or two muggers approach you in a dark alley, parking lot, wherever), being able to draw your weapon and hit a target at or inside 7 yards seems like the necessary training cut off for me--...
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Can't disagree. The question is, what should the training for that kind of encounter be?
I took a nine hour defensive pistol shooting course earlier this year. After a fair amount of one on one video-taped training in the basics (grip, sight picture, stance, trigger control, and how to sweep from one target to the next or to follow a rapidly moving target), the training moved to proficiency development.
We fired at not two, but three torso sized steel plates, at seven yards. An audible hit was a hit. The drill was to hit each target rapidly twice, moving from left to right in rapid succession, replace the magazine, and repeat the cycle moving from right to left. The instructors could score twelve hits in about 4.25 seconds.
That included replacing the magazine, which was done to develop proficiency in clearing a jam.
The purpose was to develop the skill to handle more than one moving attacker at close range. We then moved to drawing from concealment or from service holsters, with a goal of meeting the Tueller SD standard of 1.5 seconds.
Each participant was personally observed and coached by one trainer in each firing sequence. The five trainers were rotated from one participant to another during the day.
Participants were "taped" (as it were) and timed at the beginning and at the end. Most showed improvements of about 30% in the number of hits and 30% in speed.
I found it very worthwhile, and perfectly tailored to that "garden variety SD situation" involving a couple of attackers at close range.
Those who stayed for the more advance course the second day also found it worthwhile. That one involved shooting wile running forward, sideways, backward, and shooting after having run and dived for cover. Probably a good thing, again for increasing the odds of surviving against two violent criminal actors, but I did not participate this year.