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Let’s look at an actual shooting. Our CHL is a supervisor for unloading trucks at a big box store. Solid, middle-class job with low risk of getting robbed. His only major lifestyle risk is he works a 12hr shift and comes home during the witching hours.
He arrives at his apartment complex and is approached from multiple directions by three males with guns who command him to “Give it up!” and open fire as soon as the words are out of their mouth. He is hit in the dominant hand, weak arm, and abdomen before he can even get to his own gun. Despite the injuries, he returns fire and hits two of three attackers, driving them away.
Was a fast draw his most important skill? I’m sure he didn’t want to be any slower; but he won the fight despite being slower than his attackers. And he showed amazing resilience in being able to switch from “Man, I just spent 12 hours unloading trucks and now I’m home. I am really ready to kick back.” to “I need to kill these people to survive.”
He didn’t flee or “give it up”, he kicked in to fight mode and fought with his dominant hand already out of commission. His attackers on the other hand, started running as soon as he started shooting back. The most important aspect of that fight wasn’t a fast draw but a will to win.
And of course, a little better performance on observation and orientation might have made the whole fight unnecessary. Smooth, efficient, weapons manipulation is an important detail; but it isn’t the most important. It probably isn’t in the top five. Really, tedious, non-gun, observational stuff is at the top of that particular pyramid.
Important point: the pistol did not stop anybody in this fight. Everybody involved had the ability to continue the fight if they chose to. Only one guy made that choice. He won.
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