[Cosmoline]

Thanks! I hadn't heard of ECQC before. But gun grappling tends to focus on disarming. Not on the question of what you do when YOU are armed with a firearm, but shooting, for legal or technical reasons, is no longer the best option. And it's that transition I'm particularly interested in. I'm using swords as the example, not really advocating their use now. With medieval combat they shift in and out of grappling with great fluidity. You move from sword to wrestling and back to sword in a single encounter. But we really don't seem to do that with firearms. It's either grapple or shoot, or grapple to get rid of the gun. And not much notion of the critical transitions or when to execute them. Or reviving something like pistol whipping, which I understand is frowned upon these days but would fit in with the issues I'm contemplating here. Just as the longsword becomes a bashing tool, the handgun becomes a bashing tool. Some of those goofy sharp muzzle brakes start to actually look like interesting options.

Put it more simply, we seem to teach how to draw and fire, but not how to holster and wrestle. Even though there are scenarios when that may be necessary. The bum rush by some nutcase, for example. You draw, warn, and he puts up his hands but still comes at you, frothing at the mouth. Can't really shoot an unarmed man without major complications, and maybe he's just mentally challenged. So where's the training for THAT MOMENT? When you realize you have a tool that cannot be used in its intended role. The swordsmen knew exactly what to do--if the tool no longer helped it was shifted aside or used in some other way. And much effort was made to ensure these transitions were seamless and fast. That's what I'm after. You have a hammer in your hand, expecting nails, but suddenly need to use the epoxy.