From Funker Tactical: “The best hand gun or pistol disarm is the one you can pull off successfully during an armed robbery or altercation. Training with Ryan Hoover from Fit-to-Fight Krav Maga, we learn about 9 essential handgun disarming tips that can save your life and your loved ones during an armed confrontation.”
Do you agree with self-defense expert Ryan Hoover that after disarming an armed attacker in a close quarters encounter, one shouldn’t attempt to shoot the suspect with the suspect’s handgun to neutralize the threat but instead should use the firearm as a blunt force implement?
Great video, great training, BUT…. I have a rebuttal list of 9 tips of why you SHOULD BE PREPARED TO SHOOT an “unarmed” assailant…
After over 30 years of martial arts and firearms training, I strongly disagree on ONE MAJOR point. IF you train to disarm your attacker, YOU MUST BE PREPARED to FIRE THE WEAPON back without hesitation IF your attacker continues his attack after the disarm. Why would I fire on an “unarmed” assailant?
1. Attacker is no LESS deadly after YOU have control of the firearm. If they press in after the disarm, they STILL INTEND to kill you if they get the gun back (or if they don’t get the gun back they will now kill you with their fists, feet or whatever)
2. If attacker struggles to get the gun back they will NOT pistol whip you – they will definitely shoot YOU until you are dead.
3. Blunt force trauma (pistol whipping) is not as effective as hollow point to center of thoracic cavity to stop the threat.
4. Very few strikes are considered “deadly” force (again, you are in a deadly scenario – why “bring a knife to a gunfight”?) Use the BEST tool for the job – why prolong any deadly scenario? The longer it takes, the more it escalates.
5. Attacker may have a backup gun, so unless you are already pointing in, you lost valuable time to cause REAL stopping force before they take more shots at you (and they WILL shoot if YOU are armed!)
6. Attacker may not be operating alone which creates a greater disparity of force which means you are still in a life threatening environment, reinforcing your justification for deadly force.
7. The attacker’s accomplices may be armed also – If so, I am WASTING precious time pistol whipping someone while receiving incoming fire… I have trained for failure!
8. Who in the gun community is going to be inept with the attacker’s gun? So you tap, rack/roll.. if you can not do that effectively, what in the world are you doing disarming this guy…I thought everyone here knows how to fire a pistol, or am I missing something? “Not know how the attacker’s firearm operates”? Seriously? What nincompoop will attack you with his grandfather’s Broom-handled Mauser, or Steyr 1914? NO… your attacker will come at you with the Glock he stole the other night from the nightstand of the guy down the street! IF your attacker just so happens to have an INEFFECTIVE weapon, or YOU are unable to use it on HIM for whatever reason, plan B should be to pistol whip him with his own weapon. Just DO NOT let him get it back – he might have another stripper clip for that Steyr!
9. Deadly force is deadly force – once you are in it, you can NOT deescalate until you know for a fact you are not threatened with deadly force any longer – deadly attacker still attacking means I am still defending with deadly force. Period. YOU MUST BE IN FIGHT MODE UNTIL; your initial threat is no longer a danger to you, you have moved off the x (cover or concealment), scanned the area, and have determined your world is safe again.
Again, great article, just don’t buy into EVERYTHING you are told. Gun community; If you are confident enough in your skills to disarm someone through training and realistic practice like Krav Maga, back it up with training for effective use of the firearm once you have it.
Thank you for this insightful video. I took away a .45 acp colt from a guy in a bar back in my 20’s. It went smoothly. He was drunk and I overheard him threatening the barmaid. He got off his barstool which was 2 stools over from me and he had a cocked and locked 45 Colt. As soon as he withdrew the pistol I grab it in a very simile manner as above and slugged him he went down the weapons safety was still on and I clocked him again for my safety’s sake. He intended to shoot the barmaid. I had just returned from 2 tours in Vietnam in combat and saw the colt in his waist band. Thanks much for your video. I thought for a moment that I would shoot him on the floor…but common sense prevailed. This happened in like 3 seconds.
Best training video short shown- even those from other forums- I have viewed to date. Thanks for showing this method!
Lets assume you do injur your hand think of the alternative : injured hand or a bullet hole in your face, thats how I see it.
You can hang on to the slide of an auto loader when the trigger is pulled. I have done this in training as part of a training regiment. It will not cycle. I wouldn’t recommend doing this on your own without an experienced range master to guide you through it. Using the weapon as a impact weapon is situationally based. I agree with Ryan unless the need for deadly force still exists…it’s up to the perception of the person using force after they have instrumented the gun takeaway. Ryan makes good points as to why it’s not advisable….
The man is totally correct! Carry on Brother!
Very good vid. Would be nice if they added a scenario with a counter in between them as ofter happens in a Stop and Rob store. Keep up the good work and fight the good fight.
Semper Fi
Very good vid. Would be nice if they added a scenario with a counter in between them as ofter happens in a Stop and Rob store. Keep up the good work and fight the good fight.
Semper Fi
Let me just gently step-in here and say….excellent video however most Bad Guys know that close quarters is NOT good for them….your chances of being THAT close to a gun pointing at you is RARE in todays violent world of aggression….no disrespect intended sir.
A young, trained person might have the reflexes to pull this technique off. But could an old guy be fast enough?
Of course you as a victim are going to be focused. The attacker likely has some other agenda competing with his or her attention, that might help.
The issues brought up about not really wanting to use a gun just acquired in this fashion make sense.
Good god people, don’t try this crap. I was trained to do this many years ago but I would no more try that now than I would jump off my house on the three level side & expect to flap my arms & softly land this fat body in the back yard! With out MUCH repetitious training, you’ll probably get yourself killed.
If the guy wants your wallet, give it to him. Your watch? Give it to him. No reason for anyone to die over a few bucks & a Timex! If he’s brutalizing people or herding everyone into the back cooler, wait for your chance, draw your weapon & put the savage down!
being confronted by a gun wielding robber is a scare all its own and few people have any inclination of challenging one but once you do, I think that’s a surprise to the criminal all its own if you could get control of the gun. However, my expectations would be that the dummy would demand his weapon back and start forward to retrieve it. I would test fire the weapon IMMEDIATELY, in the air, get his attention, assure me that the gun is ready, and alert others to your problem. Law suits are after the fact and I’ll risk one to stay alive or protect my wife of 55 years.
Often you would be dealing with more than one assailant and not all will be armed. If one comes at you to take the gun it is not to recover property-they can make a claim at the police station for that-That person is a threat-disable them. If they are scattering they are not a harm but if no one is hurt, maybe I’d go on home with a new gun-probably stolen. Foregt calling the police. They can’t catch the thug-no harm no foul, so you are the easy target-discharging a firearm within city limits…….
I do not agree with trying to over power some 6-3 goon on crack after taking a gun from him. That will not look good on his resume. Back off-get ready to nail his ass.
So you want to go home in possession of stolen property [remember you took it forcibly from the BG], possibly illegally possessing a firearm as well? Best to hand it over to the police. Any firearm fired into the air will have the possible consequence of a projectile falling back to earth somewhere completely out of your control. You then risk killing or injuring an innocent.
To answer the questions, yes and yes.
When you initially seize the handgun, you’re as close to the assailant as you’re going to get (or should get) and you should immediately put distance between yourself and your attacker. But you also don’t want your attacker to initiate another assault, so, if you can, you should incapacitate him, or at least dissuade him, from doing so. You’ve just acquired and excellent blunt-force instrument while at close quarters, why not use it while you can? Rendering him unconscious or dissuading him from continuing his attack is not only the best thing for you, it’s the best thing for your attacker, because it can keep him from getting shot (see below.)
Once you have disengaged from an opponent who is now (we’ll assume for the moment – in a tactical situation you would not make this presumption) unarmed. The law considers that the threat to your life has passed, so you cannot now shoot your assailant. However, because you are now obviously armed, any further aggression could be considered by you to be part of an attempt to regain control of the gun (think “Officer Wilson”). As Mas Ayoob says, “A person going for your gun is a person going for a gun.” You shoot those types of people before they can get to the gun.
A thought…once you take the weapon away…is there still a reason to use “deadly force”? I suggest that depends on the next move of your assailant. Frankly, once I have the weapon I am going to put as much distance between me and the assailant as possible. If I automatically shoot him a jury could come to the conclusion that I have now shot an “unarmed” person who was just trying to get away. If I immediately attempt to hit him/her with the weapon…now I’m in a close up and personal fight that the attacker may be better or quicker at. So I would suggest that if you get the weapon…”get out of dodge” quickly and safely but stay prepared to defend yourself with your own personal carry weapon…Oh you don’t have one…big mistake (assuming you are in a “CCW” State).
Don’t forget constitutional carry. Or those in protest of licenses. Free men don’t ask permission to bear arms.
How do you protect your hand when you are grabbing the entire slide of the weapon? If I was attacking, my first thought would be to pull the trigger, causing a lot of damage to your hand. Can you give more information about that? Grabbing the firearm by the slide just doesn’t look safe to me.
Please explain how that would cause damage to one’s hand? The strength of one’s grip is far greater than the force that cycles the slide on a semi-auto handgun. Look at his grip again. Two hands make it even more of a non-issue. He even talks about it in the video.
If your hand is near that slide when the gun goes off it’s gonna tear your hand up. If you get it back before the trigger is pulled that’s different. Teaching my young son how to shoot a few years back I had my hands over his while he fired and the slide caught my thumb nuckle, not fun. There’s air of force pushing that slide back. I wouldn’t bank on hanging onto that during a struggle either. I also don’t want to have it go off anywhere near my head. (Shoot with no eat protection at the range one day to see why.) in fact in Aikido we don’t even worry about controlling the weapon. Just control the attack as if a weapon wasn’t present. With or without something in an attackers hand the moves should be the same. Of course keep your arms extended and keep the gun away from your body but do it by controlling thier hands and thier structure. Stand safely behind them.
I am no expert. But I do a lot of shooting. Grabbing the slide will prevent another round from being automatically chambered. If a round is fired and you are blocking the slide, yes it hurts, but is unlikely to cause major damage assuming you are not in front of the barrel. I know this from experience when I was young and dumb. Don’t ask.
Both of the previous comments are correct to a point. However, thinking back to a Krav Maga mentality, you must remember the overall initial goal of redirecting the weapon and line of fire, and control the firearm. Now you are weighing the relative risks and the benefit. 1) Yes, there is potential for the gun to fire and for your hand to get caught in the slide. 2) It could cause damage to your hand. Which is a better benefit outcome… being in the line of fire of a bullet and the potential for having another one fired at you, or, damaging your hand but taking control of the weapon?
There are videos on YouTube showing people demonstrating this with live ammo. They grasp the guns with their ungloved hands directly over the ejection ports while the guns are fired. The guns do not cycle and they are uninjured.
I agree, Pistol whip the guy… And with my luck I would get the gun and be pointing it just as the cop showed up!!!
Of course. Don’t be dumb.
I agree with not using the firearm for the same reasons.
very good training session, learned a lot from the video, like to see more of these. thanks
this techquinc fine and functional. however, we must learn weapons retention. first never get so close to your enemy so that he can disarm you. I am referring to the reverse of this scenario . I will not let myself get so close to the assailant. that he can disarm me.
You are so right. I learned a very long time ago not to ever stick a pistol out far from your body on first draw, and to fire 3 rounds from the hip at center mass. Most gunfights take place within 7 feet, 21 feet being the norm, from my understanding…fast and furious.