Preparing the Citizen Gunfighter | Mindset and Conditioning

Lessons Learned in Training

I am writing this article as a declaration of war with the modern “Casual Range Culture” and the mindset of the average gun owner. This is, by no means, an attack on any person who chooses to exercise their constitutional rights. Instead, this is the acknowledgment that deep responsibility comes with firearms ownership.

To further that point, I am asking you to be ready. I intend to explore what that means to me. To discuss my background, I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I served in the military a little over a decade, culminating in the last 4 years of my experience in the Special Operations Community as an ARSOF JTAC. Graduating the Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course (The most basic Special Operations Close Quarters Battle Course) was an eye-opener, that led to a complete overhaul with respect to how I approach to firearms training.

My course NCOIC, Zach Moore, kicked the course off with a brief intro “You are now at SFAUCC, over the next 4 weeks, we will teach you how to effectively conduct offensive operations in an Urban Environment. What’s more important, is that we will teach you how to execute the 3 principles of CQB: Speed, Surprise, and Violence of Action to great effect. What you will learn here, will be essential to the preservation of life, and the execution of your mission.

Welcome to Gunfighter School.” Before this, everything I learned in the Army was purely “On the Job Training” (OJT), taught by individuals who had learned a technique or tactic from someone else, who was an “expert”. However, none of this training was structured, or data-driven, no matter how well-intentioned. Without violating Operational Security (OPSEC), the lessons taught by this course had been gathered throughout the Global War on Terror (GWOT), and often, learned in blood. My intent is to pass some of those lessons onto you.

Modern Range Culture is largely dominated by individuals who purchased a firearm, and through an unorganized process of trial and error, begin an unplanned journey towards marksmanship. I acknowledge that this is absolutely your right as an American Citizen. However, there are better ways to get there. I don’t blame those individuals, they do not know better, or were taught by someone who learned in a similar manner and is slightly more familiar than those they teach. Combat and LEO lethal engagements have accelerated what we have learned in the past 20 years, and I think it is time we move beyond acing the NRA B-8 target with slow untimed fire at 25 yards. Do not misunderstand, accuracy at distance MUST be trained, but there is far more to it than that.

Mindset is Everything

The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus put it perfectly, “Out of one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”

I know, that every Alpha personality would like to view themselves as the “one” warrior Heraclitus spoke of, a real “John Wick” type, but that is not reality. The fact is many of those people fall into the 90 men that are a blend of gun targets and victims.

If you haven’t been tested in a gunfight, let’s discuss mindset first. I remember my first major gunfight in Iraq. 2-Hours into the gunfight, on my last two magazines, I rolled up on an enemy combatant manning a PKM preparing to kill my Soldiers in a nearside ambush. Luckily, he had not yet noticed me. Like an idiot I flicked my selector from “safe” to “semi”, gaining his unwanted attention. Out of the two of us, I was quicker on the draw, executed a “rifle-now” drill and dumped 24 rounds of 5.56MM into the lower A-Zone of my threat. Let me be clear, I was a dumbass because, at that exact moment, my actions did very little. Instead of ending his life immediately with one or two rounds to the

T-Box, I ran four steps to his position, and kicked him in the chest which is what ultimately knocked him down. His Assistant Gunner panicked and ran away. His death took roughly ten minutes, which was enough time for him to possibly pose a danger to myself and others. Ever since then, I remember how lucky my team and I were, rather than smart. Our SFAUCC Sports Psychologist, Seth Haselhuhn, said something that resonated with me. “I hate when people say you’ll never rise to the occasion, you’ll just fall to the level of your training.

So why the heck aren’t you training for the occasion?” Most people are not born warriors, but we can train to it. Mindset is where we begin. When training and performing personal carry we must approach it with a gunfighter mindset. Most close friends consider this mentality too extreme, but to me, it isn’t. When you are in a fight, there are no guarantees on what you’ll be called to do.

Our mindset must encompass a few principles

• People might die. If a person, has displayed intent to do you, or those around you, physical harm, there’s a chance, someone is going to die. Don’t brush that off as nothing. Think about it, someone including the threat, yourself, or someone you care about, might die during a gunfight. Be mentally prepared to take a life in order to preserve yourself, and the lives of others.
• If a gunfight breaks out, you will likely get hit: Thought you’d be “Quick-Draw Mcgraw” and get off unscathed? Cool, I sincerely hope that happens, but odds are, you’re going to get hit, and it’s going to hurt bad. Be mentally prepared to get shot and fight through it. This must be a very real consideration. Are you ready to maintain front sight focus and trigger control while getting shot? Are you ready to work through a weapons malfunction or combat reload instead of staring at your gun wondering why it didn’t go bang? Remember the fight isn’t over until someone is standing over you and has put your lights out. Until your world goes black…Stay. In. The. Fight.
• This will not be clean, have a plan. When it goes live, innocent bystanders may get hit. Focus on the threat, even while people are screaming. The faster you end it, the quicker you can get them aid. As a trained, and armed individual, you will do nobody any favors as another chalk outline. Have a plan, maintain security, and dispatch the threat. Control your environment, your plan may not be perfect, but any plan is better than none, and the authorities may be up to 30 minutes away. If you are trained and equipped, you have the responsibility to act.
• Keep making decisions. Any decision is better than none. Make one decision after another until the threat is gone or you are dead. Treat it like you’re placing one foot in front of the other. Focus on one task, accomplish it, then focus on another.

Conditioning for Combat Stress

How do I condition my mindset for combat stress? That is a tricky question. It is very difficult to organize training to mimic the legitimate threat of your life being taken. However, stress shooting is a method that can help achieve that end-state. There are many kinds of stress we can induce on ourselves. The question is how can we mimic what we encounter in a fight? Departing the military, I found many instructors believe that the foundation of a stress shoot is physical. Example: Perform 50 pushups or sprint a quarter-mile and perform a timed drill. The question you should be asking is “What have you trained to make you effective? And what common hurdles do shooters encounter during an active engagement?”

The answer is those problem-sets can be replicated by inducing cognitive stress. Often, we will encounter far more non-threats than legitimate threats in the target area. The most difficult thing will be your ability to mentally process the difference between an active threat, and a panicked running bystander or uniformed first responder. The way we do that is by adding problem-solving events to timed shooting drills. A shot timer on its own is a stress inducer, but

by implementing problem-solving, we can effectively condition ourselves to actively think while engaging targets. Here are two simple examples:

1. Post a series of small target circles with the name of a color in a different color, and have the time-keeper instruct you to engage the color, or the word, on the buzzer.
2. Post a series of numbers on those same small target circles, and prior to the buzzer, tell the shooter to engage the answer to the math problem. Example: Shoot the answer to the math problem 4X2. You will be surprised how many shooters will engage the number 6 in a hurry. Cognitive processing is the most important thing you employ beyond marksmanship and speed. Close Quarters Battle often reveals surprises around every unknown corner. Your success depends highly upon your ability to rapidly process and act in a split second. Training with cognitive stress into your regular training program will make it easier to identify a threat by actively thinking and processing what you see around you.

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Jonathan Fietkau is a former SOTACC from 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, and a graduate of the Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course (SFAUCC). He is a combat veteran of Iraq, and other theaters of operation, with previous service in the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions.