[JustinM]

I went to my little range today to practice some shooting. I saw a video on www.tacticalresponse.com about how to shoot from a car. It was really fun. I plan on taking some classes at TR sometime this summer. IT was pretty fun going to the car wash afterwards and seeing random 45 cases just fall off my jeep lol. :danceban:

 

[JustinM]

Here's the video

http://www.tacticalresponse.com/vid/vehicle1.mpg

 

[Dingle1911]

Looks pretty cool, but why does he have to open his door? seems he could just lean against it just as easily.

 

[P95Carry]

I guess the door open assists for good hold with right handed shooter.

If a lefty then single hand shooting maybe or even two hand grip thru window would work OK. Could be worth practicing weak hand only from open window as well.

 

[JustinM]

I think because it might offer a little more cover than leaning out the window. It was really comfortable to shoot from and I had no problem getting my USP45 out of the IWB holster from in my Jeep.

 

[BlueLion]

I don't know, if I would be doing any car shooting because if it is running I am on the gas and ducking. Moreover, also if you have family or friend in the car you also run the risk. I choose if the car is running I am on the gas. Maybe would do some car shooting in Iraq or if I was a Fed. However, you never know

 

[Miggy]

I think it makes all the sense if the target is in line. Open the door, lean outside, dont mess with the damn seatbelt and shoot!

 

[John 242]

Bluelion;
True, if my car is running I would also 'pop smoke' instead of shooting. Unfortunately driving away may not be possible.
IMO having training and learning tactics to deal with shooting from a vehicle is a 'good idea'.

Mr James Yeager of Tactical Response was working as a member of a PSD team here in Baghdad. His team was ambushed about a mile from the gates of BIAP (Baghdad Iinternational Air Port). His team became stuck in traffic, and the insurgents used a frontage road running parallel to Route Irish to fire on his team. I read about the incident on Yeager's website, and on-line news accounts, but I am working from memory and may be a little sketchy on the details.
I believe there were three vehicles, the first was an unarmored passenger car that if I am not mistaken was driven by Yeager himself.
I believe that the second car's passenger compartment was armored, but a AP 7.62x54R went into the transmission and disabled it, rendering the vehicle unable to move.
The third car, I forget.
Regardless, the team was forced to dismount and fight on the X or in other words they were trapped in the kill-zone.


Now let's take the lessons of that situation and convert them so they apply to our own daily activities. Please don't flame me, I'm just using vague examples....
Being stuck in traffic is a real possibility for most of us. Consider the possibility of an 'road rage' incident in which you cannot immediately flee the scene due to traffic conditions, or a collision.
Not long ago on another forum there was a short video clip of a dirt bag attacking a car with a tire iron, 'just because'. Although in traffic, it is likely (yet debatable) that the car could have driven immediately away. The car provided cover, yet once the windows were smashed the tire iron could have inflicted fatal blows on the occupants.

The driver if unable to drive away due to traffic, yet armed and in fear of being killed, would have had to either fire from inside the car, or dismount and fire.
(the Lady, apparently with children in the car, tried a weak attempt to drive away and after what seems like an eternity was able to turn the corner. The BG was toying with her, and could have likely killed her if he was determined to do so. Of course she could have been killed 'accidentally' by a hit form the tire iron.)

IMO;
My first response to an attack while driving would be;
a) drive away
b) use the car as a weapon to remove the threat (run him over), if I can't drive completely away
c) only dismount/shoot if neither of the above is possible and I am under imminent threat.

Having a plan and then rehearsing and practicing that plan (even if only mental) seems to make sense to me.

Yeager has a forum called GetofftheX.com
You have to be a groupee(sic) member.
Info can be found at getoffthex about the BIAP ambush.
http://getoffthex.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/440107932/m/156105536/r/156105536#156105536

Just my 2 cents.
Thank you and take care,
John

 

[ka0azs]

I was taught in counter terror training prior to deployment overseas to always keep a large enough gap between you and the vehicle in front of you to maximize the chances you have room to manuever left or right, and to minimize the chance of a vehicle ramming you from behind and trapping you with the vehicle in front of you.

I always like to be able to see some pavement between the rear wheels of the car in front of me and the front edge of my hood.

 

[ka0azs]

On the amusing anecdote front:

Friend of mine is a volunteer firefighter (which in Ohio means red light bar and siren on personal vehicle) and was working security at the time. Driving home in uniform.

Stopped at a traffic light left turn lane; concrete island barrier to left, solid traffic front, back, right.

Gobilin walks up, taps on window and shows him a gun saying "give it up Mother....". Goblin looks around while waiting for my friend to get out. Maybe he's trying to figure out where in the hell he's going to go once he has the truck given how hemmed in it is. Friend instead pulls his duty piece and hits the lights and siren.

Goblin sees wrong end of a pistol and takes off down an alley behind him. Friend gets out of truck and waits for about 20 seconds until he hears multiple shouts of "FREEZE" and "DROP THE WEAPON".

Said alley leads directly to officer parking lot of the local PD District HQ. And it's shift change. And of course all the officers are looking at the alley wondering what all the commotion was. :rofl:

No shots fired (Goblin was stupid, but apparently not suicidal).

 

[sacp81170a]

A couple weeks ago my department did some tactical training with a couple of junk cars at the range. One of the scenarios was shooting from inside the car. We used different techniques, but the quickest one by far was to simply draw, shoot through the windshield to get rounds on the target, and then worry about exiting the vehicle or gettin' outta dodge. This works just fine as long as the city's gonna pay for the windshield you just wrecked. :gah: By exiting the vehicle, or opening your door, you hamper your ability to use what may be your most effective weapon, the vehicle. It worked great for me, since I'm a lefty and can draw and shoot one-handed while still being able to throw the shift lever into reverse with my right hand. Don't let the windshield or windows be a psychological barrier. Bullets go right through them and don't seem to be deflected at all, at least for the fairly short ranges (7-10 yards) we were shooting at. Extend the battle space, distance is your friend.

On a side note, it was a little eery that our training included tactical approach on a routine traffic stop just a week before Officer Jim Sell of the Gassville, AR PD, was shot and killed during a "routine" traffic stop. Hindsight is 20-20, but from what little I've heard about the incident, Officer Sell chose to exit his vehicle and approach when the suspect exited his vehicle. :frown: Just goes to show that there's no such thing as a "routine" traffic stop.

Edited to add: In this case, exiting was right, it was the approach where things went haywire. The best strategy would be to exit and take cover behind the vehicle until you established control. Another thing that we did was to put a target on one side of the vehicle as if the officer were taking cover and looking over the hood. Bullets that skipped off the hood went right into the target. The flat surfaces on cars are "bullet magnets", just like walls. If you take cover behind a car, don't look over the top of that hood, roof, or trunk. Get down and look around the side of the vehicle, preferably with a tire between you and the BG.