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Combative Skills for Gunfighters
By Gabe Suarez
Gabe Suarez is a retired police officer and life-long martial artist. He integrates the traditional martial arts, modern
combatives, and tactical firearms in his courses at Suarez International. He may be reached at
his website
or by phone at 928.776.4492
Most private citizens licensed to carry concealed pistols believe the answer to any threat of violence is the modern “hogleg” on their ever-crowded (and ever stretching) belts. Take note: if you have a handgun but no unarmed combat skills, you will be in for a nasty surprise.
Quite simply, you can’t shoot every assailant who accosts you. Moreover, most lethal force encounters occur at contact distance or just beyond it. I will go out on a limb and say that UNLESS you have some sort of simple system of hand to hand fighting in place, you will probably NOT EVEN GET TO YOUR GUN in most confrontations.
It has to do with the issue of distance. In our society, we must routinely allow people within our terminal interval. You can’t live keeping everyone outside of seven yards! Also consider that very few assailants will telegraph their movements to you. (Excuse me, Mr. Upwardly Mobile Sergeant’s List Candidate, I am about to come over and kick your *#@! into next
week.) Give me a break! The adversary will walk up to you like a hundred people do everyday, and then he’ll smash you in the mouth with a pipe, or cut your throat before you can even plant your feet and “get your gun side
back.”
Some sort of skill in a fighting system is important. Unfortunately, although many interested students are schooled in some sort of “defensive tactics” or “martial
arts,” these systems rarely go beyond the rudimentary or sporting level. A fighting system must go beyond this to
encompass not only controlling and avoiding methods, but also (potentially) non-lethal combatives (the use of body weapons) and perhaps even unarmed deadly force. In short, a fighting system should be simple and designed to win the fight. If it does other things (such as health development, exercise, tradition, etc.), that’s fine,
these should never come at the cost of combat utility.
There may be levels to this study and application, but the ability to escalate violence must be built in. As well, cultivation of a fighting attitude is essential to winning the fight. I’ve seen 80 year old ladies defeat teenaged attackers. It wasn’t pretty (Bic
pens in the eye and that sort of thing), but it worked. The development of a warrior attitude may be too much to ask of some of our public forces, but it is nonetheless of paramount importance to us.
Also, there are many dogmatic teachers who say silly stuff like “I carry a gun so I don’t have to
fight.” A dedicated student of fighting skills could kill one of those closed-minded instructors in a surprise fight every single time and walk off with their prized Tactical Ultimate Service Pistol in
their belt, as the downed “shooting master” gurgled out his last breath.
One student asked about knives and guns. My opinion on the knife thing is this
Most “defensive” fights (when you have little time to prepare) occur at very close distances. (I’ve never seen someone get robbed from across the
street.) More often than not, you are looking at a face to face confrontation. At these distances, a man whose only tool is the pistol has a severe disadvantage, and a bladesman has the actual advantage. Its not due to the superiority of one weapon over
another; it is just due to the dynamics of human reaction time and the practical nature of each weapon.
In some situations, you can’t carry a pistol, but you may be able to have a
knife. Thus it is important to have some skill in this area as well. Recently when I was in Italy training some of their anti-terrorist guys, we had to leave the issued Beretta 98s at the range and venture into town armed only with knives. Don’t underestimate the knife.
Likewise, you should understand the dynamics involved in defending against either the gun or the knife when you yourself are unarmed. Think how some basic and aggressive ability in the hands versus knife realm might have drastically changed recent history.
It was Musashi who said (more or less), “There is a time and place for each weapon. To know one weapon more than another, or to have a favorite weapon, is as bad as not knowing it
enough.” Part of being a solid warrior is to be able to create havoc and destruction on those who would harm us or our country, whether we’re armed with an M4 rifle, a #2 Ticonderoga, or only with
clenched fists.
The gun demands distance. If you don’t have it, and you rarely will at the outset, you need to do something else first.
A shootist who ignores the unarmed combative systems is as lacking as the martial artist who ignores the gun.
