We hear about the 21’ rule, which really isn’t a rule, all the time in our community. Distance is more of an issue than most of us realize. Let’s break distance down into a few areas of concern.
-
Reaction Distance – The Tueller Drill, 21 foot rule, is a measure of reaction time. The
idea, a general rule, is that 21 feet is the distance where an attacker can reach you and use an impact or bladed weapon before you can react, draw, and fire your gun. Inside that range, a defender needs to increase awareness and preparedness to ensure they can defend themselves. There are two ways to improve our reaction time, the first is to identify the threat as early as possible, the second is to practice our draw and our initial controlled pair to center mass to make it as quick as possible. -
Striking/Hands-on Distance – This is the distance where an attacker can hit you and grab you to engage you in hand-to-hand, or empty-handed, combat. It is very clear that most us that carry a gun have not dedicated enough time to learn how to defend ourselves when we have somebody grabbing us, or striking us with punches and kicks. This distance is also the distance where an attacker can attempt to grab your gun. This is another area where most of us need to improve our skills. A good weapon retention class would be a huge benefit for most of us.
-
Shooting Distance – One of the most common questions in gun forums is what distance everyone should practice at when shooting on the range. The answer is ALL distances. We can’t dictate, or control, the distance that an attacker is at when they decide to attack somebody. We need to be able to engage an attacker at any distance where they might be a threat to us or our loved ones.
Distance is just one more area of concern for defenders. Think about it.