Marcus Young’s deadly confrontation on the night of March 7, 2003 exemplifies what it means to be ‘down, but not out’ in a gunfight. Young had been shot five times by 35-year-old Neal Beckman, a violent felon whose shots struck Young in the cheek, back, and upper right arm. Body armor likely saved Young’s life, but his strong-side arm was out of the fight altogether. Young then got into a knock-down, all-out, hand-to-hand fight with Beckman in which Young split his left hand nearly in half on the concrete.
“My right arm was paralyzed,” Young said in a 2004 interview. “My left hand had a two-inch tear between the index and middle fingers, and I could not draw my gun. I was bleeding profusely.”
The suspect then made for Young’s squad car and began fiddling with buttons in an attempt to release the shotgun and patrol rifle from their locked mounts.
Down, but not out, Young commanded a young cadet — who had been doing a ride-along with Young that night — to draw Marcus’ sidearm and “put it in my left hand.” Young put shots on the suspect, ultimately killing him with a bullet that quite literally tore Beckman a new a__hole. Young now teaches for FBI LEOKA, instructing cops nationwide about officer safety and winning deadly confrontations.
Why do I bring up Marcus Young? I recently attended an all-day firearms training session put on by my friend Ken Hardesty and his team at LMS Defense in which we focused a significant portion of our time on fighting solely with the support-side hand. We practiced all manner of skills — un-holstering and engaging a threat using only your support-side hand, doing support-side, one-handed reloads, and clearing malfunctions with only that support-side hand.
It was the third element listed above that gave me — and the rest of the class — the greatest challenge. For Type-I and Type-II malfunctions, we were live fire, and we pretty much did the typical “tap, rack” technique — improvising when necessary to use whatever was/is available to work that problem. The Type-III malfunctions we did “dry-fire” with cleared weapons (twice checked by other classmates and the instructors). It was during this phase of instruction that Hardesty suggested something to add to our homework.
Using dummy rounds — available from places like Officer Store — you can safely practice clearing the dreaded “double-feed and a failure to extract” malfunction. This way, you have the nearest representation of the real-world problem but are able to practice in a totally safe way. Add to the realism by doing this drill behind a tree or other cover in your back yard. Do it in low light. Be creative and the benefits can be enormous.
Practicing firearms manipulation and handling with a “blue” gun, practicing your dry-fire skills, and practicing your positive combat mindset, all do a lot to improve your chances in a deadly confrontation. Don’t forget to push yourself into uncomfortable physical and psychological places in this training. For me, tackling a Type-III malfunction with only my support-side hand definitely fits the bill of “uncomfortable.”
