Shooting or Gunfight: They’re Different and You Need to Train Accordingly

“Before we proceed, let’s clear up a couple of definitions.” said Ken Hackathorn, masterclass small arms and tactics instructor, to a class of a dozen or so gathered for a hybrid pistol/rifle class.

A shooting is when one party has a gun. A gunfight is when all parties involved have guns.

Ken went on to explain.

We hear the statistics about how the average shooting is three rounds, takes place at three yards, and it is over in three seconds. While that might be true for a shooting, where the average number of rounds fired is three, that’s not a gunfight. The average number of rounds fired in a gunfight is whatever was in the gun when the fight started.

What are We Training For?

I mention Hackathorn’s admonition because we at SOTGU were recently challenged regarding the practical distance for self-defense shooting. The assertion was that any training drills beyond the established 21-foot limit were impractical and unrealistic. The person making that claim quoted the old “3 shots, 3 yards, 3 seconds” adage. The person in question, who shall remain mercifully nameless, commented that they didn’t need “to take training to hit a man-sized target at three yards.”

To be fair, that person could very likely hit a stationary cardboard silhouette target from three yards with his feet planted. So, there’s that. Nonetheless, that’s not a gunfight scenario, that is a shooting scenario. 

When it comes to serious training, we need to conduct rehearsals via various drills that will support the skills and tactics that we hope to employ when we’re faced with the gravest extreme of a deadly force attack. Quoting stats for shootings doesn’t have much benefit when we need to be preparing to survive and win gunfights.

Training for Gunfights, not Shootings

Now that we’ve set the table as far as definitions go and established our goal, we need to consider what truly happens in gunfights. Thanks to the massive amount of surveillance and body camera footage available, we don’t really have to guess much.

Moving 

In nearly ninety-percent of gunfights, both the attacker and the defender are moving. If one of the two parties in the gunfight stops moving and isn’t behind cover, that party tends to get shot. Watch just about any body cam footage of a sudden, unexpected attack on a police officer and the first thing they do, instinctively, is move their feet to get off the “X” or out of the kill zone. Naturally, that’s a good instinct. 

Knowing that we’ll want to be getting out of the immediate kill zone by moving, we need to engage in training and practice that requires us to move while shooting or shoot while moving. No, we don’t have beginning shooters move and shoot during the first hour of the first day, but we can’t, with good conscience, conduct all of our shooting drills flat-footed, as though our feet are in cement as John Farnam likes to say.

What do we know? We know that shooters who stand perfectly still get nice tight groups on paper and cardboard. People feel good when their shot groups are tight. They don’t feel good when they don’t have those tight groups, therefore they won’t make themselves move.

This, of course, is the conundrum. We know that moving and shooting is an important skill, but that skill takes concerted effort to develop. Therefore, most people will engage in static, non-moving shooting drills because that is where they feel comfortable. This is where organized training comes into play and an instructor makes you do what you’re not comfortable doing. 

Distance 

Most gunfights start up close and personal, but not all. We have ample historical evidence that the good guy with a gun needs to shoot a bad guy at distances beyond 21 feet. Eli Dicken, the man who saved countless lives during a spree killing at a mall in Indiana had to start shooting from 40 yards. Dicken scored two hits at that distance, four hits from 20 yards, and the last two from 25 feet away. 

Dave Spaulding once advised a class in which I was a participant that “distance always favors skill.” He continued, “Any moron can shoot you from five feet away. If you have genuine skill, distance is your friend.” 

For that reason, we train our students from contact distance out to twenty-five yards or so. The ability to put rounds reliably on a man-sized target at such distances builds a genuine confidence in the shooter. Confidence in your abilities isn’t something you can fake and it’s not something that magically happens when bullets are flying. 

Cover Drills

A fundamental tactic of surviving gunfights is simple, but often overlooked. If you realize you’re in a gunfight and you’re not behind cover, your feet need to be moving. We move our feet until we’re behind cover and then we use that cover to immediately put effective rounds on target. If no cover is available, we don’t stop moving our feet until the threat is over.

Nonetheless, all cover is temporary. We don’t set up residence behind cover. Cover offers us a tactical advantage to put rounds on target, but the bad guy isn’t just going to stand still and let you shoot him or her. They’re going to try to move and circumnavigate the cover you’re using. Therefore, we need to be constantly thinking, where is my next cover?

After we have instructed students in how to properly use cover, we move on to bounding cover drills where students engage, move to another form of cover and engage again. No, this isn’t the first half of day one training, we build on previous drills. We need the student to get comfortable moving and shooting, shooting from cover and then moving to other cover. Cover is also a great place to top off an empty or partially empty gun.  

Rampage Killers Want a Shooting, Not a Gunfight

The sad reality of our world is that there are evil human animals who want to kill innocent people as an expression of their angst and hatred. A lesson that we should have all learned by now is that rampage killers are not looking for a gunfight, they want a mass shooting. This is why somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety-five percent of rampage killing attacks take place in “gun free zones.” They want carnage, they don’t want armed resistance. 

History has shown, and it just repeated itself in Twin Falls, Idaho, that when confronted with armed resistance, the rampage killer will stop trying to murder the innocent and turn their attention to the armed resistance, thus saving innocent lives. 

Here’s the full video.

This is Jordan Salinas — the legend who actually did something while other people sat there filming.

Jumped out, engaged the In-N-Out shooter, forced him back, then stayed to help a wounded employee.

No camera.
No hesitation.
Just action.

Real ones… pic.twitter.com/KxEH9RD4NV

— Emanuel Quiñones (@EQuinones6310) August 2, 2026

When a gunfight is brought to a rampage killer, they will usually attempt to get away and then, when faced with no other choice but to shoot it out, they frequently turn their guns on themselves. While that isn’t a guarantee, forcing an armed killer to fight as opposed to gunning down helpless innocents, is clearly the preferred outcome.

For our part, as responsible armed citizens, the duty we have is not just to carry guns, but to be prepared for the realities of armed conflict through serious training. Now, as always, your responsibility to be ready for the fight never ends.     

 

Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student of the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.