In the age of sub-second draws from Instagram superheroes, patch and coin challenges that require blazing fast draws, and unscrupulous “celebrity trainers” with access to video editors; every few months the question of whether or not you need a “fast” draw or a draw under 1 second really matters. Today we’re going to answer the question: does a fast draw matter?

If you’ve been reading my posts here at GAT Daily for a while now, you’ve probably discovered that I’m a big fan of nuance, and that’s no different today. Because the answer to the question of “does a fast draw matter” is yes, but also no, and also kind of maybe. To explain, we’ll look at the 2019 West Freeway Church of Christ shooting, which we’re all familiar with. In this video CCW permit holder Jack Wilson stops an active shooter with a single well placed shot. Make no mistake, Mr Wilson is a straight up hero and also has ice water in his veins. He also has a 3+ second draw. In the video, you can see he initiates his draw before the shooter fires his first round, and while the results of Mr Wilson’s single shot are effective, if he’d been able to get his gun into play quicker, the outcome might have resulted in no loss of innocent life. Again, nothing I’m saying here is intended to take anything away from Jack Wilson’s courage and marksmanship skills, but rather to provide an example of why being able to get the gun out of the holster and into play quickly might actually be important.

To put it another way: “speed is a tactic.” To elaborate from an entirely hypothetical scenario that definitely didn’t happen: let’s say you’re walking your dog and a local un-housed urban forager declares that he is going to “cut your throat and murder your dog” and then begins advancing towards you with his hands concealed. Suddenly, like you’ve dry fired a thousand times, you produce a small revolver from under your t-shirt and order the urban forager to “get the fuck back.” The sudden appearance of the gun causes him to rapidly recalculate your status as a victim and he departs the scene. In this entirely hypothetical scenario that definitely didn’t happen, the presence of a rapidly produced gun allows you to interrupt the bad guy’s decision making process and force his brain to re-think its plan. Does this work 100% of the time? No, but again, if you’re in a situation where a fast draw is important, it’s probably very important.

So, speed can be important to self defense, and having a “fast” draw can also be important. But here’s where we get into an interesting conversation, because we need to understand what exactly we mean when we say “fast.” The common definition of a fast draw on Instagram is anything under a second, right? But hold on, because I hate to say this, but a lot of people on instagram are full of shit. They’ll post the video of their one best run where they hooked everything up, but not of the 23 other tries where they couldn’t hit shit going that fast. If you can draw and hit an A-zone under a second only 1 time out of 10, you don’t have a sub-second draw. But here’s an interesting point: how much work do you need to put in to have a reliable draw that’s under 1 second? Well it’s actually pretty significant. I do have a consistent sub-second draw from AIWB, and I have spent a lot of time and effort in dry fire to get it there. This is where we get into the area of diminishing returns. How fast does your draw need to be?

If you are a self-defense focused shooter, and you’re so dedicated to getting your draw under 1 second that you’re neglecting other skills, I would offer the thought you might be focused on the wrong areas. If your draw is consistently around 1.5 or 1.75, you could be devoting that practice time to empty hand skills, pepper spray, or threat detection and avoidance. All of those things, especially threat detection and avoidance, will be more useful than a fast draw in the long run, and you’ll have far more opportunities to use them in your daily life. Which brings us to the time where a fast draw won’t matter: if you live a life where you never need your gun, which will likely be 99% of the people reading this post.

Nothing in here is meant to discourage you from trying to get a draw under one second. It’s an awesome training goal, and the people who can do it reliably and on command have a potentially valuable skill in their self-defense arsenal. But is it so important that you should focus on it at the expense of other more useful self-defense skills? No, it probably isn’t. Ultimately, the decision on how you spend your training time is up to you. Choose wisely.

St. Cloud, MN-based Maxim Defense, the premiere manufacturer in PDW technologies, is proud to announce the availability of the Maxim Defense PDX in Urban Grey.

The PDX, which is now chambered in .300BLK, 5.56 NATO, and 7.62×39, had its genesis in USSOCOM. Born of the SOCOM PDW solicitation, the Maxim Defense PDX dominates CQB encounters and puts maximum energy on target.

The PDX – which is just 18.75 in. OAL is available in both pistol and SBR configurations. Utilization of the patent-pending Maxim SCWTM system reduces stock length to 4 in., while an integrated BCG with interchangeable buffer weights provides maximum performance and versatility without sacrificing functionality (and, for the aesthetically minded, form).

The PDX™ is also equipped with a newly invented Maxim HATEBRAKE™ muzzle booster. This patent-pending device significantly reduces recoil, decreases the flash signature, pushes gasses and concussion waves downrange away from the operator, and improves overall performance in short barrel pistols and rifles. 

•  HATEBRAKE™ installed under the handguard
•  2 MOA accurate
•  M-Slot compatible handguard
•  Military-grade materials [17-4 Stainless Steel, 7075 and 6061 Aluminum]
•  SCW buffer-carrier
•  HK height rail for a more rigid upper receiver
•  Optimized Personal Defense Weapon.
•  Increased reliability due to included HATEBRAKE™
•  Optimized for low flash signature
•  Military tested Rapid Deploying PDW stock

SPECIFICATIONS:

• CALIBERS 5.56 NATO, .300 BLK, 7.62x39mm
• BARREL LENGTH 5.5” / 139.7 mm
• MUZZLE VELOCITY 5.56 NATO, 62gr: 1965 FPS avg. 7.62×39, 124gr: 1675 FPS avg.
• FINISH Urban Grey Hard Anodizing
• OVERALL LENGTH 18.75” / 476.25 mm
• WEIGHT (EMPTY) 5.9 lbs / 2.68 kg
• MUZZLE DEVICE Maxim Defense HATEBRAKE™ Muzzle Booster
• CONFIGURATIONS SCW™ stock system, SCW Pistol
• TRIGGER ALG Combat Trigger (ACT)

Magazines: Each PDX ships with one 20rd magazine (7.62x39mm 20rd CPD mags, 5.56NATO 20rd DHL, .300BLK 20 rd Lancer Systems)

Learn more here.

Always Be Prepared from MAXIM DEFENSE on Vimeo.

[Ed: This timely article first appeared August 1 on TheTruthAboutGuns.com. Dr. Faria excerpted it from his latest book, America, Guns, and Freedom: A Journey Into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements (2019).

During the 20th century, more than 100 million people were exterminated by their own repressive governments, police states bent on destroying liberty and building communism, socialism, collectivism, and other worker utopias that turned out to be hells on Earth.

The myths that the public health establishment peddles — guns increase violent crime, and America is more violent than other nations — have been easily rebutted by numerous investigators who have exposed the phony statistics and biased selection data.  Not to mention the fact that more unarmed people during the twentieth century have been exterminated by their own totalitarian governments than by war.

It has also become clear that guns save lives and that draconian gun control laws have almost always preceded genocide or mass murder of the people in what Professor Rummel called democide.

As David Kopel has pointed out, Japan may have a low crime rate, but citizens live in a virtual authoritarian state where the police keep full dossiers on every citizen, and “twice a year, each Japanese homeowner gets a visit from the local police to update files” on every aspect of the citizen’s home life.

Switzerland, on the other hand, a small, landlocked country, stood up against the Nazi threat during World War II because each and every male was an armed and free citizen. (The Swiss republic was the “Sister‑Republick” that the American Founding Fathers admired.)

Nazi Germany could have overwhelmed Switzerland, but the price was deemed too steep for the German high command. Instead, the Nazi juggernaut trampled over Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, and other countries, and avoided the armed Swiss nation, the “porcupine,” which was prepared for war and its military was ready to die rather than surrender.

As to what an armed population, such as those of the original 13 American colonies, did to obtain their independence is a well‑known story. Suffice to say, that the shot heard round the world was precipitated when the British attempted to seize the arms depot at Concord and disarm the American militia at Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts.

As to what an armed population can do to prevent the overthrow of their government by oppressive, communist movements, I recommend Larry Pratt’s excellent little tome, Armed People Victorious. Pratt is Executive Director Emeritus of Gun Owners of America.

Armed People Victorious vividly recounts stories of how two countries, teetering on the brink of disaster and as dissimilar as Guatemala and the Philippines, turned defeat into victory when the governments recognized that allowing and encouraging the people to form armed militias to protect themselves, their families, and their villages from communist insurgents in the 1980s, helped to preserve their freedom.

Why is this so important to ordinary Americans? First, because we are all citizens with rights as well as civic duties. We should understand the historical importance of attaining freedom and the constitutional necessity of preserving it.

Public health officials and researchers of “gun violence” have an obligation to reach their conclusions based on objective data, historical experience and scientific information, rather than ideology, emotionalism, expediency, or partisan politics. After all, the lessons of history sagaciously reveal that whenever and wherever science and medicine have been subordinated to the state — and individual freedom has been crushed by tyranny — the results for medical science, public health and society at large, have been as perverse as they have been disastrous.

The barbarity of Nazi doctors and Soviet and Cuban psychiatrists have amply demonstrated this. Beyond the abolition of freedom and dignity, the perversion of science and medicine becomes a vehicle for the imposition of slavery and totalitarianism.

Governments that trust their citizens with guns are governments that sustain and affirm individual freedom. Governments that do not trust their citizens with firearms tend to be despotic and tyrannical in time.

.

.

—  Miguel A. Faria, Jr, MD is a retired professor of Neurosurgery and  Medical History at Mercer University School of Medicine. He founded Hacienda Publishing and is Associate Editor in Chief in Neuropsychiatry and World Affairs of Surgical Neurology International. He served on the CDC’s Injury Research Grant Review Committee.

All DRGO articles by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD