Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Mozambique Drill

via Orygunner

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries are such that everyone can enjoy them. Gun enthusiasts can find justification and vivid material for their fantasies and gun control folks can rejoice in the fact that we don't.

I added The Mozambique Drill to the modern doctrine after hearing of an experience of a student of mine up in Mozambique when that country was abandoned. My friend was involved in the fighting that took place around the airport of Laurenco Marquez. At one point, Mike turned a corner was confronted by a terrorist carrying an AK47. The man was advancing toward him at a walk at a range of perhaps 10 paces. Mike, who was a good shot, came up with his P35 and planted two satisfactory hits, one on each side of the wishbone. He expected his adversary to drop, but nothing happened, and the man continued to close the range. At this point, our boy quite sensibly opted to go for the head and tried to do so, but he was a little bit upset by this time and mashed slightly on the trigger, catching the terrorist precisely between the collar bones and severing his spinal cord. This stopped the fight.
What's your opinion? Jeff Cooper seems to be writing to mercernaries and soldiers of fortune and American gun owners are quoting him and looking to him for advice.  Do you think that's weird? I do.

Please leave a comment.

16 comments:

  1. Whether the purpose is stopping an enemy in war, or stopping a criminal attacker on the street or in your home, the goal is the same: STOP the attack.

    There are other differences, of course, but when the direct, immediate goal is the same (survival), It would make sense to use the same technique, wouldn't it?

    ...Orygunner...

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  2. One has to understand Jeff Cooper was a virulent racist. He actually supported and trained mercenaries that supported apartheid in South Africa and what was Rhodesia.

    Like most gunloons, Cooper held beliefs of white superiority and often denigrated other races as animals or less than human.

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  3. "Jeff Cooper seems to be writing to mercernaries and soldiers of fortune and American gun owners are quoting him and looking to him for advice. Do you think that's weird? I do."

    Cooper started one of the leading civilian firearms training institutes and he himself trained many civilians. Why and how is it weird that one of the foremost civilian firearms training instructors is still looked to by civilians for firearms instruction?

    What you said is as silly as saying it's weird that people still look to Julia Child for cooking advice even though she learned many of her techniques from professional cooks.

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  4. "Like most gunloons, Cooper held beliefs of white superiority and often denigrated other races as animals or less than human."

    Do you have a source for these claims about gunowners and or Cooper?

    You do realize that if you make something up that it doesn't magically become true, right?

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  5. Anon: to say Cooper started a leading civilian firearm training institute is a bit misleading. After all, under his auspices, the Gunsite Academy was a huge financial failure.

    The fact is, since firearms are barely regulated in the US, anyone can hang out a shingle and proclaim themselves to be firearm trainers. You can, I can. My dog could.

    "Do you have a source for these claims about gunowners and or Cooper?"

    And if I do, I get what? Silence? A change of subject? Or will do the honest thing and admit I'm right? eagerly awaiting an answer.

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  6. Jade gold. Wrong on so many levels.

    Calling support for the governments of Rhodesia and South Africa in the 60's and '70's as racism is a very weak argument. It wasn't racism at the time. For most it was property rights. Rhodesia in particular had had colonial rule since the 1700's. When the Europeans settled, it was described as bereft of people. Two hundred years later african over population suddenly creates a "damaged" class that simply never existed in the past.

    Cooper was a sportsman of money. He traveled. Often spending whole seasons in Africa. He had eyes. He saw what was going on. Who was supporting the "native" peoples. Tribal vendettas like the MauMau and he foresaw the turmoil that would destroy much of Africa.

    The later reaches and excesses of apartied are unforgivable but I am sure to many, understandable when viewed clearly through history's eyes


    Cooper was also an author and a columnist. Sometimes the brash statement sells. Ask Chris Matthews or any of his ilk.

    Irregardless of Gunsites financial status (IIRC he was well separated from it when the money issues started) ones ability as a businessman vs ones ability as a professional are often it related. I know several amazing chefs who have incredible talent who can't balance a checkbook never mind a restaurant. Likewise, how many pro athletes are phenoms in skill but go broke because they can't manage money. Musicians ? Actors?

    I know several who took classes from him and each one came back in awe of his skills as an instructor and a mentor.

    He often said things in a brash way, but there is no crime in that.

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  7. Cooper supported racist, apartheid regimes. Not once, not twice but most everywhere in Africa. Rhodesia, like SA, was a minority white population dictating to a large majority black population. To do this, they denied blacks access to virtually every instution and public facility.

    In Rhodesia, the white minority had a number of opportunities to sit down and negotiate with moderate black factions. They decline and went to war instead. Cooper actively supported those regimes.

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  8. how old are you? Seriously, all of your history seems to have come from Slade or Salon.

    Both regimes were in the end blighted and rotted by positions they took.

    However blacklisting a man for having connections with them particularly early connections and judging him by today's standards is unfair

    I do not wish to stand and defend his honor but I am a firm believer in judging a man under the conditions of his day.

    If you look at the history of post colonial Africa from Kenya to Nigeria and Liberia to Uganda, Congo and others, the fear that Turning a nation over to majority rule was perhaps unwise, had some strong evidence.

    Despite what a lot of people want you to believe, much of the "native" population of RSA are imported workers as the area was almost deserted when the Dutch and Portuguese showed.

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  9. Orygunner said, "Whether the purpose is stopping an enemy in war, or stopping a criminal attacker on the street or in your home, the goal is the same: STOP the attack."

    THERE IS NO ATTACK. That's the whole point. The imminent attack is all in your head.

    Feeding sick fantasies of killing attackers is bad for you and it's bad for society. You are not making the world a safer place, quite the contrary.

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  10. Sorry to derail your antigun fantasies, Mike, but in the story Cooper related, there damned sure was an attack, and the man defended himself. Cooper simply related a very effective technique for doing so.
    Jade, are you prepared to call Robert Mugabe a racist as well? Because he sure as hell is one.

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  11. @Mikeb, "THERE IS NO ATTACK." ???

    What? I'm not sure what you mean... Are you trying to say that every one of the hundreds of thousands of defensive gun uses every year are figments of people's imagination, and the "attacker" was merely engaged in some non-violent non-criminal behavior when a gun owner flipped out for no reason?

    Or, what do you mean, there is no attack?

    ...Orygunner...

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  12. Mike. If you are really in Italy, why does this bother you so, Are you so out of touch that you believe we make up circumstances where actually touches people. Do you actually believe all crime is fantasy too, and all we need to do to be safe is wake up from our "sick,twisted fantasies"


    If this is indeed how you think, then the one person suffering the delusional fantasies would be you.

    I have had several situations where I have been forced to present my weapon to defend myself or another. The absolute last thing I ever want to do is shoot someone. The costs in money, time and perhaps life itself is something I never wish to go against. But when one interupts an assault or is threatened with a knife or gun, asking the hoodlums politely " please stop, she does not seem to enjoy having you slam her head into that curb stop, " just doesn't have the same force.

    Likewise when collecting rent and having several thousand dollars in cash and check in hand, having a twitched up couple of 'heads start waving knives and screaming for you to hand them the money, clicking my heels together three times and saying "wake up from my twisted fantasy " does not seem to work. Producing a gun and telling the to GTFO however, does work. We had a security camera capture the incident. Without my weapon my wife and kids could have seen me die in technicolor on the evening News.

    So get off your high horse and see the real world. There is a lot of ugly I'n, and I, unfortunately, have a front row seat

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  13. P, I think the responsible thing for you would be to move and change jobs. You should arrange your lifestyle so that needing a gun becomes as unlikely as possible.

    Orygunner, your hundreds of thousands of DGUs is exaggerated hype. I don't believe it. And the ones that do happen, the really legitimate and unavoidable ones, like P described, can be avoided with common sense precautions. What that leaves is the random violence that we do hear about and does exist, but it's as rare as a meteorite strike.

    The problem with all this unnecessary preparing and preaching about arming ourselves is the terrible downside. There's the continual flow into the criminal world and there's the continual cases of good guys going bad and there're the accidents.

    It adds up to a bad deal for everybody.

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  14. @Mikeb,

    You downplay the results of a dozen different studies and surveys of defensive gun uses as "exaggerated hype," you think gun control can slow the flow of guns to the streets, you think "good guys going bad" and accidents are a significant portion of the problem of "gun violence."

    It must be nice to make up your own reality, to only believe what you choose to believe, and simply disregard the facts that don't match your views.

    While it's true that people should absolutely do everything they can to avoid trouble (I certainly do), for some instances it is completely unexpected or practically unavoidable, and it's a lot more common than a meteor strike.

    ...Orygunner...

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  15. Gee mike. Amazing you can brush of real world issues with"move and seek better employment ". Doesn't work that way.

    I live in a nice suburb, essentially crime free, I work in several different areas which once were nice but because of policies introduced by folk like you are now dying neighborhoods. So we are stuck with buildings that were once worth Mllions now undeniable and the owners still have bank notes to pay.

    The physical assault I mentioned on the young woman happened in a parking ramp directly attached to the city arena. It's nearly brand new and supposed to be heavily watched and patrolled. Hard to tell a woman being brutalized that it's her fault for working at a nice building. Where there should be no crime.

    You're so misguided in your assumptions about life in the real world that I wonder what color the sky is in your world

    Please explain to me common sense precautions that I might take that would prevent me from walking back to my car from the office and finding an assault taking place.

    Please tell me how to arrange my life so that crackheads will not try to rob me in the course of doing my job.

    Obviously I am an idiot and can not possibly figure these things out for my self.

    I am quite sure you would have just walked past that young woman getting softened up for that rape and said " poor planning, Miss, read my blog when you get well for spot on guidance on organizing your life to avoid trouble". Your arrogance is astounding. Your ignorance has blinded you

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  16. P, Thanks for that last comment. You could be one of the people who really needs a gun. And my crack about moving was pretty stupid. I know how the real estate market is these days.

    You might find it hard to believe, but I don't mean to be condescending.

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