Personal Protection Minute: Suppression Fire
As I engaged in my daily ritual of surveying the blogosphere for stories of interest in my areas of expertise - Firearm Safety and Personal Protection - I came across a widely discussed story about a recent shooting in St. Louis.
In that story, it was alleged by local law enforcement that an officer was engaged in a gun fight with an armed attacker who initiated the conflict. The armed man, Vonderrit Myers Jr., died from his injuries.
The family of the decedent are disputing law enforcement's version of the story. They allege that Meyers did not own a firearm and that the number of times that the officer discharged his firearm - a reported 17 times - was excessive.
The officer's attorney explained away the high number of discharges by alleging that officer was at a tactical disadvantage due to Myers shooting from higher ground. Further, it was explained that "part of those rounds were suppression rounds to try to get the suspect to stop shooting at him."
Suppressive Fire is defined by NATO as “the application of fire, coordinated with the maneuver of forces, to destroy, neutralize or suppress the enemy.” Obviously, the practice is a military tactic.
As a personal protection instructor, I do not advise using tactics such as suppressive fire due to the simple fact that the shooter is discharging his firearm without a proper sight picture. Discharged bullets pose a safety hazard for anyone in the general area as they can travel great distances.
Suppressive fire, in theory, is a tactic that makes sense on the battle field. In that environment, anyone in the direction of live fire is probably a "good" and valid target. That assumption does not apply on the streets of densely populated city.
In the aforementioned incident, no one was injured other than the alleged gunman. I doubt that the involved officer will face repercussions for using suppressive fire. His fate will be solely determined by whether he was justified in using lethal force. However, let this post be a warning to law abiding citizens who are engaged in a self-defense incident to not blindly discharge their firearms in the direction of their attackers.
Bullets do not have names on them. If you discharge your firearm in self-defense which results with either an innocent being injured or killed, you will face serious and dire consequences.
For more info on the subjects of Firearm Safety and Personal Protection, visit our blog on the Internet - Legally Armed In Detroit - at address:http://www.legallyarmedindetroit.com
About The Author
Rick Ector is a National Rifle Association credentialed Firearms Trainer, who provides Michigan CCW Class training in Detroit for students at his firearms school - Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit. Ector is a recognized expert in firearm safety and has been featured extensively in the national and local media: Associated Press, UPI, NRAnews, Guns Digest, Tactical-Life, The Truth About Guns, The Politics Daily, Fox News Detroit, The Detroit News, The Detroit Examiner, WJLB, WGPR, and the UrbanShooterPodcast.
For more info about free shooting lessons for women and Michigan CCW Classes, please contact:
Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit
Web: http://www.detroitccw.com.
Email: info@detroitccw.com
Phone: 313.733.7404
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