Alright TDC - Since you asked so nicely, I'll play one more time. You asked about the use of cover and how it relates to using a holster safely. Here goes:
In order to achieve the highest probability of safety, when approaching low cover, with your firearm holstered, you should:
A - Draw the firearm BEFORE kneeling behind the cover
B - Kneel behind the cover and THEN draw your firearm
C - It doesn't matter, do whatever is fastest
Best practices in holster training says the answer is always A. Some would argue get behind that cover first cause the bad guy is shooting at you. However holster instructors will point out the fact that if a bad guy is shooting at you, you are in a high stress situation and bad things are far more likely to happen in high stress situations. You can forget things like ACTS and PROVE and this can have serious consequences.
If you had kneeled and then drawn, there is a high probability that at least one of your legs is forward of the gun and holster - this is simple body mechanics, one of your knees is forward of your waist. If you were to hit the trigger in that draw, you could easily shoot yourself in the leg. So the best practice is to reduce/eliminate that risk by teaching shooters to draw BEFORE they kneel and not the other way around.
Now you are no doubt going to say that if you had just followed ACTS and PROVE it would accomplish the same thing so the training is unnecessary (I read your mind there, didn't I). And your holster instructor is going to agree with you and then point out that we just said this was a high stress situation and that you are human and capable of making a mistake and that only a total phukking idiot doesn't stack the deck in his favour when possible (I'll assume you agree with this). Adopting this best practice reduces risk and the probability that you will accidentally shoot yourself so why wouldn't you do it?
Further to this, there is a second reason why we would draw BEFORE kneeling and that is efficiency. What if a shot presents itself before you are fully behind cover? Does it not make more sense to be prepared to return fire as soon as possible? To have the firearm comfortably welded to your hand as soon as possible? We have a second benefit to this best practice, beyond the realm of safety.
Now, I'll warn you now, if you start debating this best practice, we are done. You don't get to ask me for a textbook answer (you are free to validate this with any holster instructor you know) and then say you disagree with the textbook, especially since you already admitted to not believing in holster training and you are a believer in ACTS and PROVE and this practice is simply an extension of that.
There's your example. Holster training is filled with these type of best practices that keep people from injuring themselves and others. And while some, most or even ALL of them may come down to extensions of ACTS and PROVE, using a holster introduces so many more things to think about, it only makes sense to focus on reducing risk and complexity. Of course, the training then advances to making these actions smooth and unconsciously competent.
Given your 150+ hours of training I would have thought this would be very obvious to you. Am I wrong?
I love CGN!
