How to Deal With Multiple Attackers

You never know who’s going to attack you. The person could be young or old, tall or short and there could be one attacker or many. However, since dirt bags often travel in packs, it’s good to know how to handle the situation if you ever encounter multiple adversaries.

And the exact situation I want to cover today, is when you have multiple people standing side by side. First off, there is no magic secret that you should shoot right to left or start shooting from left to right. What you want to do is take care of the most dangerous person first. For example, if there are three people who are threatening you and one has a gun and the other two have baseball bats, you obviously shoot the person with the gun first – no matter where he is standing in the line of three.

As soon as you isolate the most dangerous threat…

Then you move to the second most dangerous threat and so on. Also, it’s very important that you initially shoot each threat with a single shot and then move on to the next person. Since seconds count in a life and death situation, you don’t have time to take multiple shots on the first threat, then multiple shots on the second threat, because taking multiple shots may cost you your life when the other threats get to you. However, once you’re done with all the threats, then you can go back to whoever is standing and shoot more if you have too.

Take your time with each threat too. Don’t “spray and pray” and simply shoot while moving your pistol from side to side, hoping that you’ll hit each person. After the first threat has been taken care of, then move to the second one, and the third taking your time. Remember, if you shoot fast, but not accurately, then you might as well not carry a gun at all, since hits on target are all that counts.

So how you can practice dealing with multiple threats?

Well… you can set up three different targets in your house for dry fire practice. Set them up about 2 feet apart and practice shooting each one. However, don’t always go in the same order such as left to right. Shoot the middle one first, then the right, then the left and switch it around.

Once you’re comfortable, you can go do the range and set up two regular 8½ by 11 sheets of paper side by side and practice shooting them. Or, if you’re lucky enough to shoot on a farm, you can set up multiple targets on bails of hay and practice that way. (Just make sure you’re always aware of your backstop.)

Of course, I pray that you never find yourself in a deadly force situation, and that if you do, hopefully it’s just one person. But you never know in life, so it’s always better to be prepared and know how to handle multiple attackers if you should ever find yourself in that position.