I couldn’t agree with Instructor Zero more: simply turning your head to scan for a threat or threats after a defensive gun use is stupid. While it’s vital to break eye contact with gore (to avoid tunnel vision), the key to survival is movement. That doesn’t stop being true just because you stopped a single threat. Cover! Concealment! Escape! Move the friendlies! GO! All of which means practicing scanning while standing still is gonna leave one bad ass training scar. I also like Zero’s elbow up technique; where the elbow leads the body follows. Or something like that. As for him lasering his entire class, Safety Sally says he could have made the same points aiming his gun at the side of the range. Who’s gonna tell him? You? Now, here’s some feedback from someone who’s been there, done that for real . . .

Jon Wayne Taylor writes:

So long story short, most of the stuff he is talking about is good. Really great points I think. But he is covering into darkness. That is, he is stepping back to cover, where he can’t see. This has some serious negatives, the most significant of which is that it has him facing a direction other than the one his gun is pointing. That, combined with stepping where you can’t see, is putting him in danger of falling, or having his weapon taken from him, or firing in a direction he cannot see. (Never point your gun at anything you don’t want to destroy, remember?)

There are times you will have to do this, such as when barriers prevent you from covering forward, but it is not what you should train to do as your standard cover/cross and cover. Instead, he should be stepping forward, where he can see, then stepping across and turning. That way, he moves off the line where he fired, and he only steps into an area that he has already cleared and is observing.So, as a right handed shooter in an isosceles stance, he is stepping back with his right foot to 5 or 6 o’ clock position.

Instead, step forward with your right foot to the 11o’clock position, turn to look what was behind you, then step over with your left foot to what would have been your original 3 o’clock position to return to your isosceles stance. You will only step where you can see, and you will have your face and body turned in the same direction as your gun.