What to do if Your Gun is Taken From You in a Fight

We talk a lot here at USA Firearm Training about how best to train and act with your concealed carry handgun, but there may be times in which your firearm is not at your side. Today we are going to take a look at one of those chance encounters. A situation that hopefully would never occur, but one that must be prepared for. What would you do in a situation where someone has attempted to take your gun from you?

How to Mentally Train Yourself

The first thing we need to understand about a situation in which your gun could be taken from you is the best way to counter the attempt in the first place. And for that, the best defense we have for countering an attempted firearm grab is the brain. If you are able to employ a highly aware mindset, firearm retention should never be an issue.

In most instances where people have had to fight for their own weapon, they can point back to a mistake they themselves made that allowed the weapon to be taken. It might be due to the fact that they were not mentally prepared and allowed someone to get too close to them and attempt to remove their weapon from a holster or it could even be when they had their weapon already in their hand, but weren't quick enough to take action, they may have it taken while already drawn.

Remember that just because your weapon is drawn and you seem ready to fire, that doesn't mean that you are ready to fire, or that the target is going to suddenly understand that you mean business. You cannot let your mindset drop even for a moment throughout the entire altercation.

As an example, a common issue we see in Law Enforcement comes when the officer fully extends the firearm toward the target when the target is too close. The assailant then can slap at the firearm, grab it, or otherwise create a fight over the gun that wouldn't have happened if the officer had developed the muscle memory to shoot in a close combat position without extending the firearm.

How to Physically Train Yourself

The physical aspects of weapon retention training for handguns come down to two different ways to maintain possession. Retaining the weapon while it is in your holster and retaining the firearm while in your hand. Now when you are carrying a firearm in a holster, you should be doing so with a holster that is of good quality and will offer you the best chance of survival. After all, we should be carrying concealed for protection and not just for a fashion statement. That is what ConcealedCarry.com thought most important when we started working with the Brave Response Holster. A holster that is going to be able to hold everything you need, while maintaining ease of use, making it tactically the best holster we could find on the market. After all, you do not want to have the tactics you use to defend your weapon to fail because you chose a poor quality belt and holster. Specifically your holster of choice should have a strong retention system. Retention systems vary significantly but do your research about how your holster will retain the firearm from an assailant's reach or desperate grab.

Now once you have a concealed carry holster of good quality, a great method to assure that you will never be disarmed while the weapon is in the holster is to KEEP YOUR FIREARM CONCEALED AT ALL TIMES. If nobody knows you have a firearm, then it is going to be a lot less likely you will have to fight for it while it is holstered.

However, even in the highly off chance that someone were to attempt to disarm you while your gun is concealed and in a holster, it is always better to be prepared and an edged weapon dedicated to defending your firearm from attack is a good second line of defense. 

Now in the event of an attack while your handgun is in the holster whether it is from the front, back, or side if someone gets their hand on your weapon while it is holstered you need to act immediately. Using your strong hand, trap the weapon in the holster by applying as much downward pressure as necessary on the person’s hand and your weapon to keep it from being removed. Then on top of the hand motion make absolutely sure to not stand still. Move rapidly in tight circles in either direction. You will find through training that depending on how and with what hand the person grabbed your weapon, turning rapidly in a certain direction while his/her hand is trapped will cause pain that will cause the attacker let go of your weapon.

At the same time, you should be using your other hand to inflict pain and injury on the attacker. Something that my dad told me is that in the event of a fight, there are no illegal moves unless you are in a ring. So in a life or death struggle, this is the time to be aiming for eyeballs or groins or using that knife that was mentioned. Whatever you do, it needs to be done immediately and with determination to maintain control of your firearm, for if you fail it could likely mean your life. (Resource: 9 Moves That Will Disable Any Attacker)

As with holster retention, having to fight for your firearm while it is in your hand can be avoided by maintaining impeccable awareness. A situation of actual hand to hand combat can be avoided altogether if you are covering someone with a firearm and not get too close or never allow the target to approach close enough to attempt a weapon grab in the first place. If however, someone does get their hands on your firearm your response needs to be immediate and decisive. Jerk sharply while stepping back from the oncoming attacker to regain control of the situation. If that fails, the best thing to do would be to drop to one knee while attempting to direct the muzzle into their midsection and fire. Dropping to one knee serves the purpose of lowering your center of gravity and getting your opponent off balance.

Where to Learn The Drills?

At USA Firearm Training a part of our mission is to create a population of well-defended, knowledgeable citizens and in order to do that more effectively, we have decided to take a step beyond just a few articles about training tips and offer our new monthly service, Guardian Nation. Here, each month we will deliver to you a series of drills to help you build key skills necessary to being a sheepdog. Each drill is presented by video to make it as easy as possible to learn and perform. In addition, you will receive drill sheets to download and print to help you run the drill wherever and whenever you wish. The first set of drills are in the membership area right now, and more will come with each coming month, in addition to plenty of other awesome add-ons, including a quarterly box.

I hope that this article gave you a little bit of assistance with what to do in the event of disarming, and if you want to know more tips and tricks, remember to check out Guardian Nation.