Under The Gun
Fundamentals Of Handgun Disarming
   
By James Miller - 2006
DVD (75 Minutes, $39.95) & Manual (89 Pages, $12)
Available From Paladin Press

When someone points a handgun at you in anger, you have no time to hesitate.  You must do something right then to save your life.  Do the wrong thing and it is not a bruise or a lost point but a lost life.  You need to have fast, instinctive, flexible and effective responses wired in so that in that moment you can act effectively and spontaneously.  If you have to think, it is too late.

It is to this end that Jim Miller has put together a great instructional package on close quarters handgun defense, stressing simple universal actions that work from multiple reference points.  Drawing from his extensive martial arts and knife background as well 20 years of police work (with 17 of those years on a SWAT team) he has the background to authoritatively present this material.  Combining a very relaxed and straight forward presentation style with the one-two punch of seeing the training progressions in action on the DVD and then with photos and text in the book, Jim Miller has made it easy for you to learn this material!

The technical material from this DVD on handgun disarming should be easy for anyone to blend into what they already do.  Karate, Judo, Kung Fu, Arnis, Military Combatives, whatever - a practitioner of any of those arts would recognize enough of what they see here to feel comfortable with it while learning.  For the shooter interested in learning a few new tricks other aspects of the DVD will be familiar.  In this sense, Miller has made the material very accessible to a wide audience while keeping it practical.

Throughout the DVD Miller adds to his progressions elements lacking in some other handgun disarming sources.  For example, many sources show disarms yet very few show what to do immediately after the disarm or how to integrate weapons one may be carrying.  Miller addresses this in the training progressions where a student is taught to clear any malfunction caused during the disarm with a tap-roll-rack action and to access both knife and pistol in response to the handgun threat.

The final ingredient is the inclusion of training with projectile firing training guns after the students learn the basic mechanics of the disarms.  Both Airsoft (spring and gas powered) and real Glocks firing the more restricted marking rounds are introduced to demonstrate how the progressions should be initially trained.  In all of this, safety and common sense is stressed.

In addition to the DVD, I really liked the manual "Under The Gun" because it follows along with the DVD, so it is like going to school and getting professionally written notes for the course you are taking.  Overall the manual is 89 pages long with nice clear photos and written descriptions for the basic training concepts and disarming techniques from attacks to the front or rear.  While I wouldn't want to have to learn the material solely from the manual it is an ideal learning aid when used in conjunction with the DVD, and for $12 is a good deal regardless.  Plus it is just handy to have a quick reference you can take to training in your gym bag rather than having to take along your TV and DVD player.

So, bottom line - If you want to add handgun disarming skills to your bag of tricks and would like to get a great start, get Under The Gun and get training in a safe, responsible manner.  Pretty soon you will learn, just as many others have over the years, that yes - action beats reaction and you CAN survive if you act correctly and with conviction.

Under The Gun Is Available Directly From Paladin Press