Through the years I have written quite a bit about staying apart from a tactical response team perspective and from solo police officers forced together in sudden tight situations like school and church shootings, (but actually active shooter situations occur anywhere.) I won’t belabor you all with those “palace intrigue” arguments-stories over the last decades. But I will just drop a few lines here on old school military and police “Stay Apart” ideas. (Consider this a history lesson.)
In the old school army, circa 1973 I was told, in many battlefields,
“Try to stay one hand grenade blast apart.”
In the old school army, circa 1973 I was told, in many battlefields,
“Try to stay one motor blast apart.”
In the old school army, circa 1973 I was told, in many battlefields,
“Try to stay one machine gun blast apart.”
(Three quick rounds, as many militaries are taught to fire in controllable 3 round bursts. See asterisk below for a little 3-round history.)
In old school police work, we were told to
“Try and stay one shotgun blast apart.”
Of course, such times are situational, and these golden rules cannot be followed in the indoors and outdoors of rural, suburban and urban geography…OF THE WORLD! These old expressions are not used anymore, in lieu of cooler techno monikers. Many doctrines advise “keep reactionary gaps,” yet still show and dictate very tight “shoulder-touch” formations as mainstays.
*”Burst mode” or “burst fire” on old-school weaponry.
• M16A2 and M16A4: The three-round burst is most famously associated with these U.S. service rifle variants. Introduced in the 1980s, the M16A2 replaced the full-auto setting with a three-round burst to increase accuracy and conserve ammunition for less-trained soldiers (much study and info on this ). Its successor, the M16A4, also featured a burst setting.
• M4 Carbine: The original M4, the shorter and lighter variant of the M16, also included a three-round burst selector setting.
• Beretta 93R: This Italian machine pistol, produced in the late 1970s and 1980s, could fire in semi-automatic, full-auto, and a controllable three-round burst.
• Heckler & Koch MP5: This popular German submachine gun is available in variants that offer semi-automatic, three-round burst, and full-auto firing modes.
• FN FNC: Used by the Belgian armed forces, this rifle system is one of several that historically offered a three-round burst feature.
• Russian AEK-971: This rifle, which saw service with some Russian military units, features a recoil-balancing system that improves the controllability of its three-round burst mode.
• Vietnam War. The enemy used a lot of AK-47s, which did not have a 3-round burst mode. But they also used a lot of other captured and imported weapons that did.
(You can read a whole lot on the pros and cons of the 3 round burst. It’s all interesting.)
