imported post
You do have to use common sense. However, when the choices are to die or fire through a purse, I it my considered opinion that firing through the purse is more than acceptable.
Would you want to fire through a purse at an attacker 10 feet away? Of course not. But if he's standing directly in front of you with a knife and demanding the keys to your car, wallet, etc. OR he's approaching and you don't have time to get the weapon out, OR he's "on" you and you manage to get your hand to the weapon......It is entirely acceptable to fire through teh purse to save your own life.
The possibilities of an obstruction or of deflection are valid but the consequences of not firing because the weapon isn't fully drawn, in some situations, are far worse that the possible consequences of not firing.
To properly carry a firearm in a purse one should be using a purse designed for such use. These almost universally provide a separate section for the weapon to ensure that it is not exposed to the detrius found within womens purses, that nothing manages to lodge in the barrel, etc. My wifes holster purse places the firearm in the center of the purse within it's own dedicated section and is designed so that there is nothing between the barrel and widewall of the purse. Firing the weapon (which is the S&W 642 by the way), while not optimal, will provide sufficient accuracy and impact to put a round into an assailant.
What are the odds of finding oneself in such a situation? Miniscule at worst. On the other hand, how many of us train (and train and train and train) for the situations which have a very low probability of occurring? I would posit that every one of us who trains is training for a very unlikely situation. How many of us who run through mental drills of "what ifs" are considering situations that simply are not going to happen to us simply due to the law of averages? Again, I would posit that almost everyone who does such mental drills will never be in such a situation.
The reason for firing through the purse (which I suggested) was not to be able to hit the target 10 yards away but rather to get the feel for changes in impact location, recoil, the strangeness of not having the weapon at arms length, etc. The changes in impact not because of going through the purse material but becuase of the differences in "aiming" the weapon. For anyone who has done any "weak side" training I'm sure you noticed a distinct difference from strong side training. It's much like practicing to fire around the corner of a wall or other cover or concealment....firing around a cornerto your left allows use of strong side elements with which you're familiar while encountering the obstacle of the corner yet changing the corner to your right changes EVERYTHING. You're now holding the weapon in your left hand, trying to put it around the corner and sight with your left eye, and absolutely nothing feels the same. I would guess that not many defensive shooters have done any training in shooting around a corner..... if you have a wall between you and an attacker skedaddle....... but for those of us who have trained in these situations, being familiar with "non standard" situations can mean the difference between life and death.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with training for the possibility of firing through a holster for a close in (as in contact or very nearly contact) encounter. In a real situation, obviously it's much more advantageous if you can get the weapon fully deployed but sometimes you just don't have the opportunity. Yes it's rare, as I mentioned above, but so are all the other encounters that those of us who train for them may encounter.
Remember this. Train like you fight, fight like you train. I say this because there are documented cases of training methods having caused the death of people defending themselves because they reverted to training methods which were not realistic when tehy encountered a high stress shooting situation. One particular case that really demonstrates the point is a Calif Highway Patrolman who was shot to death by a suspect after running out of ammunition. Having emptied his revolver he began to reload. The suspect closed on the officers position of cover (behind his vehicle) and engaged at point blank range before the officer could reload. The TRAINING FAILURE was that as the officer removed his spent rounds he was neatly stacking them in a line as he had been trained to do on the practice range. The speedloader that he had never made it to his cylinder and so his weapon was not reloaded in time to defend himself. Had he not been standing his empty casings and lining them up, his speedloader would have already been in the weapon and he would have at least had a chance to re engage the perpetrator.
The CHP changed it's training as a result of that incident and insisted that officers dump their empties rapidly and haphazardly onto the ground and get their next set of rounds into battery.
I stand by my original premise to sacrifice a purse for the purpose of training.
