First Person Defender: Office Party Gunfight, Deconstructed

Matt is a part-time police officer and full-time firearms instructor who runs force-on-force classes himself. First Person Defender dropped him into a crowded office party where alcohol, egos and anger mix, then ran it again with a very different ending. One scenario ends without a shot. The other ends in a gunfight.

Meet Matt

Matt Mallory lives in upstate New York. He is a part-time police officer and a full-time firearms instructor, and he teaches firearms, self-defense, Taser and pepper spray classes. His background started with firearms as a kid, then the Army, then law enforcement. He carries every day so he can protect his family and himself and make it home to them.

He is also a force-on-force trainer who certifies other people, and that is exactly why the show wanted him. Putting an experienced instructor on camera takes nerve, because you are showing your skills in front of everyone and sometimes it does not go well. As the instructors put it, some trainers would never come on a show like this because they are not willing to make mistakes in front of an audience.

Scenario One: The Party

The setup is a social gathering with a lot of people around, some tactical considerations and decisions to make. Matt picks his spot. Almost immediately he starts managing the room: he does not want his back to the window, then he does not want to sit where the bathroom door opens onto him, then he looks at the open doors and the straight line they give anyone who walks in.

The conflict builds the way these things usually do. One guest has been running his mouth about another guest’s girlfriend. Words get hot, the angry man is told to go outside and take a breather, and he does. Matt does not take his eyes off him. A partner in the room keeps telling him not to get involved.

Through the window, the man outside is pacing. That was Matt’s cue. He decided the situation was probably going to come back around, drew his gun and used a support beam in the room to conceal himself. When the man came back in with a gun, Matt was already in position and gave loud, clear commands: get out. The man put his gun away and left. Matt never fired.

“If you overreact, you go to jail. If you underreact, you go to the grave.” — First Person Defender debrief

The Debrief: Cover, Concealment and Switching Hands

Matt’s read on how it started was simple. He was worried about the window and the doors, and he moved to a spot where he could see the room without being an easy target. The instructors credited him for not overreacting. They also noted that being on First Person Defender means everyone knows something is coming, so it is hard to relax and act natural.

The instructors looked closely at his barricade. The pole he used was concealment and not real cover, though they didn’t think the other man even noticed him. Then they got into shooting around a barricade. Matt came around the left side of it with his right hand. Should he have switched hands?

• Switching hands and eyes: If you switch hands to shoot around cover, switch eyes too. Otherwise you expose more of your head than you need to.
• Mind the slide: People who switch hands often end up with a hand behind the slide. The instructor watches for that, because slide bite is a real risk.
• When to do it: One instructor said he would only switch hands if he were pinned down and taking incoming fire. Both agreed it is a skill worth having, but neither would switch unless he had to.
• Practice before you need it: As one of them put it, the first time you try it should not be in a gunfight.

Scenario Two: Same Party, Different Night

The second run uses the same setup with a twist. Matt is calmer this time, and it shows. The same guests arrive, the same confrontation starts, and Matt keeps one eye on the conversation. The angry man is told to take a walk and a breather, and he goes outside again.

Matt had already moved away from the window and put a wall behind him. Then shots hit the building. A woman in the room fell, and the window was hit. Matt drew, told everyone to get on the ground, saw the man through the glass and fired through the window. The man then came through the door, and a gunfight broke out inside the room.

When it was over, Matt had a grazing wound to his side and the other man said he had been hit once in the hand. Matt called 911, started medical aid and reported his own injury. The instructors loved that, because many people forget to pick up the phone. They also noted how few hits either man landed, and said it shows how hard marksmanship is when tension is high and things are moving.

The instructors also had a tactical note. They had pictured Matt slicing the pie around the corner and meeting the man as he came through the door. Instead Matt laid back, and the man came in. Matt agreed on one more thing: at the end of the fight he was sucking air, and he should have started combat breathing sooner.

Key Takeaways

1. Get your back away from the glass. Matt moved away from the window before any shots came.
2. Concealment is not cover. A pole or wall that hides you does not necessarily stop a bullet. Know the difference before you rely on it.
3. A drawn gun can end a fight on its own. Early distance, a verbal command and a clear head ended scenario one without a shot.
4. Call 911 and report your injuries. Matt did both, and the instructors singled it out.
5. Civilians are not police. Stopping a fleeing person is a different decision from defending yourself from an active threat.
6. Train for the stress, not just the shot. Neither man landed many hits, and the instructors called the marksmanship between the two of them atrocious. Force-on-force training adds the audio exclusion, time dilation, loss of dexterity and tunnel vision you only get under pressure.

Final Thoughts

The instructors agreed that force-on-force, reality-based training is the next thing closest to a real gunfight, and hopefully you never need the real one. Matt put it well: he wants to do it again because he needs the stress and the training, and he is not afraid to go out there and potentially look stupid. Everybody is going to struggle. This is not easy. That is the point of First Person Defender.

If you have ever wondered what you would actually do in a self-defense situation, First Person Defender is looking for its next guest. Email KJ at kj@guntalk.com for more information.