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Personal Defense: The 21-Foot Rule: Why Is It Important?
[NRA Shooting Illustrated] In 1983, an article written by a Salt Lake City police officer named Dennis Tueller was published in a law enforcement journal. The article was titled "How Close is too Close?" It dealt with the premise of a man armed with a holstered handgun defending against a man armed with a striking or stabbing instrument. Through experimentation, Tueller developed what became known as the "21-Foot Rule," which concluded if a bad guy armed with a knife or a club was within 21 feet of you, the reasonable conclusion would be you were within his danger zone. In other words, the bad guy could cover 21 feet in about 1.5 seconds‐before you could draw your handgun and neutralize the threat.Two important things occurred as a result of Tueller’s observation and the resulting article. As trainers became aware of Tueller’s postulate, various drills appeared that were designed to replicate this 7-yard assault. The cumulative result of trainers and students practicing these drills, talking about them and writing about them was a tactical axiom: If an armed individual was within 21 feet of you, you would be justified in shooting to defend yourself. According to Dave Starin, retired SWAT officer and former director of training at Gunsite Academy, "It changed many agencies use-of-force policies and training programs and has also been used for decades in use-of-force reviews and court cases." Posted by: Besoeker 2017-10-20 |
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