Retention Shooting: A Few Articles

 I came across an article at The Firearm Blog this weekend on retention shooting ("Concealed Carry Corner: Is Retention Shooting A Good Idea?")--that is, shooting from retention position, typically at extremely close distances to an attacker. But I didn't think it was a particularly good article. So I did some quick searching and found a few more articles on the subject that I thought were better. I was going to try and aggregate and summarize the information, but I simply don't have the time right now, so I'll just give you the links:

• "MultiBrief: The danger of retention and contact shooting"--Mike Ox. Good article.
• "Shooting from Retention"--Integrated Skills Group. This one includes some videos as well and is, overall, the most detailed of the articles.
• "Point Shooting Vs Shooting From Retention"--Sam Hoober, USA Carry. Not as detailed as the other articles, but probably because it is trying to explain the difference between two different techniques or styles rather than explain each (or either) in detail.
• "Shooting From Retention"--Richard Nance, Guns and Ammo. The basics. I like the emphasis on using the elbow of the off-hand to keep someone away. The reason for this is that it provides the opponent less leverage if he/she should grab your arm, and the elbow is good for striking at this extremely close distances. But don't be married to this type of technique: you must adapt to the situation.
• "Shooting from Retention: Why & How"--David Workman, CrossBreed Blog. Another good article on the basics.

Of course, you need to consider if you want to introduce a weapon to a particular fight, especially if you and the other combatant(s) are unarmed. There may be legal reasons--the reasonableness of using deadly force if you are tussling with someone who is unarmed--or tactical reasons--turning a punching and kicking fight into a fight for the gun which usually the larger, stronger person will win. In the time it takes you to draw a weapon, an unarmed person will probably be able to land several solid blows. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that the techniques may be more readily used in a situation where the weapon is already out, but an attacker has closed to contact distance (perhaps with the hope of turning the situation into a fight for the gun) but you want to keep them from grabbing hold of the weapon (thus the reason for the "retention" in the name).