Jeff Cooper, former marine, founder of Gun Sight in Arizona was revolutionary for the firearms and gun world. He was the one who came up with the four basic safety rules. Not a lot of people know that or give him credit when do. Any GOOD instructor is always going to give credit back to the original instructor or person who came up with the doctrine they are teaching. He originally came up with keeping your finger of the trigger until your front sight is on target. He taught that your trigger is “connected to your front sight”. “Until that front sight is on target, you keep your finger off of the trigger”. With all due respect to Jeff Cooper, I believe you should always keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. Not when its on target and I’ll give a couple of examples why. Keep in mind that the brain will be going through physiological effects, such as tunnel vision and audio exclusion during these events. You’ll most likely experience an adrenaline dump during an intense and potentially life threatening situation.
- A police officer is doing a felony vehicle stop. He has to point his firearm at a subject and give commands.
- A bad guy is trying to rob you at knife point. You draw your handgun and yell commands. He gives up, drops the knife and lays on the ground due to your commands. You hold him at gun point until Police arrive.
- You’re a security guard doing vehicle patrol in the middle of the night. You witness a domestic violence situation where a husband is beating up his wife with a club in the parking lot. You intervene, draw your firearm and point it at him. You yell commands and he complies, drops the club and lays on the ground. You hold him at gun point until back up or police arrive.
These three examples of where you need to aim your firearm at somebody, but should not have your finger on the trigger. If you did have your finger on the trigger and get startled because someone yells “HEY”, your most likely going to tense up and pull the trigger.
The saying goes, “you fight like you train and train like you fight”. If you get into the bad habit at the range of putting your finger on the trigger when on target, this could cause a training scar while out in the real world and lead to an unintended result. You don’t want to sub consciously have your finger on the trigger.
In conclusion, Jeff Cooper was an amazing man. He is definitely a GOAT in the gun world. But I disagree. You don’t put your finger on the trigger when the front sight is on target, you put your finger on the trigger when you are ready to shoot.
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