I shoot IDPA, where we have some really close range targets in courses that are blazing fast. Like 6 targets, 3 rounds min each with min 1 mag reload completing under 16 seconds (for me, though that isn’t super fast).
In those close ranges I basically stop aiming with sights and point shoot. Entirely focus my eyes where I want to hit and my body just does the rest, cave man mode activated and just go go go.
From that I can believe he might not have been like “remember your arm-shooting training,” but the kid showed he processed information well, and his eyes clearly tracked the arm draw.
He assessed non-threat (hands were up for false surrender) and didn’t shoot.
When he saw weapon draw he assessed threat and shot.
If bullets go where your eyes are, it’s very believable, particularly at near point blank range.
I just went to find a replay to do frame by frame.
One-arm did his fake surrender to get close, and Kyle lowered his weapon.
Gage walked closer and was essentially on a trajectory where his body would sweep the barrel out of the way.
So while bladed and forcing Kyle’s barrel right to left, he brought his arm back around and basically right in line with the barrel.
Would have been harder to shoot center mass. He possibly just shot, but I still say his no-threat to threat transition was spot on, and to further the “trained” hypothesis, watch him after he shot Gage.
His head immediately goes back on a swivel to start assessing all the other people swarming around him.
A lot of carbine courses drill that in. You have your one target in front of you, and you train to engage and once done engaging go through the seemingly ridiculous “check right, check left” sweep anyways just to make this automatic.
Had there been another threat but Kyle focused solely on the man screaming “Medic” he could have been killed by tunnel vision.
I shoot IDPA, where we have some really close range targets in courses that are blazing fast. Like 6 targets, 3 rounds min each with min 1 mag reload completing under 16 seconds (for me, though that isn’t super fast).
In those close ranges I basically stop aiming with sights and point shoot. Entirely focus my eyes where I want to hit and my body just does the rest, cave man mode activated and just go go go.
From that I can believe he might not have been like “remember your arm-shooting training,” but the kid showed he processed information well, and his eyes clearly tracked the arm draw.
He assessed non-threat (hands were up for false surrender) and didn’t shoot.
When he saw weapon draw he assessed threat and shot.
If bullets go where your eyes are, it’s very believable, particularly at near point blank range.
I just went to find a replay to do frame by frame.
One-arm did his fake surrender to get close, and Kyle lowered his weapon.
Gage walked closer and was essentially on a trajectory where his body would sweep the barrel out of the way.
So while bladed and forcing Kyle’s barrel right to left, he brought his arm back around and basically right in line with the barrel.
Would have been harder to shoot center mass. He possibly just shot, but I still say his no-threat to threat transition was spot on, and to further the “trained” hypothesis, watch him after he shot Gage.
His head immediately goes back on a swivel to start assessing all the other people swarming around him.
A lot of carbine courses drill that in. You have your one target in front of you, and you train to engage and once done engaging go through the seemingly ridiculous “check right, check left” sweep anyways just to make this automatic.
Had there been another threat but Kyle focused solely on the man screaming “Medic” he could have been killed by tunnel vision.
The difficult thing will be that half the country has judged him a guilty white supremacist.
He’ll be acquitted, because he did the right thing and didn’t do anything wrong, but he’ll have to deal with the social stigma the rest of his life.
I fully believe this.
Watch the video of him trying to surrender to police. He didn't have the posture of a blubbering person falling apart. He was a different person.