What does weapon protection actually mean?

Who is a weapon carrier, and who carries their weapon with them? This is easy to answer: police, military, prison service, customs, close protection officers, security staff, guarding staff, hunters and possibly particularly at-risk persons. The large group of people who are merely gun owners usually do not carry their weapon with them – this is not legally possible either – and if they do, only to a limited extent.

In my research, which I carried out mainly in Austria – but which would most likely be similar in any country – I came across the following headlines:

• Two seriously injured: man allegedly snatched weapon from police officer
• 36-year-old snatched weapon from police officer and fired!
• Drunk woman tried to snatch weapon from police officer
• Vienna-Meidling: 17-year-old tried to snatch weapon from police officer
• Vienna-Leopoldstadt: man tried to snatch weapon from police officer
• 28-year-old tries to snatch service weapon from police officer
• And so on and so forth

A clear pattern can already be seen here. In some cases, the snatching of the weapon can be prevented, but often the reaction of the weapon carrier concerned is too slow and they cannot prevent it.

If the attacker succeeds in snatching the weapon, they pose a potentially lethal danger to themselves, the officer and the general public. In a high percentage of cases, the snatched firearm or another firearm (e.g., other officers are involved) is ultimately used. Most of these incidents end with serious injuries or deaths.

My experiences!

Based on my experience from working with authorities and special units worldwide, the topic of “weapon protection” urgently needs to be dealt with more extensively. It is a personal concern of mine to address this topic specifically and to be able to offer solutions to this problem. And believe me, it can happen to anyone who is a weapon carrier or owns weapons.

In order to deal with problems, it is important to know the circumstances and the initial situation.

Weapon snatching can arise from a wide variety of situations. It is important for training participants to know their scenarios. Of course, the individual initial situation must always be taken into account as well, for example whether it is a handgun and/or a long gun and what mission a team has (in the case of authorities); the team size and the premises also play a major role, to name just a few.

The initial situation and circumstances: Is it a direct grab at the weapon, does the grab for the weapon happen out of a scuffle or during an apprehension, standing or on the ground, what are my tasks, am I being threatened and forced to hand over the weapon, am I being attacked with a weapon, and much more.

Weapon protection means keeping control of your own weapon!

The SAMI-X PRO “Weapon Protection Program”

The training program I developed was created exclusively for a specific target group in order to learn how to protect the weapon – without prior knowledge and in a short training time. My concepts are based on modern teaching methods; low-injury yet field-tested techniques, as well as applications that can be combined both in individual operations and in a team, are the central building blocks.

The SAMI-X PRO Weapon Protection Program consists of 3 modules with 10 training hours each. Each module is self-contained in terms of topic and builds on the next. Participants learn different tactics and strategies, prevention, tasks and mission, weapon protection alone and in a team, techniques for defending against and preventing attacks on the weapon, through to techniques for the “Worst Case.” The concept behind the courses is that a trained officer/weapon carrier has already successfully trained for many such situations, has gathered experience and knowledge and knows what to do. As a result, they can react more confidently, and surprises for the officer are limited.

Losing control of your own weapon is actually the worst case that can occur. Training to prevent this is at least as important as shooting training and weapon handling. In a disarm, the weapon can be pointed at oneself and/or at other persons – and this is usually the rule.

This brief course content overview shows which topics our modules cover (handgun/long gun):

• Teaching our concepts and teaching methods
• Teaching training ideas
• Proportionality
• Legally compliant training and mandate
• Protection of those affected
• Prevention (preventing the weapon from being grabbed in and out of the holster)
• Technical fundamentals
• Weapon protection in SUL, NORTE, ready position
• Weapon handling
• Weapon position during attacks
• Apprehensions with weapon protection
• Safely holstering the weapon without using it
• Preventing disarms
• Weapon protection training standing, on the move, on the ground or against a wall
• Teaming and weapon protection
• Safe weapon transition (baton, pepper spray, long gun/handgun etc.)
• Defense against attacks from all directions (with weapon protection)
• Defense against weapon attacks (with weapon protection)
• Close Range Training
• Protection of third parties
• Restraint and control techniques
• And more

Of course, we also adapt our courses and modules individually to the requirements of the respective target group. It makes a difference whether the participants are police officers or, for example, hunters or sport shooters.

I would like to emphasize once again how important it is to address the topic of “weapon protection” in more depth. Perhaps I have sparked your interest in this topic a little or encouraged you to engage more with this issue. If you have any questions about our training modules and courses (our courses), please feel free to write to us.