On the competition range shooting a building clearing stage
will get your heart started. There’s a
lot of information on room clearance and building searches. The entire spectrum of knowledge and
experience is available. The question
important to you is what’s real or phoney?
What’s an informed opinion and what’s some troll with too much time on
his hands?
Here are a few examples.
I’m not saying any of them are good or bad.
Room and building clearance can be an interesting and
exciting academic activity as long as nobody is shooting at you. It is one aspect of what I refer to as the ”thinking
person’s shooting sport.”
In a real situation it’s a good way of getting shot or
killed and requires training and experience.
Utilizing a team and body armor would not be out of place
Let’s define two terms.
The first is ensconced.
It means in place, secure, snuggled in.
The second is its opposite. The
best I can find is mobile, exposed, constantly on the move.
Building searches could be defined as a mobile person
looking for the ensconced person. Let’s
flip the paradigm on its head. You’re
the ensconced good guy defending yourself in the building against deadly invaders. Isn’t that plot to “Home Alone”?
The advantage is yours.
You’re going to nullify the next person through the door. You might have a fallback position for the
next encounter or maybe you have a buddy to act in your behalf making a trap
even more lethal.
Let’s set the paradigm back on its feet. What’s our real concern? That you might have to search a building for
one or more ensconced invaders who will unhesitatingly use deadly force to avoid
capture. If they planned in advance or
are graduates of one of our universities of higher criminal learning, they will
seek a hiding place what gives then the advantage over anyone who comes into
range.
The professionals who train civilians tell me “Don’t do
it.” But they admit if it’s your spouse,
your child, your parent in the building, you’re probably going in. To this they add: “Do it the least stupid way possible, and
speed kills.”
If you can’t take a class there are a few options but the
first thing to remember is even among professionals there are differences in
opinion and their tactics will be shaped from their experience.
For example:
Distinctive hats or ball caps for members going in? The funny silhouette from the hat marks then
as cops to both good and bad guys. Of
course bad guys are going to shot anyone coming in the door. But it may help cop A to be recognized by cop
B.
Rifle muzzles up or down when stacking outside a door?
Rifles or pistols as primary weapon? Or is it mixed?
How many people stacked outside a door?
How do you exit the room/area you just cleared?
One book I like is:
Excellent graphics to explain the mechanics of entering and
sweeping a room or area, but still it’s just a primer. Once you get the basics down you need expand
your understanding and experience.
Here's a building from the outside. What can you tell from this view?
 |
| You must be able to 'read' a building or room and extract all the possible information |
The door position makes it corner fed so the majority of the
room is to the left.
The hinges tell you the door opens outward and to your
left.
Taking a few seconds to move around it will confirm that it
is a garage and doesn’t have any windows and that the garage door is down. The absence of an overhead electric line
feeding the garage doesn’t eliminate the possiblity of internal lights. You could also assume it’s one big room or several
small rooms. Not much help, right? Is there enough room for an attic? So, is there a car in there? Is it running? Are the room lights on or off? Is it empty of full of obstacles?
Most important: Are there people in the garage who would
kill you and if so, how many?
You’ll never see an illustration that matches what could be
in that garage.
Here’s a second one.
You’re in some kind of room.
There a hallway to your left. A
doorway with the door closed in front of you and what looks like a doorway with
the door off on the right.
What do you know? Not
a lot. It looks like a scientific area,
maybe a lab or classroom. There are blinds on the one door. Is someone watching you? Could you peak in and find out more or will
your shadow against the glass and blinds trigger an outpouring of gunfire. You don’t see any hinges and there’s a push
plate on the right of the door. The door
jamb also tells you it opens in.
Are there back doors?
Maybe a false wall and pipe chase that people could use to leave, enter
or flank you? What’s in the door-less
room? There appears to be something big and
gray preventing easy access to opening.
The hallway seems to open up behind the room with closed
door. How deep is that room? Is the hallway a trap? Will someone step out with their hands up and
get you to move forward to one pre-selected spot where a second shooter opens
up blindly through the wall board? Or
will several shooters wait till you’re just about at the end of the hallway
before they lean around the wall and open up?
Moving through the hallway as fast as possible might be an
excellent idea. But I’ve also played the
role of the ensconced shooter waiting for a team, and I’ve got to tell you,
time weighs heavy on you. You want to
get this done and get going. Hiding
spaces are cramped and you want to move to a different location. Maybe you give up your position and move closer
to the person searching for you because you want it over. You’ll make mistakes. Peak out and get seen or move to a place of
less tactical importance. Frankly, if
there’s was a second way out I would have been gone after the first five
minutes.
A lot of questions to answer, some of which I didn’t think
to ask. A thinking person’s shooting
sport, I told you.
You want to learn room clearance? Take a course. Read, study other people’s ideas, draw
diagrams, look at your church, office, school and other building and ask where
you would hide and how you would clear it.
Then go play hide and seek games with your kid or gun range buddy.
You’ll probably unlearn more stuff then you learn. That’s the real path to knowledge.
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