Point shooting vs Sighted fire.

Point Shooting vs. Sighted Fire, a Historical

Perspective, by Tom Givens

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Reprinted by permission of

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Among those who train in the defensive use of the handgun several debates have raged on for years. These include the “9mm vs .45” arguments, the “revolver vs autopistol” debate, and the “point shooting vs sighted fire” disagreement. In debates on any subject, one side often resorts to what is known as an “appeal to authority”, especially if they don’t have any factual basis for their

argument. An “appeal to authority” typically goes like this, “My side is right, because (insert name here) said so, or that’s the way he did it”. One of the most commonly used appeals to authority among point shooting proponents is that “William Fairbairn used point shooting and taught it to his men in Shanghai in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and during WWII taught it to American OSS operatives”. All that is true. One needs to know a bit more about the back story, however, to understand why Fairbairn used this method and why his reasons are no longer valid. First, perhaps a bit of history will help put matters into the proper perspective, so here goes. Shanghai is a port city on the coast of China. At the turn of the 20th century, European powers forced the government of China to give them control over certain ports, including Shanghai, where the Europeans built modern enclaves for their personnel, who oversaw vast trade empires with the Chinese. In addition to legitimate trade, these ports became centers for the opium trade and human trafficking. In 1936, Shanghai was one

Shanghai Municipal Police markings

on Colt 1911 pistol made in 1927

of the largest cities in the world, with a total population in excess of 3 million. Of those, only about 35,000 were European, but they controlled the city and lived in a modern settlement with race track, schools, and all the cultural amenities they desired. To keep order and protect the Europeans (mostly British, French and German) the Shanghai Municipal Police were organized and run by the British. During the period of the 1920’s and 1930’s, there was a great deal of criminal violence, fueled by opium gangs and other smugglers, gangs that specialized in prostitution and gambling, communist party organizers, and regular criminal thugs. These groups were in constant combat with the members of the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP). William E. Fairbairn joined the Royal Marines Light Infantry in 1901. A few years later he joined the Shanghai Municipal Police, where he eventually rose to the rank of Assistant Commissioner. For many years during the period of the 1920’s and 1930’s, he was in charge of all firearms training for the SMP, and also routinely went on dangerous raids and other operations. This resulted in his personal involvement in literally scores

of gunfights during his career. Working with his associate, Eric Sykes, they devised a hand to hand system known as “Defendu”, as well as a firearms training program for all SMP personnel. As World War Two loomed in the immediate future, both Fairbairn and Sykes left Shanghai and returned to England. For the duration of the war, Sykes remained in England, teaching British Commandoes and members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the British equivalent of our OSS. Fairbairn was sent here to train US and Canadian Commando forces and operatives from the Office of Strategic Services

(OSS), the forebear of the modern CIA. Together, Fairbairn and Sykes wrote a

book called Shooting to Live , first published in 1942. Paladin Press now offers a re-print of this excellent book, and it should be in the library of every history conscious gunman. One of Fairbairn’s students in the OSS was Colonel Rex

Applegate, who wrote extensively about Fairbairn’s methods, and was largely responsible for propagating Fairbairn’s teachings in the United States. Usually, if a point shooting proponent uses an appeal to authority, he will be referencing either Fairbairn, or Applegate. When one delves a bit deeper into Fairbairn’s experience in Shanghai, including reading Shooting to Live with a bit more critical eye, a number of disturbing tidbits of information emerge. First, Fairbairn had a very large force of officers who were unfamiliar with handguns when they joined the SMP and for whom he had an extremely limited amount of time and ammunition for training. Initial training was very brief, and by today’s standards

Colt 1908 Model, showing the pathetic

little sights on guns of the era.

completely and utterly inadequate. After initial training, each officer was allotted 36 rounds of ammunition per year for training and requalification, a pitiful amount by any modern standard. Initial recruit training was conducted at 2 yards and 4 yards, and the “qualification” standard was 50% or more hits anywhere on a life-size silhouette target! Not too impressive. So, how did this training regimen work on the mean streets of Shanghai? During the period 1929 through 1938, SMP officers fired a total of 3,329 pistol rounds in actual engagements with criminals. These 3,329 rounds accounted for 159 suspects killed and an additional 149 suspects wounded. Thus, the SMP officers fired 10.8 rounds for every criminal casualty they produced. The completely untrained Chinese bandits, during the

exact same period, fired 789 rounds at SMP officers, resulting in 19 officers killed and an additional 67 officers wounded. Thus, the thugs fired 9.2 rounds for every casualty produced. So, the officers trained in Fairbairn’s point shooting methods were actually less effective than their untrained criminal foes. This begs the

question, “Why did Fairbairn persist with such an ineffective technique?” I believe the answer is quite simple, and can be readily illustrated. The SMP issued all sidearms used by its officers, and because they had both European (mostly British) officers and smaller stat-1911’s in .45 and the Oriental officers, who were much smaller, were issued Colt 1908 pocket Autos in .380. All of these handguns were made by Colt in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. Fairbairn did not personally care much for the .380 Colts, but he thought they were the best he could do for Oriental men with hands far too small to operate a 1911 well. I happen to have one of the SMP’s 1911 pistols, SMP number 233. This is a commercial

Colt Government Model, manufactured in 1928. It has the “Shanghai Municipal Police” roll mark on the frame, and the Number 233 mark on the frame, slide and barrel. This is a “transitional model” 1911, with some features of the 1911 and some of the 1911-A1. The changes from 1911 to 1911-A1 configuration started in 1927 but many guns built in the next couple of years were assembled from parts on hand at the factory, and these transitional models are seen from time to time. I also have a Colt 1908 Pocket Model like the ones issued by the SMP, although this one did not belong to them. Both pistols have sights that are abysmal from a shooting point of view. The front sight is tiny- low and very narrow. The rear sight has a very small notch, on both the 1911 and 1908 pistols. These sights are all but impossible to see in anything other than perfect lighting, and it is

very difficult to line them up at any kind of speed. Contrast the sights on the 1911 and the 1908 with those on my current carry handgun, a Glock 35. Fairbairn taught point shooting because the sights on his guns were useless. No further explanation is needed. If you have sights you cannot see, you learn to point

the gun. Now that modern high visibility sights are industry standard, it’s time to leave the 1930’s behind.

The sights on the 1927 Shanghai Colt are too small to see in anything but perfect light, and are useless for fast shooting. Modern sights are bigger, blockier, and offer more contrast, allowing a flash sight picture.