One of the things I learned (in events of the type I posted above), and my compadres learned as well, is in a knife (or club/brick/bottle) attack there is a range at which trying to draw a gun is simply the wrong response -- the gun is no longer the immediate answer, you have to deal directly with the knife (club...) empty-handed. (You have to fight/defend to a) not get cut/beaten/stabbed, at least not too severely, and b) get to a geometry where you can employ superior tactics, whether it's run away, draw gun and shoot, draw knife and stab, break his bones because you have that training, have made time for your buddy to come and shoot, whatever.MechAg94 wrote:The first thing that jumps to mind is seeing the cops continue to try to draw from a retention holster while the attacker closes the final few feet. After that, even if they managed to draw and fire, the person might not stop and can likely still do plenty of damage.
That distance, as others have noted, varies both with your own physical attributes, skills, and weapons, and those of your assailant(s). And having more than one assailant exponentially increases the difficulty of the problem.
ETA: The Tueller drill, as I remember reading the original article, and the types of things seen in the video, were not designed to present a fully realistic scenario -- they were in fact a drill, a training event, designed to demonstrate a specific possibility or reality, in this case that person with a knife (bottle, brick club...) can be serious threat at much greater distances than you might otherwise (without experience) imagine.
Anyone with half a brain is not going to stand 21 feet away, show you his knife, and charge (except that guy in the one episode of Justified). He's going to do his best to get within arm's length without alerting you to danger, grab you and rapidly poke a bunch of holes. The Tueller drill and its descendants is really teaching you that despite having a gun, you very well may have to deal with deadly threats without it, on very short notice. As Glockster said, this is stuff you have to learn certain methodologies and techniques for and drill yourself to execute them without thinking.