What You See: Lessons From John Hearne

Your serious self-defender wants to know how to place bullets under pressure and where to place them, but much more. Legalities. How criminals select victims and how those targets can “deselect” themselves. Elements of alertness and preparedness, action and reaction. Patterns of violent crime and the scope thereof.

John Hearne’s curriculum covers it all. With thousands of hours of firearms training under his gunbelt, John has been the overall top shot at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference and many times high lawman there, not to mention teaching every year at that conference since 2001.

Recently retired from decades in Federal law enforcement, he now teaches full-time through his company, Two Pillars Training and also teaches for Tom Givens at RangeMaster.com. He learned much from the late, great William Aprill about criminal psychology and tactics and shares it with his classes. He is famous for solid analyses of the lessons of gunfights. His courses include “Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why,” among others, such as his excellent Cognitive Pistol program. John has a master’s degree in criminal justice with a focus on Research Methods.

Scientific Thinking Meets Redneck Tech

Understanding that action beats reaction and the criminal assailant often gets the first move, Hearne focuses heavily on thinking and reacting at speed. He leans heavily on Joan Vickers’ concepts as outlined in her book The Quiet Eye. Hearne says, “Vickers had SWAT cops and kids out of the Academy submit to tests with eye tracking devices. She found the more experienced knew what to look for and held their eye there longer. Her book from the sports world, Perception, Cognition and Decision Training, aligns well with the Observe, Orient, Decide, Act loop described by Colonel John Boyd. Perception, cognition and decision. Simply add ‘execute’ and you’re back to Boyd. Too many of us focus on the ‘execute’ element to the exclusion of what has to take place before that.”

When I dropped in on one of Hearne’s Cognitive Pistol classes, I noticed that some students on the same firing line were shooting at their targets, some holding theirs at gunpoint and yelling commands at it, and the rest holstered. The reason was simple: They were each getting different signals. They were watching boxes below the targets for multi-colored signal lights. One color or combination told the individual it wasn’t time to draw yet, another indicated gunpoint with commands and yet another, “Fire!” The lights, of course, were remotely controlled by instructor Hearne.

The boxes are designed and built by John, who explains, “I call it redneck tech. I seed them around the range, control them from behind the firing line, and can change them on the fly.”

Why visual signals at the targets? In the real world, the shooter’s indication to take action is what he or she sees the perpetrator doing, far more often than anything they hear him say.

“We do crawl, walk, run,” he says. “I’ll start with ‘On one light, we do this.’ We’ll scale it up pretty good by the end. In its most basic format, one light means a head shot, two lights mean a pair to the body, and three lights mean draw and challenge. That’s day one. On the second day, a fourth light might indicate leave, disengage, or find a better position. On the range, they would holster on that instruction and leave without getting the gun out.”

He adds, “Too few instructors give that option, in my opinion. They focus on what to do, but not when. Getting back to my system, we may have another set of lights, each representing a component of AOJ, and the student is not to shoot until all three are there.” AOJ refers to Ability (the power to kill, such as a deadly weapon), Opportunity (proximity allows the offender to quickly employ that power) and Jeopardy (the opponent manifests an obvious intent to kill or cripple). John may change target angles, forcing the student to constantly check their “shooting background” for good guy targets behind the bad guy targets.

The Scope of the Problem

Having taken many hours of training with Hearne, I can tell you that some of his most sobering lectures involve the likelihood of needing defensive skills, and reminding students of that likelihood is an incentive that inspires them to keep their abilities and their alertness well-tuned. Hearne notes that crime rates are under-recognized in the statistics. Many crimes go unreported, and many law enforcement agencies do not report them to the Department of Justice.

I’ve taken many hours of training from John Hearne, and so should you. You’ll likely find something within striking distance of you at his website at TwoPillarsTraining.com.