Prepare for Teams of Terrorists, Says Gabe Suarez
Gabe Suarez is a no-holds-barred, full-throated, say-what-he-thinks, blunt, honest, speaking-to-the-point firearms and self-defense expert with decades of experience in martial arts and law enforcement, including being a SWAT sniper and assaulter. He was awarded the Police Medal of Valor for a gunfight against three armed robbery-homicide suspects and he’s the founder and trainer of Suarez Tactics, a training and consulting organization focused solely on developing the art of tactics and gunfighting. His YouTube channel is @suareztactics.
On his Patreon site, he’s written the forceful article, You and the Terrorist(s). With his permission, and because it has application for church security teams, we have summarized the article below (but you’ll want to subscribe to his Patreon site, read the full article there, and learn from all the site’s insightful self-defense content). As Gabe Suarez says, “We teach good guys how to prevail against the bad guys. Whether facing a common robber or a terrorist bent on mass murder, we teach you the skills to defeat them, and as well to live a life of excellence.”
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He begins by pointing to John Lott’s research paper, Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police?, in accepting the fact that private citizens defeat active shooters to a greater degree and with better results—collectively—than law enforcement.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, A List of Active Killer Incidents at Houses of Worship and Religious Schools ]
Mr. Suarez stresses that, in today’s anarchistic world requiring the need of heightened self-defense, “we are not looking for a lone wolf terrorist, nor a drugged up psychiatric patient, but rather—as Sarah Adams notes—a well trained and dedicated terrorist known as a ‘Fedayeen’ (Arabic: ‘those who sacrifice themselves’).” He compares this combatant to the Kamikaze of WW2. He says, “Their goal is to kill as many Americans as possible and to die ‘gloriously’ in the process.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Chart: The Spectrum of Potential Threat Personas in Self-Defense and Church Security ]
He says the idea of training to only defend against a lone attacker is unrealistic: “I see that perspective as ‘preparing for the last war,’ rather than the one we will be facing.” Instead, he says we must prepare for attacks by a trained team of three or four shooters rather than “an emotionally disturbed teenager with his dad’s rifle;” assaults modeled after the Mumbai Terror Event where teams of shooters owned the city of Mumbai for three days (see the videos below).
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Terrorists Call for Attacks on Christians ]
He lists the tactics that the self-defender or church security team must equip themselves for:
1) You will be faced with multiple killers intent on mass murder and multiple simultaneous terror events. Expect the possible use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), long guns, and other weapons.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Discreet Body Armor for Self-Defense and Church Security ]
2). You will have little or no time to prepare or retrieve your own stash of weapons; you must fight with what you brought with you and have on you.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Organizing, Training & Running a House of Worship Armed Congregant Security Team ]
3). You must get scary and surgically good with your handgun. “And it must be a suitable handgun to fight with, not something designed for convenient carry. You must have a minimum of 15 rounds with ancillary magazines of a higher capacity. It must be of a size that it can be shot well. There are many mini pistols that have high capacities but are not as easy to shoot as larger weapons. The trigger must be perfect. In my experience, the best triggers come on single-action pistols, or on double-action pistols on single-action. The weapon must accept an optic. This is indisputable. No matter how great you are with irons, you will be better with an optic, and hitting a face at 25 yards and beyond requires it.” [Mr. Suarez advocates targeting the head/face of terrorists to avoid the possibility of setting off a bomb vest or bullet-resistant vest the attacker might be wearing.]
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Armament Recommendations By Tom Givens, John Correia, and 6 Other Professionals ]
4). Your carry method must be as low visibility as possible and your attire to accomplish that should not get you any additional attention. The carry method should allow for instant presentation, as well as instant [and careful] recovery to holster while maintaining a grip on the weapon. You do not want to be holding a firearm when law enforcement arrives on the scene looking for terrorists.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Tactical Training for Individuals and Church Security Teams to Thwart Active Violence Incidents ]
5). Your Counter Blue On Blue strategy should be well planned and thought out…and practiced. The police are a product of their programming, training, and expectations. They have a mental image on the way to first contact. If you meet that image, the chances of being mistakenly killed are high. You avoid that by not looking like the terrorist they are responding to, and not being armed like the terrorist. Draw, engage, and recover carefully. Do not “speed holster.” Don’t linger in a low ready, holding anyone at gunpoint. [Watch Gabe’s video on this subject.]
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Review: House of Worship Firearms and Use of Force Policy ]
6). Understand your role in the event. You must act with direct action, resolute conviction, and deliberate intent. The terrorists “have condemned themselves by their actions and you are there to end them.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, FBI Ballistics Expert Explains Why the FBI Favors 9mm Ammunition ]
Subscribe to the Suarez Tactics Patreon site and read the full article here.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Team Pistol Qualification Course ]
Also see See Gabe Suarez – Collected Posts from Gun Culture 2.0 Blog.
Mumbai Terror Event
The 2008 Mumbai terror attacks (26/11) were a series of 12 coordinated, deadly strikes by 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamic terrorists from Pakistan carried out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, from November 26–29. A total of 175 people died, including nine of the attackers, and more than 300 were wounded across iconic locations, including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident, Leopold Cafe, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.
[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of TERRORISM ]
[ Read the SemperVerus article, The Biblical Case Why Every Church Needs Armed Security ]
[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Checklist: Terrorist Preoperational Surveillance Tactics ]
Read the Wikipedia articles on the following coordinated terrorist attacks:
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Counterterrorism Guide: Situational Awareness to Hinder An Attack ]
BIO: Gabe Suarez began teaching fighting skills in 1976 when he operated the Kyokushin Karate program at his local YMCA. He spent many years honing his abilities as a full contact fighter in the “strongest karate”. In 1986 he changed careers and joined the Police Department. While there he worked Single Man Night Watch Patrol, and later Crime Impact, Gang Unit and SWAT as a Sniper and as an Assaulter. He was involved in multiple critical incidents involving Active Shooter, In Progress Robberies, and Gang Homicides. In 1992 he was awarded the Police Medal of Valor for a gunfight against three armed robbery-homicide suspects.
After his police career he founded Suarez International, and traveled and consulted internationally in Europe, Central and South America, and Africa, among other places.
Suarez Tactics is designed as a training and consulting organization focused solely on developing the art of tactics and gunfighting, as well as teaching those things to our students.
The Mission of Suarez Tactics is to refine and develop the art of American Gunfighting to its highest level, and then deliver that information via training to every student. Suarez Tactics equips the “good people” to respond to and eliminate any deadly threat with skill, efficiency, and a coolness of mind.
The Vision of Suarez Tactics is to dramatically reduce the possibility of success that adversaries, whether common street robbers, terrorists, or mass killers, currently enjoy.
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