BIRDS OF PREY - Jeffersonian

less innocent people are under fire
and you have sworn an oath to protect
them — “minimum” training and practice
is not enough. Andy Brown had
taken his oath so seriously he bought
the closest gun he could afford to the
relatively expensive Government-issue
Beretta, simply to practice with on his
own time, at his own expense. Anyone
who doubts this dedication on the
part of this individual member of the
United States Air Force to serve those
within the mantle of protection went
above and beyond the call of duty, is
probably too clueless to enter a discussion
of the matter.
Even the staunchest advocates of unaimed
“point shooting” agree at longer
distances, the sights must be used if
you expect to deliver a fight-stopping
hit with a handgun. Andy Brown did
so, and proved the validity of “focus on
your front sight” as the tactic that will
win such a fight.
Andy’s experience highlights a fundamental
principle of surviving any
life-threatening experience: focus on
the task, not the goal. Seeing a deadly,
well-armed killer shooting at him 70
yards away, a distance he perceived as
half that or even closer, Andy didn’t
think “Oh, my God, I gotta somehow
survive!” No, he thought about
focusing on his front sight and carefully
pressed his trigger straight back,
and he hit his opponent with two out
of four shots at a distance many would
consider “out of range” … and he
killed the killer and stopped the mass
murders. Starting with a 75-round magazine
in his rifle, Mellberg had already
shot 27 people at the time Andy Brown
stopped him with a bullet literally
between the eyes. Andy remembers
now, “There were 19 rounds left in his
gun at the time he went down. It made
me feel good I stopped him before he
took any more victims.”
Bottom Line
You can hear Andy Brown talk about
it himself on Episode 033 of the Pro-
Arms Podcast, downloadable from
iTunes, Zune, or http://proarms.podbean.com.
He graciously allowed us to
tape and broadcast it when he took an
LFI-I class (where he shot damn well,
by the way). Andy is licensed of course
to carry a gun, and does so. A tall man
with long fingers, he finds a SIG P226
9mm to conceal adequately for him,
and to fit his hand better than the M9 he
used in the service.
You might find it useful to hear him
speak of that day in his own words. I
for one consider Andy Brown to be a
genuine American hero. So, I suspect,
will you after you hear his story.
All of us fantasize about being a genuine
American hero. But only someone
like Andy Brown can tell you
how much it might cost.
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