From Fitzroy's Private Diary (Extract 12)

I have been shot on three occasions. In one instance, I deliberately took a bullet for someone else and I did not expect to survive. On another, I had little choice but to run across a line of fire, a worse fate awaited me if I tarried and finally, I have been shot due to my own miscalculation. In the latter case, I did manage to present a sufficiently small target when I realised what was about to occur, so that the damage was minimal.

My advice to my trainees is simple: don’t get shot. However, if it is going to happen, there are a few measures you can take to minimise the damage.

Firstly, if you are idiotic enough to let someone get close enough to put a gun to your head, to your back or to your chest, you react immediately. You don’t wait to see when and how they will shoot you. You never, and I repeat never, get down on your knees in the execution position. If you do you are dead. Close to, if your hands are free, you swat the gun away, followed by an appropriate manoeuvre. Even if you end up in a tussle for the gun, it is better than being on your knees. If there are other assailants, you obviously position the body of your attacker between you and them. Be aware this is not enough to save you from all bullets, but at the very least, most enemies will hesitate before shooting their colleague. This again gives you further time to assess the situation and respond.

Never be afraid of a man with a gun. The only part you have to fear is the part that the bullet exits. You always have the chance of rushing at a man and dropping to catch him at his knees and bring him down. This is not, even for an amateur, a first reaction, as it is obviously not without significant risk.

The point is that in the majority of situations where you face a gunman in close quarters, it is necessary to react rather than submit. In our profession submission always accelerates our own morality.

If you are turning to get a gun away from your back, you turn in the way that pushes the gun furthest away from you - i.e. if the shooter is right handed then you turn to the right, so the barrel is angled past you. Above all, reacting is the last thing a gunman expects you to do when he has you cornered.

Always run from a shotgun. Every pace between yourself and it heightens your chance of survival. If you must flee when a gun is aimed at you, present the smallest target possible.

Someone once asked me if being shot hurt. I stood heavily on his foot and asked if that hurt. A little unkind perhaps, as generally when one is first shot one feels nothing, it is only later the pain kicks in. Also, contrary to popular belief, being shot does not make you fall over. Make the best use of the initial lack of pain and the ability to still move and you will increase your chances of surviving.

 Once you have experienced being shot, it depends entirely on your personality how you react to a gun being drawn on you again. My reaction is typically to swear loudly and attempt to take down my assailant, empowered by my distaste of people who have shot at me in the past (successfully or not). In other words, drawing a gun on me only raises my ire - something for my enemies to consider. I am, in general, of such a choleric personality that even while enraged I have trained myself to think logically.