Aim or Point?

   Agree Bob. Inside 15 yards it would be place the front sight on the area of center mass and you will be on target. If you have time to align the sights then you should be looking at getting away from the situation.

Bob, I'm thinking along the same lines. You do need to be ready for both, but the more distance you have the more time you have, to either aim or better, get away. As far as technique, if you have access to a copy of "No Second Place Winner" by Bill Jordan, he provides some interesting tips-nothing you couldn't sort out yourself, but he organized it well and showed how things fit together. I picked up a used copy at abebooks.com for little more than postage. (I use those guys a lot. I have a bad reading habit...)

Obviously, the best place to be in a gunfight is elsewhere. A friend of mine was on the DMZ in Korea back during the rumblings there back in '68. He had an M-16 and three thrity round magazines full of tracer. He claims his plan was if the North Koreans rolled, he was going to use the tracer to set the dry grass on fire so he could run away in the smoke. Ok, he tells it better...

Meanwhile, practice, practice, practice !

I have a very close friend (probably in his last year of life) who retired years ago as a local police sergeant, who also had to defend himself during a family altercation. (he said they were the worst kind....emotions totally out of control) He successfully survived only because he was trained well. He said there were the 2 main rules: 1: Stay out of reach to be tackled, 2: NEVER let an opponent be close enough to grab for or swat your gun. He was trained to point shoot inside a dwelling or if someone makes it inside 1. or 2., by holding the gun close to the body, then extending the arms toward the opponent, while squeezing the trigger. He said he was told that's a natural motion you have an instinct for....that's what point and shoot means.....BUT he also said to get your head down in line with the weapon if possible with a quick slight squat....for two reasons....makes the point-line at eye (and brain) level, and second "usually" makes you a smaller target.....

We went out shooting together years ago where he demonstrated.....very impressive.....not surprised he survived and the perp didn't. Three quick pops...two to the chest and one to the head on the target in two seconds. (something he practiced every week, and no I am not nearly as fast or accurate...but I've gotten better)  I think I have the details right, but it's been years....

    Since we are on this subject of sights and sight picture. I've found that those that have the tree dot system seem to do good when getting on target quicker than a plane front blade and notched rear whether adjustable or fixed. This is from my own time at the range. Oh this is rapid fire on target. If I'm going for tight groups then it's slow fire and lining the sights up as precise as I can get. Now I hope to get to the range to get my 41mag dialed in as I have a red dot on it.

My only suggestion is to make sure you're practicing with both your dominant and weak hands. Since a health issue a decade or so back, I've devoted at least one magazine or cylinderful to left hand practice. Not enough, but better than I had previously been doing.