Shooters vs Operators: Know the Difference

Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” I’m not interested in labeling anyone a bug here, but I did want to offer a few thoughts about real-world tactical preparedness. 

But first of all, a story. Once upon a time, there was a Delta operator and he went into a competitive shooting match and some kid smoked him and he was pissed because he's a good shooter and he's extremely competitive. Don’t worry. He didn’t take it out on the kid. He cooled off and went back to work. 

As a Delta operator, his job involved so much more than hitting non-human targets. And that’s what I want to address. You can be the best shooter in the world, and competition shooters are the best shooters in the world, and still put yourself and others at risk in a tactical scenario. So I’m delving into a bit of realism here because I care, not because I don’t admire highly-skilled shooters. Competitive shooters are forces for good, no doubt.

Shooters vs Operators

A Shooter's Skill Set

As I mentioned, competitive, highly-skilled shooters specialize in a very difficult skill to master. If you've ever seen a shooting competition or been involved with one, you have an idea of just how many hours and rounds are involved in hitting targets fast and accurately. 

So in addition to the foundational skills of mastering particular firearms and knowing how to hit targets without fail, highly-skilled shooters need to develop, master, and refine a whole list of disciplines.

- Transitions

- Target acquisition

- Reloads

- Precision draw

- Precise presentation

- Precision shooting at various distances

- The discipline to refine, refine, refine until they're shooting nickels and dimes on fence posts.

So I don’t want to downplay the tremendous skill involved in becoming an expert competitive shooter. Mastering transitions, reloads, speed, and accuracy certainly give you an advantage against other shooters. 

The competitive shooting community is the reason we defenders are able to refine our skills and increase our chances of winning the day. One of the key questions, though, is how to get to the right target at the right time with the upper hand over your enemy so you can pull that trigger with very little resistance. This is the job of the operator.

An Operator’s Skill Set

Operators, especially that Delta guy or any of the other special operators out there, are highly trained in 100 or more categories of the tactical life. These multiple areas of mastery have become instinctive to them through specialized training and battlefield experience and they know how to apply that knowledge in countless life-and-death scenarios to achieve desired results—Every. Single. Time. 

Their business is killing bad guys, and business is good. They are Renaissance Men of lethality. A well-rounded approach to the tactical disciplines should be the aspiration of defenders. Because, while shooting is extremely important, if you took a really good shooter and dropped them in a special operations team, they would be an utterly devastating liability. 

In order to begin rising to the level of an operator, even the amazing Instagram shooter would need to go to basic training and learn foundational combat skills and then continue to build on those capacities, and many others, toward absolute mastery. 

So it’s important to know raid and ambush tactics, vehicle patrol, reaction tactics, and signal communications to coordinate with team members, other forces, and leadership. An operator needs to know medical skills, mission planning, and planning for when things go bad. And that’s just the beginning:

- Land navigation

- Explosives

- Breaching

- Multiple weapons systems

- Reconnaissance, surveillance, and counter surveillance

- Low-light fighting

- Airborne and waterborne missions

- Pain management

- Physical and emotional endurance

- Tenacity

At the end of the day, do you have the capacity to endure terrible situations and still deliver consistent results with ferocity despite unforeseen obstacles and variables trying to shut you and your team down. And yes. A significant part of that is weapons mastery, speed, and accuracy. But this is life or death. 

So if you’ve got the fast and accurate skills down with your gun and you're a lightning fast shooter,, continue building—with multiple systems perhaps—and add to that some of these other skills. Consult with subject matter experts. Get good tactical instruction and training. And as always, Train Hard. Train Smart. Live Free.