GC-157 The Weapon Snatcher | A Study in Mission

Pretty much everyone has seen the viral footage of a man snatching a stolen AR-15 rifle from a protester during the recent Seattle riots. However, not everyone knows this was not the first, but the second rifle the “Weapon Snatcher” took away from a rioter that day.

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Shooter Rughi

The “Weapon Snatcher”

Listen to the interview with the Weapon Snatcher by your hosts Daniel Shaw and Varg Freeborn

“Shooter Rughi” shares with us the importance of mindset, training, and core values. These are what led him to take successful action in a situation that could have gone horribly wrong.

Listen to the podcast. There’s a ton of good information in it. Below you’ll find a few excerpts. Some (by no means all) of the topics you’ll hear include:

•25:00 What he carried and why. Medical kit and skill obligations.

•26:57 Rughi’s background and experience.

•23:30 The advantage of true concealment and being the Gray Man.

•40:21 Breaking cover and the draw.

•45:30 What could have gone better?

•47:20 Looking like a good guy: how do you avoid getting shot by another good guy?

•54:30 What would you do differently?

Warning: Explicit language…F bombs ahead.

Podcast Host: Daniel Shaw

Co-Host: Varg Freeborn

Transcriptionist and Producer: Leah Ramsden

Mindset and Mission Clarity During the Seattle Riots

A lesson for your everyday thinking.

“I was able to make that decision so rapidly because I had framed my mindset into what I was gonna go into that day.” (09:07)

Being Decisive: the Element Of Surprise

“They produced another rifle bag out of the back of the second vehicle, which they pulled the rifle from…I drew my pistol from my pocket and I came up on him pretty much the same way as the other. the only difference was I had further distance to cover.”

“Most of everyone there didn’t know what happened with the first shooter and me taking his rifle…violence and surprise. [With] the guy acting like a sheep the second he saw me, I was able to snatch that weapon – he didn’t want any of it. He immediately took his hand off the fire control.”

The Fundamental Difference Between A Job vs A Duty

07:10 Asked, what was the thought process for you to leave your principles (his protectees) and deal with the stolen police rifle, SR responds,

“From the moment I saw the firearm, I knew it was in the hands of someone that was illegally obtaining it…they were escalating everything they had done from that day..to the moment I decided I needed to get my hands on that weapon and get it away from them…I headed a job to do. I needed to protect my team. So, I made the choice to do my job, and I protected my team. I got them around cover and I told them do not fucking move.

We had briefed beforehand and I told them you need to listen to me because if you don’t listen to me, and you create a variable that I don’t know or that I don’t expect, that’s going to cause a lot of problems for us. So, they were very aware that I needed them to listed, and they did.”

“I put my team into cover and it wasn’t about me doing my job anymore, it was about me doing my duty. And my job and my duty are two different things…My job was keeping them safe, and that was taken care of. But then my duty came into play. It was to protect others around there and deescalate the situation if I could.”

Handgun or long gun, and why?

14:05 When questioned about sticking with his handgun instead of using the rifle he was now in control of, SR (a former Marine infantryman and experienced security contractor) explains,

“You gotta look at my situation. Was I in a gunfight? No, I wasn’t. I was not in a gunfight. I was trying to deescalate that from happening. The situation dictates tactics…I was in a situation where I was one guy surrounded by thousands…that were angry and riotous. Now if I was in a gunfight, if rounds were flying, absolutely, that would have been the tactical decision I would have made…but that would be escalation of force and I was trying to deescalate the situation, get back to my team and get us out of there.”

“And, I mean, they’re police firearms. I did not need to be confiscating police firearms just to turn them on civilians. That’s not it.”

Want to know more? Hear about the ethos that drove him to be protective, or his opinion on America’s problem with leadership and culture?

Listen to Episode of 157 of Gunfighter Cast.

Make the decision about who you want to be: people need to stop acting selfishly and start acting selflessly – Shooter Rughi

You might also check out @firewatchofficial.

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