Can the tactics of Kali, a Filipino martial art, lend value to extreme close-quarters firearms tactics? This was a question I have pondered and experimented with much over the past 20 years. The Close Quarters Firearms Integration Tactics or CQ-FIT program began its evolution in 2004 when I was assigned full-time to the Salt Lake City Police Department Training Unit as chief use-of-force instructor. Given the need for extreme-close-quarters firearms training, I began experimenting integrating Filipino blade fighting tactics with firearms tactics I had been learning as a street cop, as a SWAT operator, and a firearms instructor.
Fifty percent of officer-involved shootings occur from clinch range to about 1.5 meters. Seventy percent occur inside of 3 meters. Many of these included some kind of physical hand-to-hand struggle before, during, and/or after the shooting. At the time, little training was being provided to officers to prepare for this integration of empty-hands, firearms, and sometimes edged or impact weapons.
Moreover, another alarming statistic revealed that edged-weapon assaults in close-quarters were more lethal than firearms assaults. Survivability of gunshot wounds according to Caliber Press was 80 to 90 percent, whereas survivability of edged-weapon assaults was 60 to 70 percent. This reinforced the fact that the counter-blade tactics of Kali could lend some added
