Friendly Fire Incidents

[Knief]

Troubador reached out to me on Facebook to address a problem that he's seen crop up at a lot of games recently. He wanted to bring this concern to light and asked that this be posted. For what it's worth, I agree with him 100%:
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Target Acquisition and you! Or The Chronicles of how to not make everyone hate you!

Something I've noticed growing in airsoft as I've been playing in the last year is a real problem with Identifying your targets before pulling the trigger. It has gone from something that happens occasionally, to something that happens numerous times in each game. It's mainly a problem that occurs in newer players, so yes, this is directly related at you. Take some time, before continuing, think to yourself. Have I ever accidentally shot a friendly, a ref, or someone who was a non-hostile? The answer is yes. Everyone has done one of those three at some point.

This post is going to be rather lengthy and I apologize for that. However, give me 20 minutes and truly listen and take in everything I say and I guarantee you will come out as a better player because of it.

Since I understand many of you won't know who I am as I have been off the forum for almost around 3 years now. I am Troubadour. I have been a member of the Airsoft community for a very very long time. So I know a little bit about it, but this post is not about me so we'll continue on.

My purpose with this post is to help lower the instances of Friendly Fire Incidents or FFIs. By Friendly Fire Incident, I am including the shooting of a friendly, a referee, or someone who is a non-hostile.

A Friendly is someone who is 100% confirmed to be on your team.

Non-Hostile will be defined as someone who is either dead, a roleplayer, a photographer, or unidentified. An unidentified is any target to which you cannot identify 100% which faction they are on.

A Hostile will be defined as someone who is clearly on the opposing force or is actively engaging you. I.E a non-hostile role player is a hostile when he begins to actively engage you. If you cannot identify someone as 100% on the other team, they are not a Hostile. They are unidentified or unknown. Their status is as previously stated a non-hostile.

Now that we have those definitions out of the way let's move on – Remember if you have any questions at this point write them down ,but continue reading before you post.

Target Identification in Airsoft is something that is a bit more complicated than a real life situation. In real life, most of your comrades look similar to you, they have the same uniform, same kit, same guns, and you've generally spent a lot of time with them and know who they are.

However, in Airsoft this is not so, we all have varying kits, varying uniforms, and we don't always know everyone. So sometimes it is hard to tell whether or not someone is a hostile, friendly, or a non-hostile. So I am writing this simple guide to help you identify it.

The main rule we are going to focus on is a simple one:

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

One of the first things you are taught when you are learning airsoft is to treat your replica as if it is a real live weapon. This is done so that you respect the replica and follow the proper safety protocols.

Now take that same principle and apply it on the field. Imagine that what you are holding is a real live weapon and what you are firing are real bullets. So when you sight up a target and squeeze the trigger, you are effectively eliminating that target. What you need to remember is that bullets are things you can never take back, neither are BB's. Once they leave your barrel they are never coming back, they are gone. I'll repeat that once more. YOU CAN NOT TAKE A BB BACK!

Once that trigger is squeezed that projectile leaves at incredible speeds and there is nothing you can do to stop it. It's like sending a drunk text to your ex-girlfriend. It's done and over with as soon as it happens.

With that principle remember. YOU CAN NOT TAKE A BB BACK! IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

Why do I tell you to do this? So you'll put a lot more weight in the decision to squeeze that trigger. Because when you send a few bb's into a friendly or a non-hostile, a lot of you put no weight in that decision because it doesn't affect you. It affects the other person though, it affects your entire team. It puts the people on the receiving end in an immediately worse mood. It can ruin someone's entire day.

There is a huge problem where people see a target and they get excited or they are nervous and scared and they unleash bb fury upon them, with little to no examination. Because you want to get the jump on the guy or are afraid he'll shoot back at you. This is wrong, this is not what you should be doing. If anyone has told you differently, they are wrong.

Here are a few helpful hints to make sure you make the right choice

1.)Breathe, calm down.

2.)When you see a target, wait. Don't fire, wait. (Ignore this rule if opened fire on, they are obviously hostile)

3.)Observe your target. What is he doing? What is he wearing? What direction is he looking? How close is he to you? Judge his threat level. Is he just standing around with his rifle at his side, is he wearing tan, green, civilians? Is he looking towards your direction or the opposite way? Is he within talking distance? Is he an unarmed ref? If you can't answer these questions and come to a 100% conclusion that he is hostile, don't fire.

4.)If possible vocally communicate with the target. Give them easy and concise commands. “STOP! Do not move! Do not turn around! What team are you on!?” If they disobey your order, try to verbally communicate your warning again. Until they become a threat, i.e their replica is in a position to fire upon you or they begin to run. When this happens, engage. If they ended up being a teammate or a non-hostile the fault is on them not you. You gave clear and concise instructions for what was to occur and they are in the wrong for not listening.

5.)If you're not 100% sure, do not fire. I'll say this repeatedly. Until you understand it. IF YOU'RE NOT 100% SURE, DO NOT FIRE! YOU CAN NOT TAKE A BB BACK!

6.)Remember you're 100% responsible for what leaves the barrel of your replica. Excuses like “Oh, well he was wearing tan camouflage on the green team” don't fly. It is your fault 100% you were the one who failed to take the extra time to identify the target. You were the one who squeezed the trigger without knowing 100% that he was a hostile. It is your responsibility and you will be held accountable for your actions.

Now I get that some of you at this point are saying: Well, Troubadour. That could take a lot of time, what happens if they move on or something. First off, it doesn't take a lot of time, you know what takes a lot more time? Walking back to spawn, which either they or yourself may have to do after the altercation. There is no KDR in Airsoft, is getting that one extra possible kill worth it at the risk of ruining your teammates fun? Airsoft is about fun and community, be a bastion of that community, not a hindrance to that community and fun.

However, as I do understand that words are not enough to change some people. So there I propose a new rule for the games of Michigan Airsoft. A rule that can hopefully effectively ebb the tide of FFIs that occur in Michigan Airsoft events these days.

The Reflective Teamkill Rule:
The initiator of an FFI is the one held accountable. The victim of the FFI shall continue to play the game and the hit against him will not count. The initiator shall therefore be removed from currently play and be required to return to spawn. Players guilty of multiple FFIs shall be dealt with according to the disgression of the event hosting team. It is my personal recommendation that it be dealt with as severly as cheaters/non-hit callers are treated.

What does this mean? The player that shoots his friendly teammate, roleplayer, or non-hostile is out, not the victim. It was his responsibility to identify the target and he failed to do so, therefore he shall be held accountable. There are no excuses for initiating a FFI, none whatsoever. There are no excuses for shooting a ref either, they are the easiest to identify as non-hostile.

This does not mean that after every hit you should go looking for FFIs. This only applies when you are hit and you know 100% that you were fired on by a friendly. Do not go around asking "Hey, did you just shoot me!" That would be silly and cause too much drama. This only applies when you have been hit and you clearly know who did it and that they were a friendly. Do not scream, yell, or be dramatic. Be an adult, politely inform a ref that you were hit by a friendly and who did it. If a ref is not nearby, politely inform the player that they struck a friendly and that they are now out. If the player reacts negatively or dramatically, walk away and get a ref.

I feel when people know that there is truly a downside and a punishment for lighting up everything that moves that they might just be a little more careful.

With that said, if you had any questions during this very long post, this is the time to ask them. I just want to go over one last thing before you do so. FFI are one of thee most detrimental things to Michigan Airsoft that we face today and let's not forget that a few years ago Michigan was considered one of the very best states in the whole entirety of the United States when it came to quality of airsoft.

Anyways, one last quick reminder.

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

IF YOU ARE NOT 100% THAT WHAT YOU ARE SHOOTING AT IS A HOSTILE. THEN DO NOT SHOOT!

If you have any questions please feel free to post them. However, I can not directly answer the questions.

There is however a berth of untapped knowledge via the Veteran Airsofters here that you should be utilizing a lot more often. So I highly recommend you listen to them and shut the fuck up when they have something to say. They know a lot more than you and deserve your respect.

[Phantom Reaper]

I'd have to agree with this as well. The only time I have been an initiator of an FFI was at the first No Limits Night game. I was by myself on one side of the brush and I heard a squad of guys headed my way. I had no night optics of any kind and I knew If I used my light or called out to identify them I had a 50/50 chance of being lit up. I figured I'd rather go down fighting and after the firefight found out I was shooting at my own guys and got killed by them. Are there any tricks for identifying targets at night without giving away your position? Especially without any sort of NVG's or Night optics.

[Relarz]

I think at that point, per what the post says, you should stop them and make them ID what team they're on. If you're smart, you will do so without offering what team you're on first.

A better solution in my book: you'd have to come up with a system of call and response between you and your guys/your whole team, similar to the flash-thunder type of system. Or you can get REAL old school with it:

[snafu]

Edit. Dangit Relarz you beat me too it.

Verbally confirm. If it's dark and you don't know if they are a ref, teammate, or hostile, then just ask. I have been in that situation before at a night game at Bangor and was able to ask if they were opfor and then take them out. If its that dark and you are already in the firing position it's doubtful they will get the jump on you.

[Mosin]

More often than not I've been on the worse end of this, where I'm overly cautious or I give benefit of the doubt, and because of that I end up getting hosed by an enemy player. I will say this, there should be a general respect given amongst players in regards to figuring out if the guy is still in play/enemy/friendly/whatever. Yesterday at No Limits I breached the castle and seen several player standing there with kill rags on their heads, amongst the group one guy was still in play and shot me out, a second time I went into the castle same scenario, only one player was on his back appearing to be dead with his rifle laid across his body pointed towards his feet (the entry), he shot me on that go and I had to accept it because rather than "Bonus ball" a player (Shooting him a few extra times after they've already called out) I was overly cautious and was shot out.

There needs to be general guidelines amongst this, I think Troub nailed them for the most part but I will add one:
- If you're dead, and you don't have a red killrag, get out of the scenario. Don't bunch up with dudes that are still in play. Or, place your hands on your head and lay your weapon down. If you're out and there is no medic rule, you're out and you need to get out of the picture. Don't try any shady shit like laying down or playing dead, because that only creates confusion and then when I have to shoot a guy with a red rag on his head laying down just to be cautious and he gets mad, it creates unnecessary anger.

I do plan on implementing this at my games that I (Or Team RAGE) hosts in that if you shoot a friendly, YOU (The shooter) are out, not the victim.

[Gimpalong]

Friendly fire incidents, I'd argue, are also on the rise due to the increasing number of uniforms that are getting fielded at games. It used to be DCU and Woodland, but now we've got Multicam, ATACS, AOR1/2, MARPAT arid/woodland, Kryptic and a whole host of other camouflage uniforms.

A lot of these uniforms are really good at blending both green and tan and so they're very difficult to tell apart from a distance.

The uniforms themselves aren't necessarily the issue so much as event organizers want to allow every single type onto the field at the same time which results in confusion.

It also doesn't help when people mix and match uniforms or gear or wear ambiguous colors (black top over multicam pants with a CB plate carrier).

There have been a few events recently (Drug Wars *ahem, *ahem) where, I swear, people were picking their camouflage to be intentionally ambiguous in order to gain an advantage.

[Coldwave]

In a nutshell don't get trigger happy. Everybody who plays this game enjoys shooting somebody, and getting a kill. But it is a god awful feeling knowing you shot your own guy because you got to excited. Like Knief said; Relax, observe, identify, then waste his ass.

[M.S.-ARC]

I haven't reffed in a while but I did ref a few times over the weekend and even when standing in the open with no weapon, not moving, and both hands over my head people still shoot at you first and ask questions later.

Using low and mid caps can help reduce the "spray and pray" mentality that is very common these days. If you only have 30 bb's in each mag, you tend to make sure those bb's count.

Might be a good idea to start implementing a few rounds during a rec game that are hi-cap free or maybe don't allow them in the first half when everyone is itching to play and then allow them to be used in the 2nd half.

[King]

Sept 22, 2013 18:18:47 GMT -5 Gimpalong said:

The uniforms themselves aren't necessarily the issue so much as event organizers want to allow every single type onto the field at the same time which results in confusion.

This is 100,000,000% the problem. You get organizers who just don't enforce it, or have convoluted requirements in the first place, for example, having a light and dark camo on the same team. Regardless of your scenario, ACU and Woodland just shouldn't be on the same team. ACU being light, should always be paired with light camos like anything desert, Multicam, etc. Dark colors go green, light colors go tan. If organizers could just stick to this and not be boneheaded I feel like it would work itself out.

Then of course you get the random guy who shows up in green Realtree and wants to play with his buddies on the tan team. But again, I think more emphasis from the organizers are the way to combat that issue.

[Pagan]

Sept 23, 2013 10:19:44 GMT -5 M.S.-ARC said:

I haven't reffed in a while but I did ref a few times over the weekend and even when standing in the open with no weapon, not moving, and both hands over my head people still shoot at you first and ask questions later.

Sadly it's like that all the time.

I said several time on Saturday that I was shot more reffing than when I actually had a chance to play.

[Gunny87]

The other issue that specifically plagues rec games such as the events that we host at Action/No Limits is that some players intentionally ignore the side that we tell them to play on. It happens every game. You have players with the same camo playing on opposing sides because they want to play with their buddies, which is understandable, however you should make it a point to coordinate with the people you want to play by communicating in advance and investing in the same camo or at least the same type of camo that is generally accepted.

There were two people that were wearing multicam at Saturday's game that played on the green team, when Multicam was on the tan side for that game.

Also there was one player wearing contractor that was also on the green team. And then you have the same issue with civie loadouts. There were people wearing civies on both sides. This doesn't help either.

What we have to do as event hosts is strictly enforce this.

Also my go-to solution to help mitigate FF is to limit the camo that is accepted. But then this inhibits player turnout.

[King]

If we get people wearing whatever they want to rec games anyway (the classic kjones Jorts) why not use armbands?

[Gunny87]

Sept 23, 2013 13:27:55 GMT -5 King said:

If we get people wearing whatever they want to rec games anyway (the classic kjones Jorts) why not use armbands?

As an event host, I'm not against it, but I know airsofters are usually against using arm bands because it ruins the look of their load outs, but it also isn't always obvious and then there's the issue that at the numbers of people that attend our rec games, the cost of having enough would be pretty high, if not enough are available that are being provided by the field. I know Hell's Survivors had them and we've used them there but not at No Limits that I can remember.

Also I don't want to further discuss this since it's missing the point of what Troub was originally trying to get across. Mistakenly ID'ing a target isn't the primary problem that leads to FF, however it's a contributing factor and I just wanted to mention what I and others experienced on Saturday and in the past after seeing what Gimp and King posted.

The behavior of shooting everything that moves is. And that's what we need to address which I think was what Troub was getting at.

[King]

Yeah didn't mean to derail. I'm just of the belief that there will always be jumpy people, there will always be scared new guys, and there will always be mistakes made by veterans. I think fixing the actual root of the problem (clear identifying markers and cracking down of lackadaisical uniform requirements) is more realistic than expecting the wide range of players we have with different awareness and skill levels to "Get it"

[Sleepy]

Sept 23, 2013 14:20:12 GMT -5 King said:

Yeah didn't mean to derail. I'm just of the belief that there will always be jumpy people, there will always be scared new guys, and there will always be mistakes made by veterans. I think fixing the actual root of the problem (clear identifying markers and cracking down of lackadaisical uniform requirements) is more realistic than expecting the wide range of players we have with different awareness and skill levels to "Get it"

I agree with king, there will always be those players that are either just new to the sport, or jumpy or something. You can't just instantly train everybody, but it will make it much easier for them if arm bands or more specific camo is used. My local cqb place uses armbands, and I get friendly fired maybe once out of the 6 hours I play there. Which is pretty good for fast paced cqb games.