Kill house

An open-air shoot house as used by Colombian special forces.

A kill house or shoot house is a live ammunition small arms shooting range used to train military and law enforcement personnel for close contact engagements in urban combat environments. Kill houses are designed to mimic residential, commercial and industrial spaces. Kill houses are often used to acquaint personnel in infiltrating (gaining access) structures and the methods used to overwhelm the target(s) in the quickest and most efficient manner. The construction of one of these facilities can vary in material and cost depending on the needs and the resources available. Like any shooting range, there are rules that must be followed to ensure a safe kill house training session.

Purpose

A kill or shoot house is a type of indoor firing range modified to resemble a residential environment and with walls and floor fortified to safely absorb rounds fired from close range. It is used to train soldiers and police for various urban combat scenarios while permitting them to use their full power service weapons. The scenarios trained for include room and apartment clearing, door breaching and the inclusion of hostage or noncombatant targets along with enemy targets ("shoot/no shoot").

Simpler kill houses without the necessary fortification to be safe for live fire can be used for blank or dry fire training of the same variety. As necessary this can be reduced even further down to the "glass house", which is merely a residential floorplan marked out in full scale on the ground.

Construction

Materials

US Army live-fire shoot house showing construction layers.

Kill houses can be built from almost any materials, ranging from concrete to something as simple as plywood depending on the needs of the users of the kill house. For structures that need to contain and absorb gun fire, stronger materials are needed such as concrete or ballistic rubber. It's important to note that using materials that can't absorb gun fire may lead to injuries and death. For more temporary or cost effective needs, plywood or a plastic sheet can make a suitable wall.^[1]

In addition to the actual facility, the shoot house also requires targets to simulate the individuals they must subdue. The most common and recognizable targets used in shoot houses are paper silhouettes and mannequins. To simulate the movement of an actual person the targets are either placed on rails or they can pop up from an undisclosed location.^[2][3]

Virtual kill house

US Marines clearing a room in a virtual shoot house at Camp Pendleton, California, 2008.

An alternative to the more traditional shoot house is the a virtual kill house. Virtual kill houses make use of audio and visual technology to create an interactive, if not video game like, experience. This version of a kill house uses a projector to display different scenarios on a screen while sensors keep track of the soldier's relative position and if he/she has hit the target on the screen.

Virtual kill houses provide a similar experience to a traditional shoot house, but are more interactive. In a normal shoot house, soldiers would shoot at silhouettes or mannequins, but in the virtual counterpart the targets are life sized and free to move along the screen. These shoot houses usually only require a flat surface to display the scenarios, so wax ammunition is used in place of actual bullets.

One notable virtual kill house is the Army Live Fire Virtual Targeting system used at Fort Bragg. Previously, the software used for the facility was part of America's Army, an online recruitment tool, which has been adapted for use in real training exercises.^[4]

Safety

To avoid unwanted discharges and accidents, there is a set of guidelines, known as the cardinal rules, used to ensure a safe shoot house session. These cardinal rules are:

1. Treat every fire arm as if it's loaded.
2. Keep your fire arm pointed away from other people.
3. Keep your finger out and away from the trigger.
4. Be aware of not just your target but everything beyond it.

In addition to the cardinal rules other guidelines include:

• The mandatory use of ear and eye protection.
• The mandatory use of body armor.
• Targets should be place around room so rounds hit the impact areas.
• There should be no one in the shoot house before the training exercise.
• Equipment (guns, ammunition, targets, and the shoot house) should all be authorized and inspected before training exercise.^[5][6]

Public use

In addition to military and police use, kill houses, like shooting ranges, are available for public use. Companies such as Meggit Training Systems offer to build permanent or portable shoot houses for the public. There is also a community of enthusiasts that build and use kill houses for their own purposes and entertainment. Kill houses though are still a training tool first and foremost.^[7][8]

References