Let’s consider the following situation under the “wait until you are certain and only pull if you are going to fire” doctrine:
A young woman leaves a restaurant by herself at 11 pm and heads to the far, dark end of the parking lot, where she had to park when she arrived. As she approaches her car she hears fast steps and turns around to see a large man 20 feet away coming at her at a jog, with what appears to be a pipe in his hand. She has a pistol in a waistband holster under her jacket. She shouts “Stop”, but he keeps coming. What should she do? Please answer that in your own mind.
A second after she sees the man one two things happen:
1. She gets clubbed in the head before she can pull her pistol.
2. The deaf bus boy comes to a stop and holds out her umbrella and cell phone that she forgot at the table.
It would be good to have a law that states she would not be charged if she pulled out her pistol, but didn’t fire when the bus boy came to a stop and she saw what the situation was. It would not be a perfect law that didn’t require a cop or DA to make a decision on “reasonable response”, it would just provide more leeway in the gray area and takeaway more slack on vindictive prosecution.
i would be on red alert and ready to stop him.