IMHO a threat to your physical safety demands you defend yourself by whatever effective means avail themselves to you; i.e. shoot.
2. In a situation with a large crowd, a can of hornet spray and a lighter would do some horrific damage that nobody -- target and onlooker alike -- will ever forget.
The odds of coming across such a scene are slim. However, if you do come across such a situation, likely your instincts will take over.
Look to see if Paul Kersey is nearby and ask him to help resolve the situation.
At 80 there is not much you can do without getting yourself killed.
Your only option is to call the cops.
How much ammo do you have??
How fast can you run?
Just throw the guys a basketball or a soccer ball.
Call 911, for sure. Don’t yell “I just called the police!” But do yell “The police are coming! Here come the police!” Maybe point to the street as you do so. That might break up the mob without putting yourself at risk.
It also depends on who the bystanders are. Can they be shamed or otherwise talked into doing the right thing? Or are they moments away from being violent themselves?
It’s a tough situation any way you look at it...one decent person against a mob.
If you knew it was rape, I think you could first pull the gun and fire a couple of shots in the air. That would probably stop everything and make the crowd run.
If they still kept at it, and you had a clear shot at the perpetrators without endangering the girl, I say shoot them.
I would keep a careful distance and show them the gun. Ask them to walk away.
I would not fire a warning shot.
If they look like they’re “thinking” rather than walking away, I would aim at the biggest one and again tell them to walk away (finger off trigger).
If they advance, you say, “I’m in fear of my life” and you start shooting.
Don’t shoot anyone in the back. But if they’re facing you, they are fair game at that point.
Rape is a felony. In my state you can use deadly force to stop or prevent a felony on you or anyone else.
Tell them to stop. If they don’t, make them stop. Of course if there are a hundred of them, you better have good judgement on not only who gets killed first, but next. Although (I haven’t seen the video) I imagine it is a bunch of younger college-types, and more like sheeple than a hard-core mob. I would guess many of the people in the crowd thought it was wrong, but too afraid to say anything, or didn’t want to ruin the “fun”.
I would call 911 first in a mob like that, as you are yelling at them to stop.
Of course make sure you have your facts straight. Some of the girls today might testify “It wasn’t gang rape, they said if I would “do” at least 4 guys I’d get a hundred bucks!”
Call Mayor Bloomburg! He would know what to do/s
..Shooting an attacker might be excessive..<<
No it’s not.
I would leave the immediate vicinity and call the police. People are just too crazy and there’s no telling what some bystander would do to you if he heard you calling the police. The same thing with any other public disturbance where people are more likely to be recording an unfolding tragedy on their cell phones rather than calling the police. It’s sad that people are like this now.
Were It me I would call the cops, loudly announce the cops have been called, and only use my weapon as a last resort.
I don’t want to be offensive but even a younger man with quick reflexes and a commanding presence would have trouble controlling a mob of drunken feral humans with nothing but 7 bullets. Sure the ferals in front of you don’t want to get shot but that doesn’t mean their friends are coming up behind you. Think a group that will gang rape an unconscious girl would think twice about beating you? Think you can take a beating from a group of drunken ferals? I don’t and can’t.
A big issue is how clear cut it all is, if you go in tentatively because you aren’t completely sure of what is taking place, then that big crowd could turn on you and put you in the hurt.
If I was 100% sure that I was watching a rape, then I would do my big crowd control thing and go in loud and theatrically, and make eye contact with some in the crowd and loudly call them to come help me protect this girl, if I was losing the crowd or it looked like I was going to be swarmed by the bad guys then I would puff up even more, pump three rounds into the sand and then make it clear who the first three guys to die would be, and be ready to shoot them instantly.
You have to have some pretty good charisma to keep a crowd under control, and you very well may face some charges for those actions.
Crowds are very dangerous and unpredictable and you have to be the type that can take over and control their attention and reshape their attention and focus quickly, or you won’t prevail.
It is entirely possible to run into a crowd situation where you just can’t have any effect, and just have to try to get help, but even then you can start yelling for allies on the fringe of the crowd to mount a charge into the center.
A crowd of college kids is going to have a lot of good guys in it, and many others will come to their senses and want to help, if they can hear someone appealing to their saner self, and who is ready to lead them to running off the bad guys.
It might not be...depends on whose daughter is being raped.
I doubt it - a 1911 is too big a gun fire an 80 year old to carry who believes they are frail.
I figure you're trying to create an argument for "nothing can be done" and making people imagine they are equally overwhelmed, weak and frightened.
After all, what the hell are you carrying around that hand-cannon for if you won't let everyone know you'll fire it when they are raping an unconscious girl?
Bah.
In this case it is the report of the gun as much as the bullets, that will cause the crowd to scatter and the attackers to disperse. However, risk is involved, because unless you have some cover close at hand, others may be armed as well and see you as the aggressor.
You must assume that the rapists are armed.
While you may legally use lethal force to prevent a felony, in practical terms you would be using lethal force to prevent an attack against you by the attackers and possibly their confederates. If they are so aggressive that they will charge a man with a gun, lethal force is definitely necessary.
Even if everything goes according to plan, with the attackers dispersing and the girl safe, the police will have been summoned with a “shots fired” alert, so *they* become the biggest threat to your well being at that point.
The bottom line is to act, but act intelligently to protect yourself as you are protecting the girl, and realize that as soon as you discharge a round, the situation will become very fluid.