Posted on 12/24/2017 7:59:45 AM PST by Strac6
COMMANDMENT I:
If You Choose To Carry, Always Carry As Much As Possible
Hollywood actors get to see the script beforehand, and nothing is fired at them but blanks. You don’t have either luxury. Criminals attack people in times and places where they don’t think the victims will be prepared for them. It’s what they do. The only way to be prepared to ward off such predators is to always be prepared: i.e., to be routinely armed and constantly ready to respond to deadly threats against you and those who count on you for protection. It’s not about convenience; it’s about life and death.
COMMANDMENT II:
Don’t Carry A Gun If You Aren’t Prepared To Use It
The gun is not a magic talisman that wards off evil. It is a special-purpose emergency rescue tool: no more, no less. History shows us that—for police and for armed citizens alike—the mere drawing of the gun ends the great majority of criminal threats, with the offender either surrendering or running away. However, you must always remember that criminals constitute an armed subculture themselves, living in an underworld awash with stolen, illegal weapons. They don’t fear the gun; they fear the resolutely armed man or woman pointing that gun at them. And, being predators, they are expert judges of what is prey and what is a creature more dangerous to them than what they had thought a moment ago was their prey. Thus, the great irony: the person who is prepared to kill if they must to stop a murderous transgression by a human predator is the person who is least likely to have to do so.
COMMANDMENT III:
Don’t Let The Gun Make You Reckless
Lightweight pseudo-psychologists will tell you that “the trigger will pull the finger,” and your possession of your gun will make you want to kill someone. Rubbish. The gun is no more an evil talisman that turns kindly Dr. Jekyll into evil Mr. Hyde than it is a good talisman that drives off evil. Those of us who have spent decades immersed in the twin cultures of American law enforcement and the responsibly armed citizenry know that the truth is exactly the opposite. A good person doesn’t see their weapon as a supercharger or excuse for aggression, but as brakes that control that natural human emotion. The law itself holds the armed individual to “a higher standard of care,” requiring that they do all that is possible to avoid using deadly force until it becomes clearly necessary. Prepare and act accordingly.
COMMANDMENT IV:
Carry Legally
If you live someplace where there is no provision to carry a gun to protect yourself and your loved ones, don’t let pusillanimous politicians turn you into a convicted felon. Move! It’s a quality of life issue. Rhetorical theory that sounds like “I interpret the law this way, because I believe the law should be this way”—which ignores laws that aren’t that way—can sacrifice your freedom, your status as a gun-owning free American and your ability to provide for your family. If you live where a CCW permit is available, get the damn permit. If you don’t, move to someplace that does. Yes, it is that simple. And if you are traveling, check sources such as handgunlaw.us to make sure that you are legal to carry in the given jurisdiction. Don’t let the legal system make you a felon for living up to your responsibilities to protect yourself and those who count on you. If you carry, make sure you carry legally.
COMMANDMENT V:
Know What You’re Doing
Gunfights are won by those who shoot fastest and straightest, and are usually measured in seconds. Legal aftermaths last for years, and emotional after-maths, for lifetimes. Get educated in depth in the management of all three stages of encounter beforehand.
COMMANDMENT VI:
Concealed Means Concealed
If your local license requires concealed carry, keep the gun truly concealed. The revealing of a concealed handgun is seen in many quarters as a threat, which can result in charges of criminal threatening, brandishing and more. A malevolent person who wants to falsely accuse you of threatening them with a gun will have their wrongful accusation bolstered if the police find you with a gun where they said it was. Yes, that happens. Some jurisdictions allow “open carry.” I support the right to open carry, in the proper time and place, but I have found over the decades that there are relatively few ideal times or places where the practice won’t unnecessarily and predictably frighten someone the carrier had no reason to scare.
COMMANDMENT VII:
Maximize Your Firearms Familiarity
If you ever need that gun, it will happen so quickly and terribly that you’ll have to be swift and sure. If you don’t, you’ll still be handling a deadly weapon in the presence of people you love. Making gun manipulation second nature—safety as well as draw-fire-hit—is thus doubly important.
COMMANDMENT VIII:
Understand The Fine Points
Don’t just read the headlines or editorials, read the fine print. Actually study the laws of your jurisdiction. What’s legal in one place won’t be legal in another. Cities may have prohibitions that states don’t. Remember the principle, “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
COMMANDMENT IX:
Carry An Adequate Firearm
A motor scooter is a motor vehicle, but it’s a poor excuse for a family car. A .22 or a .25 is a firearm, but it’s a poor excuse for defense. Carry a gun loaded with ammunition that has a track record of quickly stopping lethal assaults. Hint: if your chosen caliber is not used by police or military personnel, it’s probably not powerful enough for its intended purpose.
COMMANDMENT X:
Use Common Sense
Common sense—encompassing ethics and logic and law alike—must be your constant guide and companion when you decide to carry a gun. Not idealism, not rhetoric. When you carry a gun, you literally carry the power of life and death. It is a power that belongs only in the hands of responsible people who care about consequences, and who are respectful of life and limb and human safety—that of others as well as their own.
Our local Sheriffs Department carries .45’s as standard issue sidearm.
Both my J-frame and my 686+ violate his Rule #1. And his #9. As for #6, in Arizona, concealed means “discrete”. Not invisible. Hard to reconcile #6 with #1 and #9.
Good advice. My number 1 rule is to consider every weapon loaded until I personally verify that it isn’t.
A while back I had a buddy who was somewhat hot-tempered. He got married, but was still flew off the handle in some situations. He eventually got a CCW and started carrying and I thought "Oh Oh".
Some months later we were talking about CCW and I mentioned that at first I had been worried about him. He said that once he started carrying, the whole weight of responsibility came down on him and he became a pussy cat. Always carried, but never told his wife (who didn't like guns) because if they got in a tight spot, he didn't want her singling him out by yelling for him to use his gun.
Soon after, she said that marrying her had "tamed" him and that he was "such a gentleman now". He smiled and said, "Yes, dear."
He was asked in an interview right after the Trevon Martin incident about legal carry. His response which I cannot repeat verbatim was essentially that a person who carries a gun also carries an increase in responsibility to NOT be in a situation in which gun play is likely.
Example: I want to walk down the sidewalk on West Washington Street in Indianapolis at 11 pm. Is that legal? yes. Do I have the right? Yes. Is it smart? No. Is it safer for me if I carry a gun? Yes. It is also very likely I'll have to draw said gun and therefore I have an increase in responsibility to NOT walk down West Washington at 11 pm.
Well said.
“And remember, after shooting someone, that your 911 call is recorded for the sole purpose of using your utterances against you.”
“That is a very foolish comment. That is far from the sole purpose. #1 reason is when some idiot screams something almost unintelligible into phone, they can replay it to try to decipher it.””
I agree with your comment, but, in addition to don’t talk to the police, if at all possible let someone else make the 911 call.
Good grief, that guy is fantastic.
He has been the king of self defense for civilians and law enforcement for many, many years.
I do agree that the last thing you want to do is shoot someone because there are life-changing repercussions even if totally justified.
I disagree with number nine, ‘Carry An Adequate Firearm’ because nobody can agree on what an “adequate firearm” is, and in 98% of defensive gun uses (DGUs), a shot is not fired anyway.
Which means that a mouse gun is as good as a cannon 98% of the time.
Fact: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year or 6,849 every day. Most often, the gun is never fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.
Source: http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf, page 21.
Fact: A victim may have a strong reluctance to talk to a government agent about a firearm brandishing incident (which are 98% of DGUs) because they may not know the act was 100% legal.
Source: http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf, page 83.
In other words, the 98% number is probably low.
He’s written several books...
“Good grief, that guy is fantastic.”
Agree! Ayoob is amazing, I’m an admirer of his. For those who don’t know, he is on the board of directors of the Armed Citizen Legal Defense Network (ACLDN), a group that existed well before the NRA and CCA’s late entry into this market. For members in need of consultation after a self defense incident, they may well find themselves the recipient of his advice and/or expert testimony.
So the fact that the standard military round is 9 mm makes it a good round? Like politics didn't have anything to do with that.
My first call would be to my lawyer. I would then follow his advice.
Plus 5 rules of a gun fight
1) gun beats no gun
2) a hit beats a miss
3) fast beats slow (getting the gun into the fight)
4) big holes beat little holes
5) two holes beat one hole
So, CARRY means CARRY on your person. The gun that is left at home is “no gun”. A .22 that hits is worth a whole lot more than the .44 mag that misses. Getting the gun into the fight makes the other guy reconsider / take cover. Big holes bleed out faster but don’t sacrifice rules 1, 2, or 3 to carry “big”. And extra ammo always helps.
If someone calls 911 and describes the event as caused by you, you will be at a disadvantage when the cops show up.
Call first, give them the location and result.
Then be sure to make it clear that you were in danger of losing your life.
I would describe my appearance so as to not be confused with the bad guys.
And then shut up.
bkmk
Peter Cooper?
Question from curiosity: has there ever been a Charles Bronson Death Wish type individual in American history? Has that scenario ever been played out?
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