[PROCON]

Older article, but posting in news/activism/extended news because of its importance.

Everyone of us who EDC need to decide what we'll do if we're confronted with a life and death situation.

What would you do?

I know I've heard stories here from FReepers who have had to pull their firearms.

As concealed carriers, pulling our firearm is the last thing we want to do but we have that option.

[wardaddy]

How many here giving advice have actually been in gun fights or been shot I wonder.....

Military applications is different

Respect to those here who’ve seen the elephant in service of our nation

[joma89]

I totally agree with the subject line. If you pull your concealed weapon, use it.

JoMa

[Elsie]

Warning Shots Will Only Land You In Jail

Not a fun place to be.

[Elsie]

Besides; the first might cause the second to jam and not fire.

[Hot Tabasco]

What would you do?

Shoot the gun out of their hand.....The Lone Ranger used to do that and it worked for him.

[KrisKrinkle]

“Ain’t everybody got it in ‘em to pop a cap on somebody.” (Some anonymous gang banger in a documentary.)

A lot of people seem to believe it’s better for a woman to be found in an alley, raped and strangled to death with her own pantyhose (do they still wear those?) than for her to explain how she scared off her attacker with a display or warning shot when she didn’t have it in her to “pop a cap on him”.

On “shoot to stop”: I know what most people mean by that, but the purpose of a warning shot is to get somebody to stop what they are doing.

On warning shots: 1. The four rules still apply. 2. Last I heard, the Navy still uses the “shot across the bow”, which is a warning shot.

On shooting to kill: In some jurisdictions one is not allowed to shoot to kill, one is only allowed to shoot to stop. If they can trace you to a post that said you intend to shot to kill, they may use that against you.

On not drawing till you are going to shoot: 1. Practice your quick draw till you’re as fast as the hero in a “B” Western, don’t be only as fast as the duffer who gets killed by the bad guy. 2. Be the third guy, as in that recent Texas church shooting.

[anton]

Dead men do not come into court and claim they had hands up and were begging not to be shot. And a wrongful death claim is worth about 15% of the vlaue of a total disability claim for the injured victim. Keep shooting until the story goes away and make it quick. No excuses for resuming fire.

[Oatka]

Put THESE in a room or two in your house.

No. 1) There's an "O Sh!T moment when the bad guy enters darkened house and trips one of them.
No. 2) As mentioned elsewhere, a backlighted bad guy is easier to hit.

[Svartalfiar]

This is entirely situationally dependent. A guy with a knife threatening the gas station clerk over the counter? He doesn;t have a good position to immediate cause lethal harm. No need to shoot unless he does something or has a buddy. Same with a bum moving towards you on the dark street. You don’t know his intentions, he may just want change. Show your pistol, and he’ll go away. No need to shoot him either.

Sure, if the perp has a firearm and you have a clear shot, or if he’s already harmed people, giving a warning is stupid. Blast the dude. But if the situation doesn’t warrant it, or you have sufficient advantage (cover/concealment, no easy immediate other people for him to attack), immediately shooting is probably not the best idea.

[archy]

What would you do?

I was trained as a tank gunner at Fort Knox in 1966. They spent about as much on a four-man tank crew in our two months as they did on a fighter pilot, which was considerable.

They never trained us to fire warning shots at enemy tanks, though I suppose it could come up in border disputes and the like. But I never got in the habit.

They did teach us, sometimes, to make a second *certainty* shot. But that was at an enemy tank or vehicle target, not at an individual.

We just ran over those. Still seems like an appropriate tactic to me. Still carry an Army M1911A1 .45 in a GI tanker's shoulder holster, too. Old habits.

[VanDeKoik]

If I know the threat, I dont warn. I will announce that I am armed, and they have one chance to ID themselves if I dont.

[Lockbox]

1st photo, guy with shotgun shoots through the corner of sheet rock, end of discussion.