Truthfully P95 I feel this is a far more important issue than how good your marksmanship is, what kind of gun you carry, or what kind of experience you have.
To boil it down to its simplest form, I have come to the conclusion that I must answer one simple question:
Is a life in danger with no hope of retreat or resolution to the situation?
I think that's a pretty simple question to answer to be honest. I admit a lot of the situations we talk about are not really cut and dried, but they all call for action. The goal has never been to shoot first and ask questions later, but people who hesitate lose.
Now it's true we can cook up situations like this:
Imagine you are trying to unlock your car at 1 AM after coming out of a long conference when out of the corner of your eye you see a large menacing figure with something in his hands coming your way.
You unclip your Surefire from your pocket and illuminate a large, 300 pound figure with a fireaxe coming straight at you. He screams "I'm going to kill you!"
You take off running but find yourself in a dead end. There's no doors to go in, and there's nothing to hide behind. You fire once to the center of mass, and your attacker stops in his tracks and starts wailing in pain, crying for his mother.
The police show up and you find out he's a 14 year old kid with a grandular disorder playing a live action roleplaying game with his friends. His axe was a toy and you couldn't tell in the dark.
Now don't you feel like an ass?
Now I ask you. How ridiculously elaborate and contrived is that scenario?
That scenario is patently absurd despite the fact it's entirely possible.
Now are there less contrived situations where a lack of hesitation can get you in tons of trouble? Of course. We talk about them here all the time.
One thing my CHL instructor said that is a grandmother's wisdom that has stayed with me was this:
My point is that:
#1. I think in all likelihood it'll be real obvious when you should fear for your life, and I think the odds of one of us actually having such a terrible encounter is a million fold greater than the possibility of some out in left field "Don't you feel like an asshole?" scenario. Hesitating in this situation will probably happen to some degree but the more we prepare ourselves the more precious seconds we can shave off.
#2. I think you can avoid a blunder by letting the danger come to you whenever possible.
I've read all this stuff on having the will to fight and they all come to the same conclusion: plan it out beforehand even though your plan probably won't fold out the way you'd like. The point isn't to construct an elaborate set of contigency plans to address every possible situation, the point is to feel fear and not panic. Fear is good, panic is not.
Overall, I try to be aware as possible. I feel awareness and avoidance are the most important things I have learned and ever will learn. I feel I'm making a reasonable effort to protect myself. I have the tools, I have the materials, I'm practicing regularly, and I hope to take some more courses this summer. What else could I possibly do without this whole thing consuming my life? And I simply pray and hope God will provide otherwise.
To boil it down to its simplest form, I have come to the conclusion that I must answer one simple question:
Is a life in danger with no hope of retreat or resolution to the situation?
I think that's a pretty simple question to answer to be honest. I admit a lot of the situations we talk about are not really cut and dried, but they all call for action. The goal has never been to shoot first and ask questions later, but people who hesitate lose.
Now it's true we can cook up situations like this:
Imagine you are trying to unlock your car at 1 AM after coming out of a long conference when out of the corner of your eye you see a large menacing figure with something in his hands coming your way.
You unclip your Surefire from your pocket and illuminate a large, 300 pound figure with a fireaxe coming straight at you. He screams "I'm going to kill you!"
You take off running but find yourself in a dead end. There's no doors to go in, and there's nothing to hide behind. You fire once to the center of mass, and your attacker stops in his tracks and starts wailing in pain, crying for his mother.
The police show up and you find out he's a 14 year old kid with a grandular disorder playing a live action roleplaying game with his friends. His axe was a toy and you couldn't tell in the dark.
Now don't you feel like an ass?
Now I ask you. How ridiculously elaborate and contrived is that scenario?
That scenario is patently absurd despite the fact it's entirely possible.
Now are there less contrived situations where a lack of hesitation can get you in tons of trouble? Of course. We talk about them here all the time.
One thing my CHL instructor said that is a grandmother's wisdom that has stayed with me was this:
*She earlier used this incident to point out the importance of the Four Rules of Gun Safety in any situation.
My point is that:
#1. I think in all likelihood it'll be real obvious when you should fear for your life, and I think the odds of one of us actually having such a terrible encounter is a million fold greater than the possibility of some out in left field "Don't you feel like an asshole?" scenario. Hesitating in this situation will probably happen to some degree but the more we prepare ourselves the more precious seconds we can shave off.
#2. I think you can avoid a blunder by letting the danger come to you whenever possible.
I've read all this stuff on having the will to fight and they all come to the same conclusion: plan it out beforehand even though your plan probably won't fold out the way you'd like. The point isn't to construct an elaborate set of contigency plans to address every possible situation, the point is to feel fear and not panic. Fear is good, panic is not.
Overall, I try to be aware as possible. I feel awareness and avoidance are the most important things I have learned and ever will learn. I feel I'm making a reasonable effort to protect myself. I have the tools, I have the materials, I'm practicing regularly, and I hope to take some more courses this summer. What else could I possibly do without this whole thing consuming my life? And I simply pray and hope God will provide otherwise.