Travis:
This is me not disagreeing with everything that you just said.
Each and every instructor has his or her own agenda (it seems to me). The one instructor (I have had like 6 different instructors) would have agreed with you completely. The SWAT director, well…you've seen his views, actually two were that way. Yet others are more middle of the road.
I think it benefits us to get preparation under various instructors, but here is the key...who has to make the decision? You (use collective). Who makes the price physically, emotionally, financially? You (us). At best the instructor can give his or her take. But in the end, we have to make the call of what we can risk, and what we cannot risk.
Remember what the one instructor did for 27 years...directed SWAT. However, he was not a rush-in-blazing guy. As he said, if it seems that no shots will be fired, remain concealed and let them empty all the cash in the joint, including your own. However, if you sense that bullets will fly, now you have a responsibility to open up with all you got, reload and don't stop firing until the threat is eliminated. Why? Simple. Because if bullets start to fly, don’t assume that they will allow you to live. But, if you engage the fight, because there is seldom a one-shot kill, expect to be ducking bullets too. So, you see, there is balance. Remember, we're putting into two minutes typing the sum of 50 hours of Tactical and Advanced Tactical shooting classes that I have attended. We are barely scraping the paint’s surface here.
Here's the part that kicks me in the head. He, former SWAT Director, maintains that if you are ever in a shoot, never, ever, under ANY circumstance be debriefed by the LEOs that same day. Surrender your weapon if they request it (and they will). Advise them that you intend to comply and to assist their investigation completely, but that you are too nerved up to discuss it immediately. Be prepared to be taken into custody, and that is fine...says he. Lawyer up, then when your lawyer is there, then and only then speak.
So, for my part, having had in the range of 10 courses, and practicing as much as I can, there is one very ugly fact that strikes me. What I fear most is not so much the potential of a shoot-out, because I will never be the one who chooses to "start" something. For my part, I foresee only a defensive event, if ever. Try as I may, practice as I may, none of us can ever foresee what or where and thereby be 100% prepared. If we could, would we not choose to just remain at home that day and avoid the whole ordeal.
What bothers me, is the "Nyphongs". The "special interest" anti-groups who even if you lived, and if you engaged in a "good shoot", still call you a murderer. Check into the shooting in Detroit over the summer (I think it was). The attack was 4-on-1. The defender in the case trained where I trained, and in fact, I'll let the cat out-of-the-bag, I consider the man to be a best-friend. He is hiiiiighly train, a non-LEO, but one Hades of a shootist. He is in the firearms industry.
Even though his shoot was caught on video, he was cleared by the LEOs the same night, because he basically unloaded the pistol into one of the perps, people have since called him everything but a gentleman. He can't win. The only way he could have won was to have died! Our society has become seriously ill. I'm being serious. The media plays the blood-lettings over, and over, and over. The antis, the special interest anti, and the families will be all over any of us who ever has a defensive shot...and especially if you are fortunate enough to have some worldly goods.
If you have a CCW, and you don't engage, society and certainly the victim's family will allege you a coward. Fine if you live in the city...what if you come from a small town. "Small town; big Hell". Ever hear that? You can’t win for losing.
Here is my closing thought. I carry for me, first and foremost. I am not an LEO, and I don't play one on TV. I carry for my wife and daughter second. In the end, I have to try to get home at the end of the day. But, if I am in a setting, in which I sense someone will die if I do nothing, and it seems that I can intervene, then I would. I'm also not Rambo. I'm not a chest thumper, or a hero. I'm just me. I don't fear the occasional bank-robber...give them the money. Hell, offer them your own, and your new Corvette. It's only paper and a car. I fear the fool who wants to die…like Omaha.
Omaha brought me squarely, face-to-face with my own mortality. We may walk around with our weapon, but we can't see all points of cover. We can't observe all people. We have to have societal trust. CCWs in Omaha may have helped; they may not. That does need to change to be certain. However, there is a far, far greater change that we need to fight for. We need to force, and I do mean force the media, blood-thirty producers and talking heads to shut-the-Hades-up!! Step broadcasting these lunatics, and giving them their 15 minutes of glory!!! The lunatics are not our primary fear...the media is. The media is their vehicle to our small town. They plant the seeds into other freaks who want to take souls.
CCWs may or may not have altered Omaha, but stopping these broadcasts darned certain will reduce it. Stop it, perhaps not, but take away the platform.
So, I have told you all what my instructors have said. I have to make my own decisions; so do you all. But, reflect on Miami 1986. Would a CCW being present have helped the FBI agents?! I rest my points. A CCW would have died there, firing into massive body armor. The whole Omaha matter brought me face-to-face with my own mortality. I will continue to prepare to defend myself first, my wife & daughter, and as I said, if ever I could likely make a difference, I hope that I would. But, that I hope that I would in no way, shape or form assures that I would. And if I did, what price am I prepared to pay? If I find a Nyphong, I may go to prison...or worse, even if a good shoot.
You see, when we say "preparation", most people think classes and trigger time. No. Preparation includes what we are doing right now...facing our own mortality, and weighing costs and benefits. Making a realistic assessment of what we, as CCW-holders can realistically be expected to do, and to what extent we can help to bring about a positive end. I personally am not and LEO, and I am not going to act like one. But, there are instructors who will tell you that you should.
Prepare. Be very prepared...physically, mentally and financially. Be well, and thanks for your inputs.
Doc2005