Hokkmike
Member
Many of us carry a handgun everyday. CC or OC, it is a common practice. We never know when or if our weapon of choice will be needed - and so we are ready; we think we are anyway. Seven million nine hundred and fifty thousand Americans, according to USA Today, own firearms.
Statistically the odds of using a gun in defense of oneself or others are infinitesimally small; According to the NRA, a source most of us will accept, they are:
1 in 80,658,175,170,942,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000
I am NOT using that statistic as an argument against carrying. When "that number" applies to you it is a ratio of 1:1. What I am saying is that a whole lot of excitement as well physical, emotional, psychological, and mental demands are forced on you in just a few seconds.
So two days ago in my small rural Pennsylvania town of 800 people a DOLLAR STORE, which I visit maybe once a week, was held up. It was an armed robbery.
My immediate thought was that had I been there it would have been different. But would it have, really? I started to talk yesterday with some of my gun buddies and realized that I had not decided in the case of a scenario like this before hand what I would do. I guess you really can't figure it out totally in advance. But you have to have some kind of guiding strategy.. I am not talking about the tactical handling of firearms but of the larger idea of "What the heck is going on and what do I do now?"
My first thought was, "If I could have gotten the drop on the guy he would have been thwarted." But, my second after thought was, "Wouldn't' it be better just to let the bad guy go in this case and let the police do their job, that is, if nobody, including myself were threatened with imminent bodily harm?" (of course having a gun pointed at you might be consider an immediate threat)
The more I thought about it and the more my friends and I talked, they all carry, the more we decided that it probably would have been the best course, after all, to have done nothing. Of course we weren't there so we really will never know. But, the incident ended with the perpetrator getting his money and no one being physically harmed.
Then I realized, though I practice with my pistol, I have not trained my mind enough to make reflexive decisions based on the unfolding events unique to a case like this to know what to do without taking too long to think about it. Does that make sense to you?
So, friends, I am going to try to school myself and deal with this area of "practicing with a gun".
I am interested in your thoughts and reflections on this as well as suggestions as to how to better prepare the mind for this kind of encounter in case some day the odds do visit me. I hope they never do.
Statistically the odds of using a gun in defense of oneself or others are infinitesimally small; According to the NRA, a source most of us will accept, they are:
1 in 80,658,175,170,942,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000
I am NOT using that statistic as an argument against carrying. When "that number" applies to you it is a ratio of 1:1. What I am saying is that a whole lot of excitement as well physical, emotional, psychological, and mental demands are forced on you in just a few seconds.
So two days ago in my small rural Pennsylvania town of 800 people a DOLLAR STORE, which I visit maybe once a week, was held up. It was an armed robbery.
My immediate thought was that had I been there it would have been different. But would it have, really? I started to talk yesterday with some of my gun buddies and realized that I had not decided in the case of a scenario like this before hand what I would do. I guess you really can't figure it out totally in advance. But you have to have some kind of guiding strategy.. I am not talking about the tactical handling of firearms but of the larger idea of "What the heck is going on and what do I do now?"
My first thought was, "If I could have gotten the drop on the guy he would have been thwarted." But, my second after thought was, "Wouldn't' it be better just to let the bad guy go in this case and let the police do their job, that is, if nobody, including myself were threatened with imminent bodily harm?" (of course having a gun pointed at you might be consider an immediate threat)
The more I thought about it and the more my friends and I talked, they all carry, the more we decided that it probably would have been the best course, after all, to have done nothing. Of course we weren't there so we really will never know. But, the incident ended with the perpetrator getting his money and no one being physically harmed.
Then I realized, though I practice with my pistol, I have not trained my mind enough to make reflexive decisions based on the unfolding events unique to a case like this to know what to do without taking too long to think about it. Does that make sense to you?
So, friends, I am going to try to school myself and deal with this area of "practicing with a gun".
I am interested in your thoughts and reflections on this as well as suggestions as to how to better prepare the mind for this kind of encounter in case some day the odds do visit me. I hope they never do.