Anyway, so far most accounts are still happening either at home or at a convenience store. Citizens generally emerge unscathed and victorious. Bad guys generally do not. One aspect I've been interested in -- "collateral damage" -- has not been mentioned in any account, and I am pretty sure that if anyone was accidently wounded by a stray shot, it would get reported. Curiously, details of the bad guys' weapons are more often reported than the citizens' weaponry.
I will keep plugging away at this for awhile, to see if these trends hold, and if anything else pops up.
Now I am going to turn to present neal6325's with a counter-argument.
I don't see at all that citizen defenders have an advantage over LEOs in "most" shooting situations, particularly the convenience store ones. Pretty much all the stories I have read so far (not just the 20+ I have documented), the citizen usually gets very little warning. The citizen's one advantage, yes, is that his handgun (usually) is concealed, but beyond that he starts out behind the power curve, has to overcome his surprise and fright, already has a weapon pointed at him, and has to retrieve his own from a concealed spot, or under the counter, or in the bedroom...and then shoot, we hope accurately. I suppose it is possible that every citizen that happens to end up in this situation is always in "condition Yellow," but I tend to doubt that. I think it is especially unlikely that most citizens are in Yellow while they are sitting at home or sleeping when the clown kicks the door in. (Hint -- do keep the door locked, however flimsy it is. Noise is good.) The burglar/invader is, presumably, wide awake going in and prepared to do some damage. I am going to keep an eye on the locations of individuals if reported in the stories. Seems to me that most accounts take place at the doorway or the bedroom.
As for the police -- I would like to know the stats on how many police shootings occur in an ambush "out of the blue" and how many occur after an officer has been called to investigate something (i.e. when he especially should have his radar up). Officers operate in a culture (I hope) that constantly reminds them to be looking for threats, to know that every encounter could go wrong quickly (thus the motto I have heard police instructors use: "Be civil to everyone, friendly to no one"). So presumably the LEO should already be in the right mindset, and may very likely have warning going in (because he is responding to a call) that he may have to act lethally. Are there cops that lose this mindset, or never attain it? I'm sure they do, hard to say "on" for anything day after day, but would hope most cops are better at it than most citizens.
Granted most officers are going to go farther than most citizens in pursuing a bad guy, and be more likely to get into a shooting match-- I would hope that at that point the officer is also at the highest state of alert and readiness to bring his training and ability to bear.
Once the LEO or the citizen has reached the point of "I am going to shoot," regardless of how ready or unaware he had been previously, I do not see the dynamics being much different between the two situations. The lawful use of lethal force is pretty much the same for both, tactical and moral considerations are pretty much the same (altho the LEO will almost always have a high capacity, semi-auto service pistol, and quite possibly body armor). I expect the better trained, more practiced individuals will hit more often, and prevail more often, than those who are not, regardless of LEO/citizen status.
Perhaps srothstein or another can comment on this. Or not! I'm sure this discussion could go on for days...
Now back to the articles.
elb
) Gun Self-Defense Blog 