WildBill wrote:Bob in Big D wrote:I understand what you are saying and don't disagree with you. I would find It difficult to start shooting at the BGS even if he had a gun to her head. For LEO's that train for these situations and like yourself that have faced these situations, it may be an easier decision as your training kicks in. I don't have the benifit of your training or experience so I know I would take a more conservative approach right or wrong.
I received some good advice from an instructor on this forum. During his CHL and defense classes and seminars, he advised the students to "draw a line in the sand" and think about some of the scenarios and what-if situations where to you would and wouldn't shoot. He advises them to make that decision BEFORE leaving the classroom. The time to draw that line and draw your boundaries is NOW, not in the heat of the moment.
If you are unfortunate enough to get into a particular situation where you have to act, then is past the time when you are in the right frame of mind where you can make a calm rational choice. When it is all over, it may not have been the best decision, but you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you did the best you could under the circumstances.
The hard part is coming up with enough "background" to the "line in the sand" to make it useful (help you make an appropriate decision in the heat of the moment) while still flexible enough to cover the myriad different scenarios that could be the situation you end up in where that decision is needed. I have a problem of getting stuck on details, so I could come up with a decision "ok, if I'm here, and BG is there, and etc, etc, etc" but that would cover almost exactly one situation. I truly respect those who can come up with the general "rules" that can make their pre-situation decisions so clear. In the meantime, I try cogitating things that can go wrong, and reading those real-life scenarios that get on this forum. Every little bit of new scenarios helps me at least realize some possibilities I might run into... not that I would ever encounter the same exact scenario, but... well, I think you get what I'm thinking... the more I read, the more pseudo-experience I get, the more informed (at least nominally) I am and therefore just that much more prepared for whatever will be my real experience.
