If you are in a fight for your life there are no rules. You must win and to do so you must always maintain a tactical advantage. You are reading this blog because you are
law-abiding citizen who has chosen to go armed in public. If the unfortunate day comes that you must draw your gun remember these words: Maintain your advantage.
Take a look at this video.
In it you see two young thugs come into an Internet cafe in Florida. These “cafes” are really just online gambling halls that often deal with large amounts of cash, a prime target for armed robbery. Now, when the criminals come in, one armed with a bat, the other with a pistol, watch the man in the back, wearing white. This is almost textbook defensive pistol shooting from the 71-year-old hero. At the start of the robbery, he remains calm, but turns in his chair to assess the situation. He keeps his pistol concealed until the robber with the gun turns his back, then draws and fires when he has the greatest tactical advantage. If there is a concern about his action it could be that we can't see where the other robbery victim was standing at the time of the first shot. But I would say the “Greater Danger Theory” applies in this case. That is, the failure to act would cause a greater danger to you or others than your actions, so your actions, even if the situation is not perfect, are justified.
Also notice there does not appear to be any negotiations going on here. Don't be fooled by TV shows and bad lawyers that you need to order a bad guy to drop his gun. It only takes a split second to put a pistol on target and pull the trigger and action defeats reaction every time. You could end up catching a bullet while you try to talk someone into dropping their gun. Instead, if a bad guy has a gun and has already displayed his intent to use it, shoot him, without discussion and without warning. Then shoot him again.
The reason I say “shoot him again” is simple: Your intent is to stop the threat. Have you heard the old axiom, “What does a person do after being shot with a pistol? The same thing he was doing before he was shot with a pistol.” Look at this video. Somewhere in the course of the exchange the bad guys were shot. Does it look like either of them are slowing down? Hell no. They were picking up speed as they hit the door. What if they had decided to run right at the citizen CCW carrier? One still had a gun, the other still had a bat. Both were still active threats who could have turned to fight at any time and again, action defeats reaction. Keep shooting until the threat is gone, then stop shooting.
Let's talk about the bat. Is it a deadly weapon? Did he display his intent to use it? Yup on both counts. That's why he got shot as well. Both men were later captured and now they get to tell their fellow inmates it was 71-year-old man who drove them off.
The moral of the story is this: This man did everything right. He very likely saved lives and he certainly gave two young men something to think about before they try to rob someone else. CCW works. Use it wisely.
If you are looking for gear to keep your concealed pistol secure, yet easily accessible, check out the Gun Digest Store. We have something for just about everyone.
Other great books for those who carry concealed handguns:
The Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry
The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery
Effective Handgun Defense, A Comprehensive Guide to Concealed Carry
Find more resources atgundigeststore.com/tactical
TU for above info-very true CCW is an advantage and should be appreciated for that purpose-While in LE work I was both uniformed and UC and the last thing I ever wanted was someone 2 know I was armed till it was needed!-U all give out a lot of useful info and many friends of mine and me also appreciate ur articles
Shoot him again. Yep. My police officer son wound up in a one on one gun fight. His second shot put a 45 in the heart of his attacker. The attacker still went about forty feet trying to clear a misfeed and fire back at the officer.