I thought a lot of it made sense and rang true to me IMHO as a cop...but the "Jedi Mind trick - I don't have a gun" part was a bit much, and as SN said, really bad advice for most people. It would, as RoyGBiv said, require a pretty good amount of street-smart savvy and Harry Callahan nonchalance to pull off. Maybe.
I'm still not so sure about the advice on taking out your gun when you really don't need to. Think about it this way: he says that the time to shoot someone is the second you see their gun.
Okay, so he hasn't taken out a gun or caused any sort of lethal encounter so far, but I'm feeling uncomfortable so I take out my gun and hold it by my side as he advises. What does that give everyone else with a gun a reason to do?
Shoot me, justifiably.
No? Why not, if someone else doing the same thing is reason enough for me to shoot them?
You just took a non-lethal encounter to lethal by bringing out a gun. You escalated the situation. Was it justified?
I've done such, but on my premises when some unscrupulous dudes were hanging outside in the alleyway when I needed the garage door open. I've not done so on the streets, nor am I thinking it's a good idea. I don't know if a tough sounding internet personality is enough to convince me to pull out a gun on a public street when it is not legally justifiable.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
TGS,
Good point. This guy might be a bored out of work copywriter who is a Wambaugh fan. Who knows?
The coolest, most street savvy cop I know is a high school grad with no college. (And I love him, he's a true mentor and friend and a completely admirable dude.) I would NOT trust him for legal advice and he would laugh if anybody suggested he could give same. But he could tell you a lot about staying alive but that isn't necessarily legal advice. C'est la vie. Common sense goes a long way.
I don't think that's his argument.Originally Posted by TGS
Reluctance to get the gun involved when the situation has already crossed the threshold into a situation that could be dramatically improved by getting it involved is a fairly common problem. Take the dude who tried strong-arm robbery on me...most non-PF.com people I know of who have a CCW permit probably wouldn't have started to draw on the guy the second he demanded money because he hadn't yet pulled any sort of weapon. There's this idea out there that you can't get your gun involved until the other guy has commenced trying to kill you with his, and that's just not true. I don't believe the author of that writeup is encouraging pulling a gun willy nilly. When you talk to people who have been victims you often hear a lot of them state that they knew at a certain point just before hostilities started that something very bad was about to happen, but weren't sure what to do about it. I believe that's the point where he's telling them to get the gun involved.
3/15/2016
I know first hand just how quick a bad situation can end quickly when a gun is made visible. It works, but you have to be smart about it & have your ducks in a row. My story is as follows:
Me and a friend were returning from a deer hunt. He was dropping me off at my house. I lived in a very rural area at the time. As he turned on to my street, we noticed the car in front of us was weaving all over the road & traveling at a high rate of speed (close to 40 over the posted limit).
I immediately called the Sheriff's office & gave our location, plate #, & vehicle description. We decided to follow the car as I didn't want idiots like this on my street. Well, long story short, he took a turn too fast & cashed into an elderly ladies mailbox.
I got out to make sure they were ok. Inside were 2 passengers, a father & son, son was driving. The father got out & sat by the car, drunk as hell. The son jumped out of the vehicle & sprinted toward the ladies house. She was now standing on her porch seeing what was happening.
I yelled out & asked if she knew them, she said no. There was no way I was gonna let this guy go up there so I went after him, yelled @ him to stop, & when he didn't I grabbed him by the collar & threw his ass on the ground. He got up quick & came towards me @ which point I drew my G19, went to a low ready, & told him to stop. And stop he did!!! He turned ghost white, became real cooperative, & went and sat by the car til the deputies showed up.
THP showed up soon after. The car was stolen, drugs were found, & the guy had several outstanding warrants. Maybe I didn't do everything perfect, but I think I did the right thing.
I preemptively drew once to end an encounter.
I was leaving work and the 3 lane (each way) road was closed down to one due to construction. At the point where it went from 2 to 1 cars were alternating from each lane. I followed this pattern and seemed to have no problems with the car before or after me, until after the next stop light.
At said stop light I took the next turn and proceeded to attempt to get on the interstate. The car that had been behind me followed. Once it almost got to where you could merge into traffic, he gunned his car and pulled up next to me, came out his driver's side window up to his waist, and came up over the car and threw a giant sized drink at my truck. Knowing no good would come of this, I attempted to speed up and get past him. Since I drive the most woefully underpowered vehicle on the road, he easily boxed me in. I decided to just slow down and let him go. He decided to slow down with me. At this point we are out of entrance ramp and I am driving on the shoulder. I attempt to speed up again, to no avail, and now the guy is coming onto the shoulder in an attempt to force me off the road entirely.
Until now, I have not engaged him directly in any way - no shouting, no bird flipping, no looking at him - just me trying to get home to my wife and kids. However, it has become painfully clear that he is going to make this bigger than it ever should have been. So, still without directly engaging him, I draw my pistol and hold it up so that it is clearly visible to anyone that can see into my vehicle.
He suddenly slams on his brakes, I accelerate and immediately move to the far left lane in an attempt to just get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, it's rush hour and I quickly hit traffic. Within about 20 seconds, he is pulled up on my right, rolls down his window and throws what appears to be a 9mm round at me... literally throws, by hand, a round of ammunition at my truck. At this point I swerve towards him, he brakes and I finally leave him in the dust, never to see him again.
At this point I realize the most horrifying part of this ordeal. Because I don't actually want to ruin my truck by hitting him, I look at him to make sure that while I am swerving I won't actually make contact. As I look over I realize that there is a woman in the passenger seat screaming and pleading with the driver and two occupied toddler/baby seats in the back of his vehicle.
While my exit wasn't as clean as I had wanted, had I not drawn my weapon, more in a show that I was not an easy target for whatever he intended and less with any real ability to use it in a moving vehicle, that encounter would have ended decidedly worse for me.
I would prefer to give zero impression. If my life is in imminent danger and I can't get away, I'd prefer their last impression to be, "Huh? What's that flash?" Followed swiftly by, "Am I in hell?"
Posturing is merely a communication that you are unwilling to fight at this time. Communicating that you can't defend yourself (even if you actually can) may precipitate the whole incident as you appear an easy target.
Communicating that "if they don't start none, there won't be none" or something or other, simply gives them the upper hand. Now they may leave and come back with 5 friends.
Showing a pistol from a vehicle (hindsight 20/20, etc) may simply give them the time to load 10 AR mags and the AR they had sitting in the backseat.
The only thing I communicate is the non-verbal stare when someone is entering my personal space. I'll back-up, etc, until they stop. If they don't, I will communicate (while still moving), "hey man, you're getting a little too close for comfort" Which, if they don't immediately stop moving toward me would be followed by "Stop!" But generally, people either say they're sorry and stop moving toward you, or (my belief would be) they rush you. I have never had a person not stop moving toward me, simply by me giving the evil glare. I've never had to even inform someone they are too close for comfort.
Aside from someone slowly encroaching upon your personal space, I really can't think of a time when it is in the civilian's advantage to communicate anything.
Don't communicate that you're a hard mother-kitten. Try to be polite and walk away without telling someone anything else (though, don't allow yourself to become more exposed while walking away). If have no way of escaping and your life is in danger and you simply must communicate the hard mother-kitten part, just let the speed from concealment, rapid firing, empty mag and speed reload communicate that.
People wanting to inform others that they shouldn't be messed with may play to an advantage for an officer who might walk into a situation knowing there are 20 possible bad guys and they have to ask them to turn the music down or something. This communication can act as a deterrent. Civilians, on the other hand, don't have a duty to do such things as asking a party full of gang-bangers to turn down their music, and should simply, politely leave the area. There is almost zero advantage for the civilian communicating that they shouldn't be messed with, and (for the civilian) it is generally a "tactic" that results from ego, not an actual tactical advantage.
That has been my preferred choice in recent years. I've had two road rage incidents, and both of them I just didn't play. Pulled over to the shoulder, stopped, turned on the emergency flashers and sat there for a few minutes. Gun was vailable and ready if needed, but not shown. In the old days I might have been willing to demonstrate assorted high-level driving skills but now it seems better to not play the game at all.I would prefer to give zero impression.
"PLAN FOR YOUR TRAINING TO BE A REFLECTION OF REAL LIFE INSTEAD OF HOPING THAT REAL LIFE WILL BE A REFLECTION OF YOUR TRAINING!"
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