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bellcat
Posts: 2,040 Senior Member
thoughts on scenario
bellcat
Posts: 2,040 Senior Member
I'm fairly new to EDC. Im a teacher so I can't carry at school. (stupid). I finished reading the thread on insurance for carrying and it certainly concerns me. Like anybody, I don't want to end up in litigation when I'm trying to protect myself, family, etc.
Let's say I'm legally carrying in a C-store. A pistol armed perp attempts a robbery and I wield my weapon and he runs away.
Is anybody going to hassle me?
If I shoot the perp, now who is going to hassle/press charges etc?
Once again, I'm new to carrying. I've taken classes but I didn't feel we got enough into the exact situations where you may find yourself in court. We were instructed to call attorney immediately if you even wield the weapon.
Any input would be great.
Mark
Let's say I'm legally carrying in a C-store. A pistol armed perp attempts a robbery and I wield my weapon and he runs away.
Is anybody going to hassle me?
If I shoot the perp, now who is going to hassle/press charges etc?
Once again, I'm new to carrying. I've taken classes but I didn't feel we got enough into the exact situations where you may find yourself in court. We were instructed to call attorney immediately if you even wield the weapon.
Any input would be great.
Mark
"Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see." Mark Twain
Replies
That initial contact is where you're facing potential danger. Empty hands and careful attentive compliance may be crucial.
IMO, your butt's in the breeze. Knowing ahead of time exactly what circumstances you're willing to give armed response and exactly what circumstances you're not willing to give armed response is pretty darn important.
Up until someone's (including your own) life is threatened best to stay out of it and be a good witness for the cops....
Attempting to intervene may start a series of events that have a distinct possibility of going sideways quickly and completely out of control...
Seriously. Are you a....gasp....Sheepdog?
More importantly, other than the state mandated CCW course which is little more than a gun safety seminar with minimal live fire (or not), do you have any specific training in threat management or combative shooting that would actually make you competent to not only defend yourself, but not get the clerk or other customers killed when you yank that Roscoe?
Do you have any ownership position in the store which makes a monetary loss your loss to absorb, and the health and welfare of the employees your responsibility?
Are you willing to risk, or increase the risk to you or your family in order to defend the above mentioned store in which you don't have any stake whatsoever?
See what I am getting at here?
You are not there to defend anyone but yourself or your family. You need to keep that Roscoe in its holster unless and until you are pretty freakin sure YOU are the one who is immediate and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm and that "being a good witness" is not the best option.
No one is going to pin a medal on you for playing crime stopper. The corporation that owns the store won't even give you a cup of coffee, let alone some sort of reward. The only accolades you will get will be a thread on an internet forum about "one for the good guys", or more likely getting shredded for bad tactics by other amateurs who have never survived a first-person-shooter video game, let alone a lethal force encounter.
Given the same set of circumstances, what would a reasonable person have done?"
As to me if the is no eminent threat to me other my family ... I might be a good witness but if it ain’t fight I ain’t getting in it.
- George Orwell
I do have to admit that reading things on here some times makes me smile.
Somehow, Smoke Pole, Saturday Night Special, Long Tom or Horse Pistol just don't seem kosher anymore. Language being what it is today.
— but as Sigmund Freud supposedly said, “sometimes a cigar’s merely a cigar.”
http://www.gunsandammo.com/blogs/history-books/firearms-nicknames/
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
They don't make shows like this anymore.
Now that's Tactical..... How could you possibly shoot back!!!
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
If it's just a robbery in a store where no one is being actively threatened with being shot, or shots already fired, it's better to just leave it holstered. With cell phones everywhere now, using your non shooting hand to shoot some video of the robbery in progress would be good. The cops will appreciate any video of the robber(s) to help identify them.
The problem with your scenario I can see is that if you draw your firearm and confront the robber, that act in itself may initiate a shootout. The robber(s) is already wound up on adrenaline so threatening him with your firearm might be all that is required to set him off.
― Douglas Adams