FMJMIKE
Member
What are the typical self defense shooting distances a civilian will be contronted with ?
Since there is no central database of civilian shootings, no one can claim what the "typical" distance is. Those who cite figures are pulling them from the UCR which deals with LE shootings or they are pulling them from somewhere where the sun don't shine.
So...........It seems a weapon that is effective at close ranges is preferable for civilians.
Since there is no place to examine a large enough sample of shootings, everything is supposition. I have interviewed many people and read several hundred reports from several jurisdictions and have come across SD shootings as far away 40 yards. While it may be a safe assumption that sd shootings take place at close range because of their nature, the specifics could be much more different than you think.Apparently Lurper does not understand the difference between quantitative and qualitative data. While there may be no central database, a brief survey of police records, news footage (especially from security cameras), etc. will reveal very few self defense shootings at long range by civilians.
Lurper said:Since there is no place to examine a large enough sample of shootings, everything is supposition. I have interviewed many people and read several hundred reports from several jurisdictions and have come across SD shootings as far away 40 yards. While it may be a safe assumption that sd shootings take place at close range because of their nature, the specifics could be much more different than you think.
The only problem with that is that the data like range, number of rounds fired, light, cover, etc. are not provided in the "Armed Citizen". In the vast majority of the cases, no shots are fired.. . . respectfully submit that you could study and do compilations of the last twenty years of The Armed Citizen columns in the NRA's publications and come up with some reliable data.
What are the typical self defense shooting distances a civilian will be contronted with ?
As a general rule, if the "bad guy" is not pretty close (like maybe 0-10 yds), then it isn't self defense.
As with any rule, there are exceptions.
Distance does not determine whether a shooting is self defense or not.
I end to go with successful 10' ...I think this is a question of methodology. If you have an aggressor at 50', but don't take any action and he closes to 10' before you shot him did you have a successful 10' gunfight or a screwed up 50' gunfight?
Here I think it's when you identify the threat, 'reasonable man' standard. A guy with a knife at 50' isn't much of a threat - he can become one quickly, but somebody on the other side of the street from me, waving a knife and screaming in my direction, cannot be shot without more obvious danger (IMHO). A guy with a rifle, taking aim, is different.When does the fight start? When you think their might be a fight or at the first trigger press?
Well, not much more is worth the effort for me to do; sounds like a nice Master's thesis for a Criminology student. The easy data sources just don't have a lot of data verification and vocabulary standardization.I don't know that there is any way to get really useful metrics about encounter distances.