...and he's defended some self-defense cases, right?
He's a criminal defense attorney with over twenty years of experience in everything from murder to arson, including self-defense. Guess whose advice I value more.
You still haven't addressed the fact that you are going to be firing in a chaotic environment. People screaming, shoving, fleeing. Noise. Confusion.
Ok, I get it. You're not against self-defense... you just only believe it's appropriate in libraries, the abbeys of cloistered monks, and in the middle of the Gobi desert.
Bad guys (whom you apparently believe will be "obvious") physically assaulting victims.
They've been obvious in EVERY recent reported attack in Chicago. But yeah, you could be right. Perhaps rather than plan for what's actually happening, instead I should plan for them being super soldiers from an alternate universe who can change their appearance at will. Man, wouldn't it be freaky to get jumped by the Jonas brothers, who really AREN'T the Jonas brothers??!! And to make things even more confusing, they could beat me in the head with a 40oz of Old English 800 while screaming, "We're not hitting you!"
Yeah, I guess it WOULD be highly inappropriate to shoot under those circumstances...
Now Deanimator sets his jaw, skins that smokewagon, and adds some gunfire to the mix.
I've heard that it sure takes some of the edge off of getting beaten in the head with a 40oz. But you see, me just taking a possibly fatal or crippling beating isn't a good "mix" for me.
Do you suppose the overall level of panic and confusion will increase or decrease at that moment?
I'll bet it certainly increases for the guy trying to beat me to death.
It's NOT my job to "minimize panic and confusion". It's my job to STAY ALIVE and HEALTHY. Letting somebody beat me to death doesn't accomplish that goal. If it keeps me alive and whole, I couldn't care less if my shooting an attacker causes Peter Marc Richman to run around screeching, "It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!"
In that situation, are you confident of your ability to accurately place all your shots? What will the grand state of Ohio have to say if you plug one of them wimmens and chirruns you figure to be protecting?
I figure to be protecting MYSELF.
Not every situation is winnable and not every interaction with the criminal element can be solved with a gun.
Guns often BRILLIANTLY solve deadly force attacks... certainly far better than LETTING somebody kill or maim you.
NO situation is "winnable" if you just surrender. Ask the Bielski brothers.
But then I've seen people who mocked those who rose up in the Warsaw Ghetto and Sobibor. Apparently to some, it's OH so much more "civilized" to go down without a fight. Besides, it keeps the person killing you from getting "angry". No telling where THAT might lead...