We are talking about gun fighting. Attaching a PC label to killing does not change the nature of the activity. But if it makes you feel better, then we're talking about "self-defense".
A PC label? Hahahahaha! You've been reading way too many militant magazines it seems. When you defend your life, it's called SELF-DEFENSE. You can use your CCW for situations in which the perp does NOT have a gun, like if he's welding a knife. That's NOT gunfighting.
Your PRIMARY focus needs to be defending your life, not engaging in a gunfight.
I also never said to engage in a fight when it can be avoided. Avoidance is much cheaper and less painful. I highly recommend it, if only to avoid bruising and late night cold sweats.
Then obviously you need to spend more time honing your situational awareness skills and less time playing "Shootout at the OK Corral" with airguns. If you put yourself in a situation in which you are up against a group of criminals, you already made a HUGE mistake by finding yourself in the wrong neighborhood. How many rounds of ammo you carry is not going to make up for that mistake.
In fact, the more ammo you shoot, the more it's going to cost to defend yourself in a court of law.
I'm not saying that everyone should get a revolver instead of an autoloader. I like autoloaders, especially with good cartridges such as the .45 ACP and the 10mm. But I don't like your suggestion that we need to train with SWAT tactics in order to carry concealed. In the vast majority of self-defense situations on record, all it took was two shots, three at the most, without any such tactics.
When you put so much emphasis on engaging in a gunfight, you start to lose focus on the fact that you have a CCW to defend your life against deadly force and to get out of the area.
Oh, boy. There's that Hollywood "Wild West" again. That's classic, but I do agree. There's nothing "Old West" about two guys jumping a good guy for his wallet.
And you need 15 rounds and SWAT tactics to engage two guys? Besides, if they get the jump on you, how are you going to pull your pistol in time? Once again, it goes back to situational awareness.
A few months ago this guy left his hotel room at 3 AM (dumb mistake) to go to the store or something. Right outside of the hotel room he is confronted by two guys for his wallet, one of whom welding an airgun that looked like a real gun that late at night. Now, the guy was carrying a .45 but the guys already had a jump on him and he couldn't pull the gun out discreetly. So he handed over his wallet, and when the guys walk away, they turn around again with the airgun. That's when the guy finally pulled out his .45 and started blasting away. He fired seven shots and only hit one guy twice, one bullet hitting the perp's arm.
Having more ammo really wouldn't have made a difference in this situation. The guy screwed up by leaving a hotel room that late at night. The darkness might have also affected his ability to see clearly because out of 7 rounds, he only hit twice. But he might not have had enough range time.
In a situation in which you can't really discreetly pull out your gun, your other best bet is to carry a "fake" wallet, which would include old credit and debit cards which are no longer any good and cannot even be used by the perps at all. Of course there's still the risk that they are going to harm you regardless.
The objective is to stop or kill the bad guy (depending upon the situation) and go home with no extra holes.
No, that's the second objective. The first objective is to pay attention to your surroundings and try to avoid the bad guy in the first place.
Our defenses, as good guys are: body armor, cover, movement, and attack.
Attack is not a defense. Maybe you meant counter-attack. The rest are defenses but will make it look like you put yourself into a shootout situation. In a court of law the jury is going to think of you more like a Charles Bronson wannabe than a law-abiding citizen minding his own business who had to use deadly force to prevent the commission of a violent crime.
Awareness is another defense, but for the purposes of this discussion, the encounter has escalated past the point were avoidance is impossible.
Sorry dude, you are not going to change the topic on me. Awareness is a lot more important than the rest of the defenses you have listed. I've read up a lot of self-defense shooting cases and what struck me is that for at least a lot if not most, the situation could have been avoided by the victim.
I remember reading a story recently about some kid in Texas who moved into an apartment next door to some low life, drug dealing criminals because the rent is cheap. Long story short, he ended up having to shoot one of the perps with a .223 when the guy starting to climb through his window with a
.38 Special. If he payed more attention to the place he was moving into and put more emphasis on his personal safety rather than the cost of rent, he never would have found himself in that position to begin with.
Just because you can move doesn't mean you can escape...especially if the encounter is at 10 feet or less.
If the encounter is ten feet or less more than likely you won't be able to discreeting pull out your firearm.
Who said anything about stopping while shooting? Feel free to stand there and trade shots (hand, knife, gun, etc) with them.
I don't know very many people who can run full-speed in the other direction while looking behind, shooting, and making hits in at the same time. This leads into the spray and pray mentality.
I'll send flowers to your funeral if I hear about it.
Seeing that I put more emphasis on AVOIDING confrontations and bad neighborhoods whereas you've ignored it for the most part, I think my chances are survival are higher than yours.
No matter how many rounds of ammo is in your gun, your chances are survival are still a lot less than if you had avoided the situation to begin with.
This is an assumption that crime only occurs in "bad" areas.
I've never said that crime only occurs in bad areas; don't put words in my mouth. In fact, from personal experience I know that it doesn't. But from the same personal experience I know that criminals act a lot more discreetly in good neighborhoods. In good neighborhoods, vehicle break-ins are far more common than upfront "give me your wallet" confrontations. Also, you can usually tell if someone's up to no good just by their appearance and mannerisms. If I see a WASP in a Polo shirt, nice slacks, a cell phone clipped to his belt, Alden shoes, and driving a BMW, I doubt the guy is going to try and rob me.
In good neighborhoods, there is a less likely chance you will encounter a roaming street gang than in a bad neighborhood.
There are many folks who live in very nice neighborhoods who become victims of crime in "safe" areas.
Because they weren't paying any attention to their surroundings or the people around them.
I disagree that pulling a backup weapon is always faster than reloading. On particular example is if the fighting is at bad breath distance...going for another gun may not be the best choice.
If you have to reload AT ALL, you are in a terrible situation that you could have probably avoided. If you need to reload at bad breath distance, then you are a worthless shot and need more firearms practice before you carry that gun again.
The vast majority of reported self-defense shootings ended with only two shots, no more than three, so in the vast majority of situations the higher capacity of an autoloader did not make a difference.
) between the cylinder and barrel, or between the cylinder and hand, and it's done for. If it won't run dirty, it's pretty close to not running when it's clean. Even my Kel-tec can be full of fluff and fuzz and run without a hitch.
