Ummm... what about the pitbull our CCW holder had on a leash?
Unfortunately dog's are rarely good protection against a calm gun wielding perp. They do not see the perp as endangering the owner as they would if they held a club type weapon such as a bat in an aggressive manor. So the dog being unaggressive while he was held at gunpoint is quite likely. Now patting him down on the other hand... However if calm and collected and not spewing loud aggressiont the dog may not have picked up on the fact that anythign was wrong, or may have been socialized to be friendly and good with people in public. Someone pointing a gun at you will be little different than someone pointing a camera at you, and most dogs won't understand the difference or percieved threat.
Sadly having an aggressive dog is a serious liability, especialy in some states. Your dog biting someone or being "paranoid" enough to be protective when you need it means you have something that may get you sued, criminaly charged, and the dog put down if it gets loose or you want to take it in public. However if it is sweet non aggressive and loving it will probably not attack anyone even if your in danger unless they witness someone beating on you, an even then many might be tentative on how best to proceed, and if they do act do little more than latch onto an arm or leg.
If however your dog is trained to be aggressive/defensive or is of a breed given a bad reputation for being aggressive you can be charged with murder/assault with a deadly weapon if your dog kills or bites someone in some states. Even on your own property in some places when lethal force is not permitted it is criminal for your dog to hurt someone in some states.
So a dog for protection is seriously over rated. They are either not aggressive enough to reliably deter or attack in non violent situations such as this or robberies, home invasions etc where they only understand violence and not the threat of violence. Or they are a liability you cannot take places with you, and a risk to your financial future, and in some states potential criminal charges, even when not intentional negligent, such as the dog breaking out of the house while your at work and doing someone harm, or your kid/wife accidentaly letting it get away. Virtualy everywhere obvious negligence makes you liable, and many places simply being the owner even if not present makes you financialy and sometimes criminaly liable. Owners have served prison time for having dangerous dogs who got out of hand and hurt someone while thier wife or someone else was walking them and the owner unaware and not even present.
Also many people with massive animals for protection are usualy some of the most choice victims for a criminal as unlike in this particular case they are more often than not depending on an animal for safety and so are less prepared personaly to defend themselves or put up a fight than someone knowing they are depending on themselves for defense. Sorta along the lines of some that carry firearms can become soley comforted or dependent on a firearm to prevail and when that is taken or unavailable are less capable than they would have otherwise become. Then again those with firearms and especialy those having gone through the trouble to carry are more likely to have a defense oriented mindset and so it is not quite as accurate of a comparison as those that simply purchase or have a big dog to feel safe.
Now as far as range time, yes it would be ideal if someone could put all thier shots on target with a gun pointed at them or shots being fired at them. However consider that a handgun round is rarely a one or even two shot stopper immediately. I have seen several case where people shot, even in the heart return fire . So in a gun fight being a hard to hit target and going for cover is as important as hitting the target, as simply having well placed shots will not mean you don't take shots too, even if your hit first. This is not an old western or modern action flick where the first to shoot and hit wins, in real life bullets from handguns are often exchanged, sometimes fataly to both after the fact. If you and someone else both started firing at eachother from close range it is quite likely both would take hits if both had decent marksmanship skills. It is not the range or hunting where bullets are not incoming, or where your bullet with stop them immediately like a powerful rifle hit and stop additonal rounds form coming your way. So if scrambling for safety with a dog pulling him in a direction throwing off his aim he did pretty good. Especialy if his story that the gun was pointed at his head is believed. Standing still and drawing and shooting at someone pointing a gun at your head would not be the brightest thing to do, becoming a moving target while firing and going for cover would be smarter. Maybe not for the innocent bystanders or houses/cars errant rounds could hit, but for the individual that approach is more likely to save his life than drawing shooting and taking a shot in the head or body even if he hits the guy with a round first or at about the same time. These are pistol bullets, not magical life enders that merely must connect with the target to instantly save you from additional harm, especialy if thier weapon is already aimed at you.
!! In their minds, I guess it is justified by the ,"We don't pick'em, we just kick'em", attitued thy seem to portray,great police work:banghead:
