Reach, Throw, Row, Go for firearms?

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Cosmoline

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It's an old lifeguard mantra--"Reach, throw, row, go." The idea is you don't jump in the water to rescue someone unless you've exhausted the options that put you in a better position. I'd like to develop a similar mantra for situations when you're facing deadly harm

Something like:

Rifle
Shotgun
Handgun
Spear
Axe
Sword
Knife
Foot
Fist
Harsh language

Ideas? Input?
 
I always understood reach, throw, go (we didn't have row. rowing was considered the best way to "go") to mean not necessarily the precise action you should undertake, but a rescuer's analogue for the force ladder. So:

Avoid - if you can
De-escalate - to stop it from developing into a violent situation
Distance - run like hell, if you can
Help - find somebody with a badge and all his buddies with badges
Shoot - if all else fails, or if help won't arrive in time: slidelock
 
Uh... *cough*... Yeah, thanks for that. I swiped the idea from nononsenseselfdefense.com for the most part, but it's nice to see somebody finally recognizing my astoundingly powerful intellect :)
 
You may be right in that the use of force ladder is analogous to the lifeguard mantra, but I was looking more at the tools (pole, life preserver, boat, hands). In other words, if you have various tools around you, which do you choose first. Which takes priority over the others?
 
Avoid -- stay away from places where you might get in trouble.
Retreat -- when trouble threatens, get out if you can
Call -- carry and use a cell phone
Warn -- Make sure those threatening you know you are someone not to mess with.
Shoot.
 
Those are good ways to avoid facing imminent deadly harm, but once you are facing it, the only choice is to use lethal force in return or die.
 
I understand where you're coming from Cosmo. Once you've exhausted your non-force option, what's the escalation of tools to implement that force?

However, it's a rather moot point. Unless you routinely CCW a rifle, pistol, knife, spear, axe, sword etc at the same time then you'll just respond with whatever you have at hand. Of course, it's possible to have say 3 reasonable options (handgun, knife, hand to hand). However, the proper tool is dependant on circumstances. %99 of the time the gun is the goto option; other things are as situation dictates.

But what about home defense, where one could easily have multiple fireamrs to choose from? Well, that's just the old "carbine vs shotgun vs 1911 vs Glock vs .45 vs 9mm" debates you'll find an every gun board on the net.
 
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