I. Gun "use" is only an option in a life threatening situation.
II. The bearer should not present their gun unless prepared to fire the weapon.
Note that quotes were put around "use" in the first statement because "use" did not mean "fire". Please let me know if you disagree with those 2 points of my personal gun policy thus far.
Following the logic of the previous statements.... If an attacker is not realistically threatening your life, your gun should remain concealed, and it should not be "used" (i.e. shown) even as a deterent.
my comments will be in italics
I disagree with your definition of 'use'. I believe a gun should only be discharged if your life/health is in serious danger or someone else's life/health is in serious danger. However, there are plenty of times prior to actually arriving at that point where bandishing is allowable in my mind.
An example from a friend of mine. Moved into a new home in a rough neighborhood. Woke up when a guy was trying to kick the door in yelling a name that was not his. The door was holding, he was not currently in any danger. He had spouse dial 911, and grabbed his gun, and threw up the sash, and while displaying his gun yelled 'get out of here'.
The guy turned tail and ran.
now, if you are not at the point where you are calling 911, brandishing is too extreme. However, there is a big difference in my mind between actually discharging, and simply showing that you are ready and willing to defend yourself.
How would you respond to the following situations? Would your gun be an option?
1. A much larger guy grabs you by the shirt, raises a fist, and makes some demand ("give me your wallet, watch, ... <whatever>").
-A-Is your life really in danger? Beating someone to death would take time and this guy wants money. Realistically, your life is not in danger if you send him away with your valuables.
-B-If this guy gets the impression that you are reaching for a weapon, he might be able to wrestle it away from you.
once he has his hands on you, you have already failed to successfully avoid conflict, and you are in REAL danger unless he immediately lets go. I am all for tossing your valuables and running in the other direction, but once phyiscal contact is innitiated during the committing of a crime, especially restraining you from fleeing, you are in real danger. I also don't think there is any difference between being beaten to death vs being beaten enough to loose the use of your legs, to have perminant brain damage, to have vision impairment. Look, if some crazy guy is going around and all he is doing is gouging out people's eyes, and he has got me down, BAM. Serious injury is enough of a reason to use deadly force. As far as concern B, if the guy is ballsy enough to attempt to tangle that gun away from you rather than flee at the sight of it, he is probably planning on killing you or beating you to unconciosness anyways, hence, i might as well take the chance. Besides, it isn't all that easy to take a gun away from a person.
2. You are leaving an event, heading back to your car. Six drunk guys are walking some distance in front of you. They notice your nice car and stop at it before you get there. You hear comments about vandalizing it, and they start doing some "unauthorized body work".
-A-At this point, your life is not clearly in danger. Yelling at them will either send them running, or put your life in MORE danger than it is currently.
-B-Calling the police is an option, but vanalism is not a high priority for the cops.
-C-How do you confront them, or at least prevent more damage to your car?
My life is not in danger. I don't care how high of a priority the police put on vandalism, I am calling 911. I would, however, yell at them. Yes, I know you said it 'could' put your life in danger, but then any decision 'could' put your life in danger...maybe they want you to run aways so they can kidnap you! probably not, but then yelling probably won't put you in danger, as they are only displaying the desire to commit criminal mischief.
Now, if I yelled at them and they ran, all good. If I yelled at them and they ignored me and kept on vandalizing car, I'd keep yelling. If they turned on me and started approaching as if intending to give harm, I would retreat, but would NOT turn my back on them. If this failed I would brandish and yell at them not to come any closer. Once I had nowhere to retreat, and my drawn weapon did not diswaid them, and they continued to approach threatening en-mass and were CLOSE I would feel justified in using deadly force
3. Two guys just beat your friend up in a parking lot and he's lying in a bloody heap (still conscious). They are all the same size as you and no weapons are visible. Fighting them means that you are next to be a bloody heap; calling the police means that they take off (maybe after they beat you up).
-A-At this point, your life is not clearly in danger.
-B-Of course you are not going to just ignore what happened to your friend.
Call 911. My job isn't to avenge my friend, but to aid him. If they flee upon hearing me call 911 all is good.
I would also draw my weapon if they did not immediately flee upon my calling 911. Also, I would advance up to were the fallen friend was. I would see any approach toward me as a very serious threat (I am clearly armed, this does not seem to diswaid them, they have already proven a propensity to do serious physical harm, it is reasonable to think they woudl do the same to me) and woudl respond with the most effective force I could muster. In this case it would be to shoot them.
A problem with this question is 'bloody heap' but still consious. You can be consious while your brain swells from a blow to the head, and then die from it a few hours later. You can have an eye knocked out of it's socket and loose sight perminantly, you can have internal bleeding, you can have your spine stomped on paralyzing you.
Guy A punches friend in the nose, bloodying it, guy B punches him in the gut, he falls over, they stand over him for a second, that's different. It's also not 'bloody heap'
I just want to hear some thoughts, and I am serious about asking this. Please assume that you have little or no martial arts training. You have your CCW, cell phone, no pepper spray, .... and pants. Ladies, you can also have a bra for this example. What is the minimum threat level where you would present your gun?
A much larger guy who is probably already smacking on you a bit, that's defensible in court. Take care of business. Of course if you feel you can resolve it without getting killed or maimed or worse, salute!
`s 
