Drawing from concealment on a man holding a gun who isn't aware of you is not nuts. It is IMO a very good tactic if you are willing to fire. Just making that blanket statement above doesn't really reflect a lot of thought about these situations.
In my opinion, making the assumption that he
isn't aware of you, even while he is asking the clerk for money, or that he would not become aware of you very quickly, is a much bigger stretch than assuming that he is likely to shoot you if you do not act.
Thought? OK. If
I were the perp, the first person in the room who made any unusual move--reaching under or unbuttoning a shirt or jacket or reaching into a pocket, walking to cover, stepping behind someone or something, trying to move around behind me--would not only draw my immediate attention and become the subject of my awareness, but would end up would dropping to the ground, wounded.
Yep, the bad guy would have fired first. That doesn't mean the citizen is not competent, it just means that the perp has gotten the drop on him.
In a recent episode of PDTV, Ayoob discussed how to enter a "Stop and Rob" safely. Slightly different scenario, but pertinent. The idea was to observe and withdraw as quickly as possible if anything appeared awry. An incident in which an off-duty policeman interrupted an armed robbery was described. When the clerk acknowledged the policeman, who would not have intervened otherwise, he was forced to draw, and he died.
That brings up the question of how police training would address the situation. Here's a blurb from a twenty-year plus law enforcement veteran who is a moderator on another board. It relates to the Miami shooing at hand:
How smart is it to start a gunfight under those circumstances? There is a reason the police don't just charge in shooting on an armed robbery call, but rather wait outside to catch the suspect while he's leaving.
Not very smart in his view, one would infer from that and the context in which it was posted.
We've been discussing the risk of a citizen's being shot by the robber if he or she chooses to draw.
Let's also consider that the robber might have an accomplice who could finish the fight.
Or that another CCW holder sees the citizen firing a gun at someone in the Burger King without having seen what had transpired or the ski mask, and shoots the citizen.
And perhaps most importantly, that the citizen's bullets hit one or more innocent bystanders. The police will not take that risk, and they are indemnified. The citizen is not.
Yes, I have read all of the posts, and I've given this a lot of thought. Personally, I think that trying to engage an armed robber in a business establishment would be foolhardy at best.