Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
Recent threads and watching Spike's Conceal & Carry School have made me reflect on how many of us assume that the mere presence of a gun will shift a conflict in our favor - and that isn't totally without reason since in a large majority of crimes, the mere presence of a firearm does deter the criminal without a shot being fired.
However, it doesn't always work out that way. Recently watching Spike's Conceal & Carry School, they did some Force-on-Force training using the same scenario for each student. (You can watch the episodes online, the Force-on-Force training is the last two episodes (there is also a third episode that has been aired on TV; but is not yet online).
The scenario is one of a couple arguing in front of the student's car as they exit a bank. The man yells at, and in some cases, strikes the woman. As the students approach, he tells them to stay out of it and grabs a bat. The woman stays subdued at first but immediately joins in yelling at the student if the student is in anyway aggressive towards the man. The longer the scenario lasts, the more both the man and the woman escalate their aggressive behavior towards the student.
Time and time again, I saw students pull their firearms to react to a legitimate threat; but then become flustered when the person refused to comply with their orders and only modified his behavior to the point that he wouldn't be immediately shot. Inevitably the students ended up getting sucked deeper into the conflict instead of decisively ending it by flight or fight.
So I thought we might get a good discussion about this type of scenario. What do you do when the bad guy isn't terrified by your firearm but doesn't cooperate while attempting to muddle the ability, opportunity and jeopardy elements long enough to draw you in?
However, it doesn't always work out that way. Recently watching Spike's Conceal & Carry School, they did some Force-on-Force training using the same scenario for each student. (You can watch the episodes online, the Force-on-Force training is the last two episodes (there is also a third episode that has been aired on TV; but is not yet online).
The scenario is one of a couple arguing in front of the student's car as they exit a bank. The man yells at, and in some cases, strikes the woman. As the students approach, he tells them to stay out of it and grabs a bat. The woman stays subdued at first but immediately joins in yelling at the student if the student is in anyway aggressive towards the man. The longer the scenario lasts, the more both the man and the woman escalate their aggressive behavior towards the student.
Time and time again, I saw students pull their firearms to react to a legitimate threat; but then become flustered when the person refused to comply with their orders and only modified his behavior to the point that he wouldn't be immediately shot. Inevitably the students ended up getting sucked deeper into the conflict instead of decisively ending it by flight or fight.
So I thought we might get a good discussion about this type of scenario. What do you do when the bad guy isn't terrified by your firearm but doesn't cooperate while attempting to muddle the ability, opportunity and jeopardy elements long enough to draw you in?