You carry...Are you scared to pull the trigger?

But until you have been in a situation requiring you to draw a firearm, point it at another human being, and pull the trigger, you simply have no idea whatsoever what you will do.
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I disagree with this wholly.

Human beings are hard coded at the instinctual level to fight for their lives when in peril. Assuming that a person hasn't been environmentally habituated into the stop, drop, and beg mentality, the will to survive is ever present, quietly existing under the consciousness to get us through the toughest of times. Dynamic, force on force training simply harnesses the instinct so that a person has a skill set on which to draw in the moment of need that doesn't require conscious thought. It does not supplant the fundamental will to live, however.

Without going into unnecessary detail, I know exactly what I'm willing to do at the critical moment and what I'm capable of to bring that will to fruition. Let it suffice to say that a gun is but one tool among the many implements of survival mister. The software that's required to use those tools effectively is between one's ears and as such, how far one will go to live can be evaluated independent of the actual use of a firearm in a self defense scenario. In other words, drawing a firearm, pointing it at another human being, and pulling the trigger is not the alpha and omega to this discussion. I can't help but to wonder if it's because of your personal uncertainty of what you would do given the scenario you assembled in quotation that you are assuming the same must be true of everyone else.

The point on which I agree with you is that the legal, financial, and social aftermath of a self defense shooting remains unknown until it happens. As this may be different with each case and varies widely according to factors such as location, local politics, and local culture among others, it must be experienced first hand to "know" it in the manner of your point of view. But in any case, you can bet that the shooter and survivor won't emerge from the situation completely unscathed in all categories.
 
The research on combat shows that people do freeze up - even the trained and even those who have fought before. There is strong evidence that neurophysiological systems exist that produce freezing behavior as that is sometimes adaptative - for example to hide in the woods.

I've never been in combat. Being a FOG civilian, I've done lots of FOF as I regard training as mandated if I'm going to carry. I've seen folks freeze up solid. I saw a self-proclaimed martial artist, for instance, get knocked on his ass as he could not deal with an advancing aggressor. I've seen two FOF participants come face to face and one shoot and the other not. The latter said that they just couldn't pull the trigger. These were folks who were in a high end course, not a CWP course.

No one can say with any guarantee what their response would be. The referral to being an internet warrior usually comes from those who state forcefully that they would be pros in action, can make the difficult shot, win the H2H, not freeze, not have emotional consequences after taking a life or the like

The considered practitioneer is aware that they can freeze, miss the shot, screw up and have emotional consequences. They prepare themselves to minimize this but are aware that there are no guarantees as to their response.

There is a very, very large literature on responses to emotional and dangerous situations which folks should research a bit before being so sure of things.
 
I have pulled the trigger, without hesitation. Hopefully you will find like me there was no time to have fear of pulling the trigger before you pull it. Situation comes up and you react the way you train, it's after you pull the trigger that you say to yourself "Oh no you didn't, you didn't just dump that guy". But even that will pass if you had good cause. Check my webpage under Negrete Shooting, or explore the whole thing.
 
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If you study PTSD responses of police, you can find folks who did pull the trigger and the next time around froze or cognitively couldn't do it.

They probably thought that this wouldn't happen to them.
 
Is someone truly threatening the life of someone, or is he simply menacing?
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no matter what, you felt your life was threatened! there is no other correct answer after a ccw shooting!
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I am talking about intervening on someone else's behalf. I will know when I feel my life is threatened. ;)
 
I don't believe that a study of what the police has or hasn't done when in a shoot scenario is a good indicator of how the private citizen will react when faced with a life or death situation. The decision making process of the cop to fire or not is vastly different than the armed citizen. The police are charged with enforcing the law. Many responses may necessitate their drawing the service weapon that may not directly relate to a lethal threat. The licensed civilian only has two states in their threat matrix: lethal/grave injury jeopardy or not. In addition, many LE join the force for reasons other than relating to their firearm. On the other hand, the sole reason for the CCW citizen to arm them self is to fight back when and if faced with an otherwise untenable, violent situation. Cops may or may not be ready to levy extreme prejudice in the duty of their jobs. For CCWs, it's part and parcel of the decision to carry.

I guess at the end of the day it boils down to how well we each know ourselves.
 
Human beings are hard coded at the instinctual level to fight for their lives when in peril.
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I will make this easy and short, Humans have the instinct to FIGHT, FLIGHT, or FREEZE. Most people in modern society will not fight. One day of watching the news, should indicate that. One look at "Active Shooter" incidents should show you that most untrained people will run or freeze.
 
Cops may or may not be ready to levy extreme prejudice in the duty of their jobs. For CCWs, it's part and parcel of the decision to carry.
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WHAT? Before I respond to this statment, would you please explain your reasoning.
 
How about having been in a situation where deadly force is the appropriate response to the threat but you didn't have that capability? Does that count?

When I lived in Chicago, I was raped. I've heard people say the only difference between a rape and a murder is the victim's still breathing. I would add that the rape victim dies over and over again until she works through the experience and becomes a rape survivor.

Am I "afraid" to pull the trigger if necessary? No. I'm afraid of what can happen if I don't.
 
Fear can be used to your advantage. It can keep you focused and make you do what you need to do in a stressful situation such as a gunfight. The latter though is lots of people let their fears cripple them. Fear is a natural emotional response to a stressful situation. I say use it to your advantage
 
It is the best real world training that one can get to prepare them for the REAL world and to give one the confidence that they will know when to use their weapon as opposed to keeping it holstered during an emotional trying time.
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Perhaps, but other than LE, most "real world" SD shootings involve untrained people who never heard of using cover, didn't have time to use it anyway, and a tactical reload out of the question. Usually, Bubba isn't exactly a well trained Commando, either.

Guns like .25 autos, 32's and .38 Specials are most common. Some, attacked in their homes, don't even remember they have a gun until after the assault is underway and they've been injured. Some perform more admirably.

I find it interesting that so many of them survived to find themselves the subject of a chapter in a book like "Thank God I Had a Gun" by Chris Bird, or in one of Bob Water's books.

Sometimes the common, untrained, not really a gun type, does quite well. Sometimes not. But they're the majority in the "real world".
 
In my state you are legally permitted by statute to defend yourself and others by the use of deadly force. In my morality you are required to defend yourself.
 
I have not frozen, nor did I fear pulling the trigger. I did have a little fear that one of their bullets may hit me but that is it. I went on to finish my meal and soda...
Brent
 
Ive recently had the misfortune of having two encounters lately. The first one happened when my sister and I were on our way to the gun range. While at a stop light the driver in the car next to me looked like he opened the door and threw up. We found it funny for some reason and laughed. He didn't like that and bad words and gestures were exchanged between him and I. Not my brightest moment but I was ready to move on and put it past me. I guess he was not and proceeded to follow us about 3 miles to the gun range. We pull in and they had already closed. The guy gets out of his car and tries to confront me. I proceed to drive away.

He follows me on my way back to the highway when I noticed my fuel light was on. I decide to stop and get gas. Well I'm not willing to let this guy affect my ability to do anything so I decide to stop at a gas station on the way to the highway. I pull in to a pump and he pulls in to a stall. I'm pumping my gas and he walks up to me standing about 5 feet away. He then rants and raves while I stand there pumping gas not saying anything to him. When he is finished I tell him how stupid everything he said was. AGAIN not the smartest thing for me to do.

I have my pistol in the back seat of my SUV and im standing right in front of the door to the back seat pumping gas. At that point he starts to walk away then says out loud "F*ck it" and walks swiftly right up to me. I stand my ground not moving at all hands in the pockets of my hoodie. I was thinking to my self if he hits me he hits me and I will defend my self. I'm sure if we got in to a fight the law wouldn't care who started the violent confrontation but I would. The moment he gets one step away from me my sister sticks her arm out into his chest and says 'if you hit him i'll call the cops'. In that moment the situation was instantly defused. He said some more stupid things and made his way to his car. He drove off and I wrote down his license plate number.

In the end I know there are better ways of avoiding situations like this. I will take this experience and learn from it. There wont be a next time if I can avoid it.

Situation #2 - yay, lucky me. What I can say about this one is it was in no way my fault at all and at no point was I in the wrong nor did I encourage the escalation of this situation.

I was shopping with a friend that works at wal-mart on second shift. We get done and leave in seperate cars. It is 2 AM on a saturday night. I'm driving home when the light turns red. I'm sitting at this light getting ready to head east. I notice a car approaching from the south with its signal on to head east too. My light turns green and the car is still coming. The street has 3 lanes inside, outside and a merge/turn lane. I am in the outside lane. I'm driving through the intersection and notice that this guy isn't going to stop. I figured he would just turn into the merge/turn lane. WRONG, he turns into MY lane. I swerve and honk my horn. Then this guy rolls down his window and is yelling god knows what. I didn't roll down my window and just kept driving. He starts pacing me and hangs a BLUE bandana out of his window. Trying to scare me by showing me that he's in a gang or something. The funniest part is the car he was in was a RED chevy impala on 'dubs'. Anyway I just avoid this guy and take a long detour on my way home making sure he doesn't follow.

In this situation the end result was more desirable as no confrontation had a chance. There was no way I was getting out of my car especially since I didn't have my pistol with me and this 'gang' member could've had anything.

I know this is a long post but maybe this can help you avoid some confrontations. I can say, if I would've felt like my life or my sisters life was threatened I wouldn't be scared or hesitate to pull the trigger. Owning a weapon comes with the responsibility of knowing when to use it and not to use it. I think for the most part people who have concealed carry licenses are law abiding citizens and for that reason they are scared of the consequences of pulling the trigger. Besides the legal issues, you will have to live with taking another persons life for the rest of yours.
 
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ve recently had the misfortune of having two encounters lately. The first one happened when my sister and I were on our way to the gun range. While at a stop light the driver in the car next to me looked like he opened the door and threw up. We found it funny for some reason and laughed. He didn't like that and bad words and gestures were exchanged between him and I. Not my brightest moment but I was ready to move on and put it past me. I guess he was not and proceeded to follow us about 3 miles to the gun range. We pull in and they had already closed. The guy gets out of his car and tries to confront me. I proceed to drive away.

He follows me on my way back to the highway when I noticed my fuel light was on. I decide to stop and get gas. Well I'm not willing to let this guy affect my ability to do anything so I decide to stop at a gas station on the way to the highway. I pull in to a pump and he pulls in to a stall. I'm pumping my gas and he walks up to me standing about 5 feet away. He then rants and raves while I stand there pumping gas not saying anything to him. When he is finished I tell him how stupid everything he said was. AGAIN not the smartest thing for me to do.

I have my pistol in the back seat of my SUV and im standing right in front of the door to the back seat pumping gas. At that point he starts to walk away then says out loud "F*ck it" and walks swiftly right up to me. I stand my ground not moving at all hands in the pockets of my hoodie. I was thinking to my self if he hits me he hits me and I will defend my self. I'm sure if we got in to a fight the law wouldn't care who started the violent confrontation but I would. The moment he gets one step away from me my sister sticks her arm out into his chest and says 'if you hit him i'll call the cops'. In that moment the situation was instantly defused. He said some more stupid things and made his way to his car. He drove off and I wrote down his license plate number.

In the end I know there are better ways of avoiding situations like this. I will take this experience and learn from it. There wont be a next time if I can avoid it.

Situation #2 - yay, lucky me. What I can say about this one is it was in no way my fault at all and at no point was I in the wrong nor did I encourage the escalation of this situation.

I was shopping with a friend that works at wal-mart on second shift. We get done and leave in seperate cars. It is 2 AM on a saturday night. I'm driving home when the light turns red. I'm sitting at this light getting ready to head east. I notice a car approaching from the south with its signal on to head east too. My light turns green and the car is still coming. The street has 3 lanes inside, outside and a merge/turn lane. I am in the outside lane. I'm driving through the intersection and notice that this guy isn't going to stop. I figured he would just turn into the merge/turn lane. WRONG, he turns into MY lane. I swerve and honk my horn. Then this guy rolls down his window and is yelling god knows what. I didn't roll down my window and just kept driving. He starts pacing me and hangs a BLUE bandana out of his window. Trying to scare me by showing me that he's in a gang or something. The funniest part is the car he was in was a RED chevy impala on 'dubs'. Anyway I just avoid this guy and take a long detour on my way home making sure he doesn't follow.

In this situation the end result was more desirable as no confrontation had a chance. There was no way I was getting out of my car especially since I didn't have my pistol with me and this 'gang' member could've had anything.

I know this is a long post but maybe this can help you avoid some confrontations. I can say, if I would've felt like my life or my sisters life was threatened I wouldn't be scared or hesitate to pull the trigger. Owning a weapon comes with the responsibility of knowing when to use it and not to use it. I think for the most part people who have concealed carry licenses are law abiding citizens and for that reason they are scared of the consequences of pulling the trigger. Besides the legal issues, you will have to live with taking another persons life for the rest of yours.
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No offense, but if that's the way you handle your affairs, you shouldn't be carrying a weapon.
 
maui19 said:
What I can say about this one is it was in no way my fault at all... nor did I encourage the escalation of this situation.
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maui19 said:
...and honk my horn.
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Hm. Unfortunately, whether or not you did something to escalate the situation depends on the other persons perspective, not yours.
 
I counted on some criticism. Like most human beings I am not perfect. All I can try to do is improve and learn each day.

You guys are entitled to your opinions. I don't have to justify my actions in either situation, just sharing my stories.

Back to the original post 'are you scared to pull the trigger?'. I will say that you should never pull your weapon on somebody unless you are ready to use it. If you pull it and don't use it your situation could go from bad to worse.

EDIT: Take out 'intend' and replaced with READY. Funny how one word can change the sentence. The new sentence has the meaning that I intended! No pun.
 
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