Firearm Safety Rules

1.

Know the condition of your firearm at ALL times. NO EXCEPTIONS. Have this attitude - Guns are ALWAYS loaded, respect them that way. Never let the muzzle of a firearm point at ANYTHING that you are not willing to destroy. ALWAYS keep your finger AWAY from the trigger until you have made the decision to shoot. (Preferably only when your sights are on your target.) There are no gun accidents, only NEGLIGENT discharges. Be sure of your target AND what lies beyond it. If you miss or if the bullet passes through your target it WILL be stopped by whatever is behind your intended target; be that a person, building, car or other object. Remember, there is a lawyer attached to EVERY bullet. make guns safe, they may make them Saf-ER, but its still a relative term. The best safety is the gray squishy stuff between your ears. If you cut the leg off of an elephant, you may make it 800lbs lighter, but its still not light. The safest gun is the one that never gets into the hands of a child or even an adult who isnt familiar with its operation.

2.

3.

4.

5. NEVER ASSUME A GUN IS SAFE BECAUSE IT HAS A SAFETY. Safeties dont

Defensive Habits and Patterns

important.)
1.

(Some items are repeated because they are

There are 3 kinds of people: Predators, Prey, and those who refuse to be either.

If you are not a predator and yet you dont have the will or training to defend yourself, then you are by default, PREY. If you look like Food, you will be Eaten. Head up, shoulders back, eyes looking around, definitely make eye contact. "Condition Yellow" doesn't mean looking like a rabbit. If someone warrants extra attention, say hello. Its friendly and the decent thing to do. If theyre just weird, theyll say hi back and everyone gets on with their lives. If theyre looking for money, saying No or Come by my churchs food pantry at 4:00 is a perfectly reasonable response. If theyre up to no good, it is now very clear that everyone knows where everyone else is and youve gotten a good look at em. Avoid stupid people doing stupid things in stupid places at stupid times. That said; sometimes stupid comes looking for you.

2. There are two types of predators. The first are just looking for soft targets-of-opportunity to prey upon, and most times can be dissuaded from picking you with just vigilance and attitude. The second type are targeting YOU specifically, for a specific purpose and can be the hardest to persuade to leave you alone. The latter may require you to fight before they are dissuaded. There are some people who are convinced they are entitled to anything they want. So entitled, that they are perfectly right to do anything necessary to get it... even killing other people. People who will do you harm DO NOT CARE that how many laws that they violate. Laws only restrain those who are willing to abide by them. That puts the Law-Abiding at the disadvantage.
3.

You MUST Practice defense techniques and make them into everyday habits. Knowing something in your head but failing to practice it means you will FAIL. When a crisis hits, you WILL fall to your highest level of training (or below). If that training and practice is zero, thats where you will be. Frozen in place and in denial.

4. Your first line of defense is awareness of your surroundings. Keep your head UP and on a swivel. Make that a habit. Being prepared is not paranoia.

SURPRISE is an enemy. Dont let yourself be surprised. Letting an assailant know that you are prepared may give them reason to find a softer target. In trying to avoid a fight or an attack it is better to be embarrassed and thought paranoid, than to be dead or injured. 5. MENTAL Preparedness is KEY to defense. The technical term for those who are unprepared is "a statistic!" Denial has no survival value. Violence does not erupt on schedule, and criminals do not make appointments in advance. An attack is a come as you are party and you will have to defend with whatever is at hand. The world is a terrible, desperate place. Always has been, and living in it is a job from which you don't get to resign. You may very well have to use make-shift tools (hands, feet, sticks, bricks, books, handbags, rocks, Hot coffee, rolled-up magazine, Ball-point Pen, etc.) in order to create enough space and time to bring your firearm into the engagement or to disengage. No weapon is ever truly obsolete, just ask the guy that got hit with a rock. YOU must become the weapon. Everything else becomes simply a tool to help you in your defense, and ANYTHING can become a tool; pens, broom-handles, rocks, hot coffee, mops, food cans, sticks, keys, etc. The KEY to success is how they are used and where they are directed. Better a pointed stick and a heart of furious determination than a bloodboiling death ray and the soul of a rabbit. Attitude is the difference between winning and losing in a fight. When its GAME-ON you give it everything you have and you dont stop until the world looks flat, or you are dead. The Only Defense Against Evil, Violent People is Good People Who Are More Skilled at Violence. Tools can only give you an edge, but they cant replace attitude or determination. Training allows you to get the most out of your tools. It is not the size of the dog in the fight that is important, but the size of the fight in the dog. Making the gigantic leap from passive grazing to active defense takes PREPARATION AND TRAINING. Situational-Awareness helps, but training and a plan are essential to success. Have a Plan. Have a Back-Up Plan. But no plan survives initial contact with an enemy. Having a plan allows you a place to start from, rather than being frozen in place, unable to respond. The best tool for stopping the bad guy is the one you have with you close at hand, and know how to use AND ARE WILLING TO USE. Everything else is of no use. The tool you left at home locked up is useless.

"Willingness" is a state of mind. "Readiness" is a statement of fact! You have to be WILLING to defend yourself or all the TRAINING in the world will not save you. 6. Always take the initiative in a fight once it becomes clear that there will be one. Once you learn how to feel the fight, your hands are where they need to be before the mind registers the need. In fact, anybody can win any fight, but the mind always stands in the way. The untrained mind just cannot allow the body to do what needs to be done until it has perceived and thus blessed the plan. To use ANY tool, you MUST have the attitude of a fighter. Anything less and you are already defeated. Hesitation in a crisis can GET YOU KILLED. Your opponent has already made HIS decision, you need to make yours and prepare, NOW. 7. The idea of having a vast repertoire of fighting techniques is tempting disaster in a real life and death conflict. Its a common practice by some martial arts instructors to overload students with dozens of techniques and variations for a particular attack. Multiple possible solutions to the same problem will dramatically increase reaction time. This means that your brain will be much s-l-o-w-e-r to choose a response than if you learned a single simple technique and turned it into a reflexive action via repetitive practice. The reasons for this are simple. Under extreme stress the human mind has trouble selecting the tactically correct solution for a given problem if there are a large number of possible choices. The more possible choices, the longer it takes to select from among them. Human reaction time in a fight is drastically affected by the way we train the techniques weve learned, as well as by the variety of potential responses that we've made available through our training.
8.

DO NOT rely upon techniques or tools that require intricate manipulation. (especially with your fingers) During any high level of anxiety situation your fine motor skills will be reduced to ZERO. Adrenaline reduces the blood-flow to your extremities and concentrates it in your vital core areas. You WILL NOT be able to perform complex or intricate tasks. (NOTE: Proper repetitive training can overcome this issue. But you shouldnt rely upon your higher reasoning functions to work through things in the midst of a deadly situation. The more you train the less this will be a factor.)

9. When you lack confidence in your ability to perform a task, under stress you'll not even attempt it! We are forever confronted with two kinds of pain: the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret. You can avoid one, but never both. When the time to perform arrives, the time to prepare has passed!

10.

If someone needs to be surprised, let it be your opponent. The best kind of fight is the one that is over before your opponent knows that there has been one. You MUST shift your attackers paradigm preferably without a clutch.

There's no such thing as "unfair advantage." Your opponent will take EVERY advantage that you LET him have. Watch their hands, Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don't. (In God we trust. Everyone else keep your hands where I can see them.)
11.

You do not learn how to shoot, you learn how to FIGHT.

"Never go looking for a fight, but if a fight happens to find you, you had better bloody well give it everything you've got". The purpose of fighting is to win. Defense only buys you time to mount an OFFENSE or to cause your assailant lose interest. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck. The only fair fight is the one you LOSE. The two most important rules in a fight are: always cheat and always win. You dont get to choose what kind of fight it will be; itll be a fight. You had better be prepared to handle it. In the end having a black belt isn't going to get you out of the fight, nor is having a gun that you are unwilling to use, nor is trying to play nice and not hurt the other guy. You need to be violent enough, quickly enough that you don't lose more than you already have at that point. And when you get that watery feeling in your stomach it is your body telling you "fight or flee" and you had better choose quickly.
12.

Be aware that predators usually travel in packs: Where there is apparently only one bad guy visible there may be more of them close by or out of your initial line of sight.

Deception and attention holding is one of the techniques that bad guys use to not only get close but to keep you from noticing their compadres encircling you. Watch your back, dont get focused in just one direction or get backed into a corner. Keep barriers between you and him or his homies if at all possible. Stay alert.
13.

Avoid walking close to buildings at corners. Give corners a WIDE berth so that someone cant hide around them and surprise you. Stay away from bushes. Keep your head on a swivel.

14. Park in WELL lit parking spaces where you can see what and who is around your car.

15. Walk around your car and look inside it, especially the back seat, BEFORE you get into it. Check for large, covered objects that dont belong there. Use your flashlight.
16.

Once inside the car, LOCK THE DOORS before you do anything else.

17. If you are approached by someone while in your car, only open the window just a crack to talk to them. NEVER open the car door for them. If they have something to give you, ask them to place it on the hood and step FAR away before you retrieve it.
18.

Keep something defensive in your hands when walking to your car, from ANYWHERE. A BRIGHT LED (100 lumens, minimum) flashlight is very good for this. LEDs can temporarily blind and disorient people allowing you to escape. LED strobe lights are better yet. Learn how best to employee it as both a light and a short hand-held defense tool.

19. In my OPINION, Tasers and Pepper-Spray are almost worthless. Both require too close of a distance (10-15 yrds) to an assailant to be healthy, and pepper-spray is VERY wind dependent. They also each have their own effectiveness limitations. Pepper spray mostly just makes 'em angrier. Taser darts have trouble with thick clothes.
20.

Keep your head up and looking around at ALL times. Be aware of what surrounds you. Make that a habit. SURPRISE is an enemy. Dont let yourself be surprised.

21. Situational awareness will allow you to prepare, but it cant give you the will to respond. Attitude is the difference between winning and losing in a fight. It is not the size of the dog in the fight that is important, but the size of the fight in the dog. Denial may be the human default condition, but it is NOT a survival strategy. Tools can only give you an edge, but they cant replace attitude or determination. Training simply allows you to get the most out of your tools.
22.

You cant read a bad guys mind: If hes willing to attack, he wont be telling you that. Surprise is his greatest weapon. Hell be trying to get within striking distance of you before you realize what hes planning to do. It may be a request for spare change or for directions, time of day, or some other question. If someone refuses to take no for an answer be VERY suspicious. It never hurts to assume the worse and challenge someone LOUDLY and with a command voice to HALT and BACK-OFF even if it makes you feel silly later.

It is better to be embarrassed and thought paranoid, than to be dead or injured. Your opponent has the advantage of choosing the time and place to attack OR to refuse. His advantage is surprise and uncertainty. HE knows his intent. YOU can only guess at his intent and must wait until he makes his move. You CAN be ready for him and can take

some steps to let him know that you arent an unprepared target and that easier pickings can be had elsewhere. Dont be threatening or instigative to everyone, but be PREPARED. Situational awareness is your best defense, but you cant read minds and its easy for your opponent to change his mind and fake innocence.
23.

If you detect a threat, maximize your distance from the threat or get some barrier between you and the threat. Vacate the area if you can to a secure location and seek assistance and help.

Never be afraid to ask for an escort. Dont bother to shout HELP if in danger, people will ignore you. Shout FIRE multiple times instead. People react to that, and with the firemen come the police.
24.

NEVER, EVER allow yourself to be forced into a car to be taken somewhere else. It WILL NOT end well. It is better to take the chance and fight, risking injury, even against long odds, than to be taken someplace and face almost certain death. If your attacker is willing to shoot or stab you in the middle of a parking lot, what do you think they will do to you when no one is around? DO NOT open your home door unless you can SEE who is there AND you trust them. If you dont know them, only talk to them through the door or ask them to leave whatever they have for you. BE SUSPICIOUS. "Willingness" is a state of mind. "Readiness" is a statement of fact! You have to be WILLING to defend yourself or all the TRAINING in the world will not save you.

25.

26.

27. Your Personal Space is roughly a cylinder whose diameter is described by the tips of your outstretched fingers. No one should come into that space uninvited. No one should appear ABOUT TO come into that space uninvited. If they have a knife, now your personal space widens to 21 feet. It's possible for the knifeman to cross that distance and cut you in about 1.5 seconds. A mugger doesn't hold the same values as you do. He has no sympathy or empathy for you. Whether you live or die is no matter to him. Except as to how it might affect him, he has no concern about your emotions or what you think. If those do affect him, he'll view it as interference with him getting what he wants, and you won't like the results. While he could pull that trigger on a whim, most people are harmed by a mugger because quite frankly, they pissed him off. They either tried to stall him, argue with him, resist ineffectively, or scare him away. The mugger is only concerned with himself and the NOW. He has no fear of the police, nor

does he have any concern about long term repercussions The threat of prison is like threatening to send him to his room. He believes that what you have REALLY belongs to HIM. Often, he considers that you are just holding HIS money for him, thank you very much. Most importantly, he has absolutely no hesitation about pulling the trigger, because you just don't matter to him.

Concealed Carry and Self-Defense Considerations

I dont carry to deter all crime or to change the crime rate. My goal is less grandiose. I carry to deter or prevent a crime against me or mine. Period. I don't carry because I am afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. I do not prepare because I fear...I do not fear because I am prepared! I dont carry a gun because I want to shoot someone, I carry a gun because if Im attacked, I dont want to have to beat them to death with any ole rock that I found on the side of the road. Im just a humanitarian that way The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 105-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, and a 75-year old grandmother on equal footing with a 19year old gang banger. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender. A gun isnt a guarantee, but its at least a decent chance. Violence does not erupt on schedule, and criminals do not make appointments in advance. When seconds count, the cops are only minutes away. The average response time of a 911 call is 23 minutes; the response time of a .357 magnum is 1400 feet per second. The proper response to a home invasion involves the rapid acceleration of high density metals on a vector terminating in the attacker's center of mass. Contact with the communications office of the local constabulary should occur at the safest possible moment, but no sooner. Cops carry guns to protect themselves, not you. Restraining orders provide as much protection from an assault, as the paper on which they are written provides protection from a bullet or knife. People who will do you harm DO NOT CARE that how many laws that they violate. Laws only restrain those who are willing to abide by them. That puts the LawAbiding at the disadvantage. Those who have no regard for human life also have no regard for any rules you place in front of them. Those who do concern themselves with being good people and following rules are the only ones you disarm, and those are the very people who could stop these kinds of happenings. No law ever written has stopped any robber, rapist or killer, as effectively as the cold blue steel in the hands of their last intended victim.

Nothing says, "Please don't rape me." like multiple launchings of high-velocity jacketed hollowpoints. No number of laws can guarantee my safety as much as clicking off my safety can. The time to prepare is before you need your weapons. Any working gun is better than your clinched fist and a telephone. The first rule for winning a gun fight is having a gun. The more you train with a firearm, the less likely you will need to use it. At the minimum you ought to have a handgun, a long arm, and then get some ammunition and some training and learn to be proficient with what you have. The more proficient you are the more confident you will be, and confidence is often what separates the successful from the vanquished. You can learn lots of things from books, but having knowledge and having experience are 2 different things. Knowing what you are suppose to do and actually being able to control your body to make it perform that action during a crisis are WAY different. You MUST practice/train your body to perform the proper functions BEFORE you need them in a crisis situation. Perfect practice makes one perfectly proficient but poor practice only improves your imperfections. The trials of real life frequently exceed what we are prepared for but we prepare anyway to maximize our chances of success. The best gun to carry is one that you will always carry and feel comfortable shooting. If you don't carry it, or don't feel comfortable shooting it, then you won't have it or won't want to use it if the unthinkable ever happens. At least, that's what I tell anyone who asks me what gun is the best one to use for a carry gun. We carry rifles to deal with expected threats. We carry handguns to deal with unexpected threats. "The essential difference is that the pistol is designed to solve totally unexpected problems, whereas the rifle is taken in hand when the problem is foreseeable. Thus instant readiness is the primary quality of the pistol. As has been well said, "You cannot make an appointment for an emergency." When you know there is going to be an emergency, you pick up your rifle. Now there are all sorts of curious circumstances which may pose specific exceptions to the foregoing principles, but the fact remains that the two instruments fill different tactical niches, and training and practice should be based upon that concept."

1.

BEFORE you are in a Life-Threatening situation you MUST make the decision that you are willing to take a life, if it becomes necessary.

Consider this; How often do you have to be killed before you decided to protect yourself? You may only need your firearm ONE TIME in your entire life but like wearing a seat-belt, you dont want to bet your life on NOT being protected. And like a seat-belt, you wont have the time or chance to learn how to use it when you realize you REALLY needed it in the few seconds before it could save your life. Before making it a practice of going armed, thoroughly think through the subject of forcefully ending the life of another human being. Get it firmly settled in your mind beforehand, lest you hesitate (at your peril) when confronted with deadly danger. I have determined as a matter of law and a matter of personal safety that if I draw my gun it is because I am in immediate and grave danger. If I am not in the kind of danger to empty the weapon, the weapon should remain holstered. I have no duty to arrest or detain anyone. If you are not legally and morally justified in taking someone's life, you have no business whatsoever pointing a lethal weapon at any part of their body. Squeezing that trigger may result in someone losing all of their tomorrows. Now; THAT SOMEONE, may very well be coming through the window with duct tape and a butcher's knife in hand with the sole purpose of killing you and your entire family - but the inescapable fact is that with the gun in your hands, as you line up his sternum against your front sight, you will have to make the final, ultimate decision. Your act may result in someone ceasing to be. This is the dark side of firearm ownership, the part where we gunnies don't tread too often in public discussions, but it's one chat you NEED to have with yourself well ahead of the time you might be required to use it. It's an unpleasant thing to think about, but think about it you must. For if the time comes (and hopefully it never will), the last thing you need to do is hesitate. Make the decision now and ensure that you are ok with it. There are no do-overs once that bullet leaves the barrel. It is a classic mistake to think only in terms of your attacker's "intent," at which you can only guess. Better to base your actions on the attacker's capabilities. HE can always change his mind! So, the best personal policy is to be fully prepared to fire multiple times, moving, reloading, and seeking cover as necessary, until additional offensive actions on your part appear to be no longer necessary. Put in less polite terms; In order to save a life, you have to be able, and WILLING, to end a life. Not everyone has that kind of decisiveness in them, but everyone does need to think about it - while they still can! Regardless of whether the shooting is justified or not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. BUT, It is better to be sad, than to be room temperature. Carry your gun always; it's a lighter burden than regret. If we are forced to employ our firearms in self defense, there are no good outcomes, only ones that suck less than others.

Training yourself to be able to shoot when necessary does not, like the VPC and Brady Campaign suggest, mean you're able to shoot without provocation. There IS a difference between predatory violence and protective violence. We dont start the violence against us, we stop it. The concealed carry license holder is NOT a deputy peace officer, or a law enforcement officer-in-training. The holder of a concealed carry license is a person practicing their constitutional rights for the purpose of defending their own life or the lives of their dependents from a blatant, direct, mortal threat from criminals. That is all. When you don't have to shoot, don't. But, when you do have to shoot, fire without hesitation, and fire with sufficient volume and accuracy to end the fight quickly, and permanently. This means you must inflict multiple, incapacitating wounds, as fast as you can. Anything less can get you killed! Forget warning shots. Besides the wasted round that you might need in the very near future, and the danger imposed by the round itself, theres the fact youve just communicated to the goblin that you arent really serious. I dont see the point of calling it a warning shot as opposed to a OMG, OMG, I was so scared my shot was a bad miss. Spin control; its not just for rifles. Your side-arm isnt a warning device, its a weapon. If the bad guy hears the shot, youre doing it wrong. He should be hit before he hears the report. (Take your time, but hurry up.) You can argue what ammunition to use all day long if you like, but what you cant argue is this: when you drop the hammer on someone, it has to be because you feel that your life or the lives of people around you are threatened. And you better be able to articulate that reasoning to the authorities. Having made that determination, you have but one recourse, and that is to end the threat as fast as possible. If it is your aim to scare someone, buy a Halloween mask. 2. MENTAL Preparedness is KEY to defense. Violence does not erupt on schedule, and criminals do not make appointments in advance. An attack is a come as you are party and you will have to defend with whatever is at hand. The secret to not being paralyzed with fear is to be royally pissed off. Nothing makes fear dissipate faster than a mind full of cold rage. You may very well have to use make-shift weapons (hands, sticks, bricks, books, handbags, rocks, rolled-up magazine, Ball-point Pen, etc.) in order to create enough space and time to bring your firearm into the engagement. YOU must become the weapon. Everything else becomes simply a tool to help you in your defense and ANYTHING can become a tool; pens, broom-handles, rocks, mops, food cans, sticks, keys, etc. The KEY to success is how they are used and where they are directed.

Attitude is the difference between winning and losing in a fight. Tools (even your firearm is just a tool) can give you an edge, but they cant replace attitude or determination. Training allows you to get the most out of your tools. It is not the size of the dog in the fight that is important, but the size of the fight in the dog. Making the gigantic leap from passive grazing to active defense takes PREPARATION AND TRAINING. It's funny. The more training I get from different sources, the more I want to get training from different sources. Situational Awareness helps, but training and a plan are essential to success. Have a Plan. Have a Back-Up Plan. An old military adage says that; No plan survives initial contact with an enemy. The best weapon for stopping the bad guy is the one you have with you, close at hand, and know how to use AND ARE WILLING TO USE. Everything else is of no use. The trick is to stay focused on the goal: SURVIVAL. If plan A doesnt work, and Plan B involves bullets you dont have, and Plan C requires the cell phone you left in your jacket over there, keep working through the alphabet. IMPROVISE. Train hard. Plan well. But dont expect things to go as planned. Work to a general strategy, like Speed, Surprise and Violence of Action. And if that doesnt pan out, embrace the suck and do something else. Cause winning and surviving, doesnt suck. Unless it does. And if it does, deal with it. What choice do you have, you know, other than quitting? "Willingness" is a state of mind. "Readiness" is a statement of fact! You have to be WILLING to defend yourself or all the TRAINING in the world will not save you. In the end having a black belt isn't going to get you out of the fight, nor is having a gun that you are unwilling to use, nor is trying to play nice and not hurt the other guy. You need to be violent enough, QUICKLY ENOUGH that you don't lose more than you already have at that point. Also known as violence of action. The biggest difficulty people have in defending themselves is that they do not have the violent nature the thugs have, and that results in being indecisive. Nothing matters more than seeing the attack coming, followed by a ruthless counter attack on the BG.
3.

Always take the initiative in a fight, once it becomes clear that there will be one. Once you learn how to feel the fight, your hands are where they need to be before the mind registers the need. In fact, anybody can win any fight, but the mind always stands in the way. The untrained mind just cannot allow the body to do what needs to be done until it has perceived and thus blessed the plan. Hesitation in a crisis can GET YOU KILLED. Your opponent has already made HIS decision, you need to make yours. To use a firearm or ANY weapon, you MUST have the attitude of a fighter. Anything less and you are already defeated. Denial has no survival value.

4. An unloaded gun is just a very expensive brick. And waiting until you are attacked to load it is a recipe for disaster.

5. There are three things you'll never catch yourself saying in a gunfight: "I wish I had a smaller gun." "I wish I had less ammunition." (the ONLY time you have too much ammo is when you are on fire.) "I wish I hadn't trained so much."
6. Plans;

A) if its stupid and it works, its not stupid. B) A good plan now is better than a perfect plan later. C) Always have a back-up plan. Always have a back-up to the back-up. 7. The idea of having a vast repertoire of fighting techniques is tempting disaster in a real life and death conflict. Its a common practice by some martial arts instructors to overload students with dozens of techniques and variations for a particular attack. Multiple possible solutions to the same problem will dramatically increase reaction time. This means that you will be much s-l-o-w-e-r than if you learned a single simple technique and turned it into a reflexive action via repetitive practice. The reasons for this are simple. Under extreme stress the human mind has trouble selecting the tactically correct solution for a given problem if there are a large number of possible choices. The more possible choices, the longer it takes to select from among them. Human reaction time in a fight is drastically affected by the way we train the techniques weve learned, as well as by the variety of potential responses that we've made available through our training. When you lack confidence in your ability to perform a task, under stress you'll not even attempt it! The world is a terrible, desperate place. Always has been, and living in it is a job from which you don't get to resign. We are ever confronted with two kinds of pain: the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret. You can avoid one, but never both. When the time to perform arrives, the time to prepare has passed! When was the last time you went to the range? How about your spouse? Your kids? Confidence doesn't keep you alive and safe. Skills do. 8. Its NOT YOUR JOB to take prisoners. Your only job is to protect yourself and/or others. Know when to pull your weapon and when to NOT. NEVER use a firearm to threaten. If its dangerous enough to pull, then its dangerous enough to go all the way. Act decisively and follow through. If the situation is dangerous enough that you must draw and use your weapon, you are already authorized the use of DEADLY FORCE. USE IT.

BUT, if your opponent chooses to disengage, let him go. If you have to shoot, you keep shooting until the threat is neutralized OR you are DEAD, whichever comes first, but not beyond that point. Shoot until the assailant changes shape or catches fire. (Also known as Stay on target and shoot until the world looks FLAT) Ammo is cheap, YOUR LIFE is expensive. Nothing like emptying half a magazine into someone to make all the crazy leak out. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot or cut you will get.
9.

Repeat After Me: I do NOT Shoot to Kill. I Shoot to LIVE or to Protect or to Survive. Make that mental leap. And make SURE thats what you tell the police and DA.

One of the most common misunderstandings people have is the idea they should "shoot to kill." Or heaven forbid, shoot to wound. When you understand that your whole purpose in self defense is to STOP THE ATTACK, then you have a better grasp on all the rest. If your attacker happens to die as a result of THEIR actions, then it is just chance, not the intent. Someone would have to be some sort of crazy to attack, so punch holes until the crazy leaks out. Rational people do not relish killing nor do they look forward to it, but they DO reserve it as a right which at times may be necessary to preserve other life. Irrational people hope someone else will come save them. Reasonable people on the other hand hope the day will never come when they must use deadly force, yet are realistic enough to be ready and able should the need arise. 10. We have seen too often that choices at times can be very limited: learn to win or learn to die. No prior experience or training (nor even thought) is required for the latter. 11. If someone needs to be surprised, let it be your opponent. The best kind of fight is the one that is over before your opponent knows that there has been one. There's no such thing as "unfair advantage." Your opponent will take EVERY advantage that you LET him have. Watch their hands, Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don't. (In God we trust. Everyone else keep your hands where I can see them.)
12.

You do not learn how to shoot, you learn how to FIGHT. Never go looking for a fight, but if a fight happens to find you, you had better bloody well give it everything you've got. The purpose of fighting is to win. Defense only buys you time to mount an OFFENSE or to cause your assailant lose interest.

The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

A firearm is not a magical talisman, and it is not an autonomous shield; even simply displaying a firearm and pointing it at your aggressor may not sufficiently "discourage" a wholly dedicated or chemically intoxicated individual. For your own safety, both during the situation where you are defending your life and afterwards, and for the safety of those around you, you must be capable of accurately and effectively engaging your targets, and it is wholly incumbent upon you to ensure that your hardware and wetware are up to the task. If youve been invited to a gun fight (and cant get out of attending), the small gun you want is your rifle. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck. The two most important rules in a gunfight are: always cheat and always win. The only fair fight is the one you LOSE. You dont get to choose what kind of fight it will be; itll be a fight. You had better be prepared to handle it. In the end having a black belt isn't going to get you out of the fight, nor is having a gun that you are unwilling to use, nor is trying to play nice and not hurt the other guy. You need to be violent enough, QUICKLY ENOUGH that you don't lose more than you already have at that point. And when you get that watery feeling in your stomach it is your body telling you "fight or flee" and you had better choose quickly.
13.

Just remember, Hollywood is NOT Reality. Dead is dead. There are NO replays, no extra lives, no do-overs. You are NOT bulletproof and there is not a big red S on your chest. Also, be courteous of those BEHIND you, they dont have a red S on their chests either. Incoming fire has the right-of-way. Stay aware of your target backstop and the innocents behind the target, AND the innocents behind YOU. The rule states Be sure of your target, and whats beyond it. BUT; It doesnt say Never take a shot because you might miss and hit something else.

14.

15. Your attitude and alertness can be the key to avoiding a dangerous situation and having to pull your weapon. Trust your senses. Denial is the Human Default Condition. Dont go into denial if you feel that a situation doesnt feel right. Vacate the area if you can.
16.

Be aware that predators usually travel in packs: Where there is apparently only one bad guy visible there may be more of them close by or out of your initial line of sight. Deception and attention holding is one of the techniques that bad guys use to not only get close but to keep you from noticing their compadres encircling you. Watch your back, dont get focused in just one direction or get backed into a corner. Keep barriers between you and him or his homies if at all possible. Stay alert.

17.

MOVE! Making nice little groups, punching holes in paper at the range is all well and good, but if you stand still in a gunfight, youll probably die. So you MUST train yourself to move before, during and after shooting.

18. You cant read a bad guys mind: If hes willing to attack, he wont be telling you that. Hell be trying to get within striking distance of you before you realize what hes planning to do. It may be a request for spare change or directions, time of day, or some other question. If someone refuses to take no for an answer be VERY suspicious. It never hurts to assume the worse and challenge someone LOUDLY and with a command voice to HALT and BACK-OFF even if it makes you feel silly later. Your opponent has the advantage of choosing the time and place to attack OR to refuse. His advantage is surprise and uncertainty. HE knows his intent. YOU can only guess at his intent and must wait until he makes his move. You CAN be ready for him and can take some steps to let him know that you arent an unprepared target and that easier pickings can be had elsewhere. Dont be threatening or instigative, but be PREPARED. Situational awareness is your best defense, but you cant read minds and its easy for your opponent to change his mind and fake innocence. If a person breaks into my home while I am there, there are only two possibilities: 1) He knew I was there, and was willing to deal with me; or 2) He didn't care if I was there, because he was willing to deal with me. In either case, since I have no idea if a person entering my occupied home is there to take a television or to take my life. Everyone who enters my home, uninvited, while I am there is a direct threat to my life and well being. A gun is about choices. If someone enters my home to steal a television, I can choose to hold him for police. If he enters to harm me, I can choose to defend myself. If I have no gun, the choice belongs to the killer.
19.

Be prepared for the LEGAL crap that WILL descend upon you from the legal system. Remember that the prosecutor is a POLITICIAN and will be Monday Morning Quarterbacking EVERY decision and action you made and may ALSO be considering how YOU can further his political career. Typically, the first person to call is the "victim" until determined otherwise. Let's say you pick up some carryout dinner and you're walking back to you car around the corner of a building and a man approaches you holding a knife and demands your wallet. Let's assume you have no other choice so your toss your food at him and draw your gun and seeing the gun causes the mugger to tuck tail and run off. Call law enforcement if you have to pull your firearm, because if the jerk runs over a street and dials 911... "Yeah, some guy in a green coat just pulled a gun on me in the parking lot at...", then the police arrive, see you in the green coat... ask you if you have a gun... and now that they confirmed the mugger's story... you're in

handcuffs for the ride downtown trying to tell police the mugger had a knife (which he tossed after running off from seeing you with your gun so the police find no knife on him) and that the mugger is the real criminal - real story. COPS AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. Regardless of what they my tell you when questioning you.
20.

Prepare and choose CAREFULLY the words that you will say to the police and investigators. Think NOW about how you would phrase your statements. They WILL be used against you. If you draw your gun and pull the trigger, then call and ask for the police and EMS (ambulance). Keep it simple... "I need the police and EMS at 123 Elm Street, a man tried to kill me and I shot him in self-defense, please hurry!" Repeat it if necessary, but I wouldn't answer too many more questions on a recorded 911 call as the 911 dispatcher is going to begin a game of twenty questions... they're trained to do that. But you dont have to play.

The reason you call 911 and request paramedics is to demonstrate your human concern and compassion for the dirtbag whose chest you just ventilated as he threatened you or your family with death or grievous injury, and so that you can get police officers on-site to investigate a homicide (and if you kill him, it IS a homicide, whether justified or not) or physical assault an act that you just carried out. So as a potential felony defendant, you are now expected (if not strictly legally required) to call the police and speak into the police recorder, ever keeping in your adrenalin-charged mind that "anything you say will be used against you." NEVER SAY ANYTHING to the cops except; I was in fear for my life and was forced to defend myself. I want him (the dead guy on the floor) arrested. AND I do NOT consent to any search. Im very upset right now and I dont want to say anything else until I speak to my lawyer. Then SHUT UP. Do NOT try to be helpful to the cops or offer more information unless its to describe additional perps, what they were wearing and which way they went. The cops are NOT there to be your friend or to help you or to comfort you. Their job is simply to collect information and write a report on what they think happened. EVERYTHING you say WILL be used AGAINST you should you be taken to trial. SHUT UP. Anything you have to say, you say to your lawyer. The fifth amendment was written to protect YOU. If the gun owner is involved in a shooting, the first, last and only words to the police should be, I cannot talk to you until I have consulted with my attorney. This statement is not obstructionist, does not imply guilt, and does not make the gun owner anti-law enforcement. Just keep in mind that it is not the job of the police or prosecutor

to clear the gun owner. While the police and prosecutor do have an underlying duty to do justice, keep in mind that the first job of law enforcement is to document and prosecute crimes. They are under no duty to help you establish your claims of selfdefense. After massively high-stress situations (like, for example, self-defense scenarios), humans are notoriously unreliable, mentally and physically unbalanced, and arguably IN SHOCK. While you are coming to terms with the personal, social, legal, and moral ramifications of what you just experienced in a self-defense situation you should be VERY careful about what you say and to whom. 22.Prepare yourself mentally for the aftermath of killing. Can you live with it? The effects of having survived a violent event will stay with you for the rest of your life in one form or another, but at least you will be alive. Regardless of whether the shooting is justified of not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. BUT, It is better to be sad, than to be room temperature. Make the decision NOW to be a victim or a victor. Sheep or Sheepdog. What is your threshold of pain?
23.

It is YOUR responsibility to keep your firearm secure at ALL times.

You never put it down where you may leave it or forget it. Attached to your body is the best place for it. A ladies purse is a convenient place to carry, but if someone snatches your purse, they now have your firearm as well. PRACTICE what to do with your CW firearm when in a public restroom. You need to KNOW what works and what to do with it BEFORE you drop in on the floor and it skids into the next stall.

Additional Things to Think About

1. EVENT situational awareness is a fact of life. Adrenaline creates Tunnel Vision and Deadens your hearing. Physically TURN your head and Check 360 degrees around to clear the tunnel vision. Many people in lethal encounters report seeing everything in B&W. Under stress your Fine Motor Skills will be degraded, especially in the fingers, making locating and operating small buttons or performing intricate tasks quite a chore. Stress will distort your memory, making it almost impossible to remember how many shots you have fired. Time and space will seem compressed.
2.

Tuller Defense Distance is taught to the police; It only takes a bad guy 1.5 sec to cover 21 feet (7 yards.), including guys with knives. Dont let anyone get within that radius. the cops dont, so why should YOU? If someones coming at you with a knife, which do you want to do first: move or shoot? YES. You want to move and shoot. In a self-defense situation you dont need to move as much as you need to RUN. Youre not likely to face eleven closely-grouped bad guys. Truth be told, if you shot them all, youd have some serious splainin to do. Your field of fire is hardly likely to be open. There will be good guys around and no backstops. Perps will be moving towards you. Or away. Or sideways. They may be firing bullets at you. Flanking you. You will probably have unarmed friendlies in tow. The cops will show up, perhaps sooner than you think.

3. Use cover (physical protection) and/or concealment (hiding from sight but without physical protection), when its available. For both cover and concealment keep your body out of sight, this affects what your assailant shoots at. Remember the difference between concealment and cover. Cover provides physical protection, concealment doesnt.
4.

If you have to fire your gun, move off of the line of attack while doing so. Move to your rear (creating distance between you and the attacker) and move LATERALY (sideways to the line of attack) and always try to move towards cover or concealment.

Practice moving with you foot always in touch with the ground, (dont pick your foot up and step) so that any obstacle you encounter wont cause you to trip or fall.
5.

Trigger control is more important than sighting, especially at longer distances. (PRESS your trigger, do not jerk it, dont pull it or squeeze it) BUT stay aware of your sights. Point-n-Shoot is a recipe for MISSING. Forget SPRAY-N-PRAY. Stay focused. Trigger-n-Target-n-Sights.

6.

Know your firearm inside and out. You must be able to Recognize and Clear jams without looking or having to think about the situation. ESPECIALLY with a semiauto. Learn to recognize when your ammo has run dry and you need to reload. Remember that a handgun is not all that powerful. It really doesnt have very much knock-down-power and is mostly useful because a cop is too heavy to carry and it is too awkward to sit at a desk or in a car with a 12 gage shotgun on your hip. We carry pistols because they're convenient, not because they're "effective." We carry pistols constantly as a means of dealing with "unexpected" threats. We carry rifles and shotguns on those occasions when we're compelled to confront "expected" threats. If youve been invited to a gun fight (and cant get out of attending), the small gun you want is your rifle.

7.

The .44 Magnum has less knock-down-power than the 30-30 Winchester rifle cartridge, which is considered by many hunters to be the minimum-power deerhunting rifle cartridge. The usefulness of a handgun is it may allow you to leave a dangerous situation or allow you to retrieve a rifle/shotgun. I cannot stress too heavily that the primary determinant of stopping power is BULLET PLACEMENT. A cool, deliberate marksman with a little .32 Walther PPK will beat a panicky, inaccurate man with a .357 Magnum or $1200 customized .45 auto, every time. Whatever firearm and caliber you select, you must practice firing hundreds even thousands - of rounds in realistic defensive scenarios until you can confidently make disabling hits on your target. Tactics and marksmanship win gunfights - not having the latest 'wonder bullet' in your gun. Laser grips have a few advantages. They are another sighting option besides conventional sights. What they are not is a panacea for poor marksmanship skills. And Murphy is in full control if you rely only on the laser for sighting. If you cannot hold the front sight on target as you pull the trigger towards sear break, a laser will not help you. There are no laser guided bullets, and the bullet will still go where the muzzle is pointed when the primer ignites the charge. Laser sights do help a shooter to see what is happening during their trigger pull when used during dry fire practice. The red dot bouncing all over the place as the muzzle twitches around is undeniable proof that the shooter needs to work on trigger control. Laser grips can be the reality check that spurs the shooter in the right direction towards marksmanship.
8.

Practice, Practice, Practice. Handgun skills are perishable. You MUST practice on a regular basis in order to stay proficient. Even if it is dry fire practice and draw or

movement practice in your own home. The whole point of training and practice and repetition is so that when things go pear-shaped, you don't have to waste processing cycles giving your hands detailed instructions as to what to do. An amateur practices until he gets it right. A professional practices until it can't go wrong. You MUST practice awkward firearm handling. You may have to shoot from unusual positions or using only one hand. Practice those skills. You may need them one day. Disengage the safety as soon as the gun comes out of the holster; you may have to shoot from the hip. When your life or the life of those depending on you is in the balance, is NOT the time to be winging it. How good is good enough? In a dangerous situation, you will NOT rise to the occasion. You will SINK to your highest level of training, or below. So get as high a level of training as you can afford. Train as you WANT to fight, because youll fight worse than you trained Understand the threats and in what order you should address them. Practice under pressure; participate in a competition like IDPA. BUT, practice PERFECTION. 1000 repetitions of a error is creating a HABIT of error. Fast is Slow, Slow leads to smooth, Smooth leads to fast. When you try to go fast, you fumble, making yourself slow. When you go slow, you can be smooth. When you do something smoothly, you do it faster. As you practice, the speed at which you can do the thing smoothly will naturally increase. Get it right and THEN get it fast. 9. Under stress you will not have any idea how many rounds you have fired. Between the auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, and everything else that happens to your mind and body in a gunfight the chances of counting anything is slim to none. About all you will really recall seeing is the glowing dot or the front sight, and the bad guy.
10.

Accuracy: Only use as big a gun/caliber as you can reliably handle, learn to shoot it WELL and ACCURATELY. Nothing dies from the noise. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

Missing is TRIPLY disastrous: a) It doesn't stop the fight! The longer this fight goes on, the more hurt I'm going to get. When there must be a fight, the only kind that interests me is a short one! When my life is endangered, I want the threat(s) neutralized immediately. Missing fails utterly in that regard. In addition, missed shots will embolden your attacker(s). When they conclude (correctly), from your slovenly shooting, that you are personally incompetent, they may well press their attack, rather than voluntarily disengaging or surrendering.

b) It provides me with one fewer round with which to solve my tactical problem. Yes, I may have lots of rounds, assuming my gun(s) continues to function normally, but there may well be several individuals who all simultaneously represent lethal threats to me, and, accordingly, all must be neutralized quickly. I might just need all those rounds, every one. I can't afford to miss, with any of them! c) When one of my rounds fails to hit something I wanted it to hit, by definition, it will hit something I didn't want it to hit! "Sloppy shooting," as manifested by missed shots, missed shots that went on downrange to cause unintended injury and property damage, are never dealt with kindly by investigators, nor prosecutors, nor juries. When one of your bullets ends up in an "unhappy place," you're the one who will have to explain how it got there. At that point, your "intent," no matter how sincere, is largely irrelevant! You are only Out-Gunned if you miss. BUT, missing faster and more often is an exercise in futility, you can't miss fast enough to win the fight. "Speed is fine, but accuracy is final. A thousand rounds, fired and missed is just making noise, ONE round that hits its intended target is FIREPOWER." If you need to use 3 magazines full of bullets, you are either not in control or its time to run. The most important thing about what you carry is not caliber or capacity or even reliability but how soon you get the first well-placed hit. The most important shot in a gunfight is the first ACCURATE shot. The accuracy of the Firearm is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun. Surviving a Gunfight - Defensive firearms training has long been based on police training. The law enforcement base gives firearms training the credibility it needs for the general marketplace. In truth, civilian self defense and law enforcement training could not be more different. Civilians do not have a need to apprehend criminals and secure society. Civilians need only to avoid crime and survive another day with minimum injury and legal entanglements. This simple fact is often foreign to law enforcement oriented instructors.
11.

Rule #1: Don't Get Shot! When people get shot, they get hurt. When people get hurt, their survivability dwindles. With each bullet that enters their body, their ability to survive another minute evaporates. Not getting shot is the crux of the matter. Many conflicts that end in death are avoidable. Therefore: Corollary #1: Don't get into gunfights! If you can avoid a gunfight, avoid it. People get seriously injured and killed in gunfights. They are not healthy environments to be in. The risk factors with lead flying past you are greater than the risk factors of most other endeavors.

Regarding personal arguments: Compromise. Let the other guy win verbal challenges. Walk away if the hoodlums are heckling you. If you do not have to engage others in a lethal conflict, do not do so. It may be your last day on Earth, and you just don't know it yet. Luck plays a HUGE part in gunfights. A lifetime of building shooting skills of every type can be blown away with just a smidgen of luck, good or bad. Just because you are in the right does not mean you will survive a gunfight. The goal in a gunfight is to survive, not to win, and not to prove you are right. People get the idea that being right is more important than being alive. It isn't. You can prove the veracity of your argument some other time, but not if you are dead. Avoid gunfights if at all possible. Corollary #2: If you are getting shot at, GO to where you are NOT getting shot at. This may involve running away. There is no shame in running away from things that might kill you, if possible. Ferocious animals do this all the time. It is the instinct that allows grizzly bear cubs to become Big Bad grizzly bears, who may still chose to run away rather than become injured in an unnecessary fight. Distance is a target's best friend. A shooter's ability to make a hit is diminished by distance, but remember your attacker can always get lucky. The more an opponent has to chase and hunt, the quicker he will lose interest. Movement is another great friend of a target. Perhaps one in ten shooters can consistently hit a laterally moving target. Being able to return accurate fire while on the move is important. Even a little lateral movement can negate most shooter's abilities. If you are able to return effective fire under these conditions, you will persevere. If you are unable to return fire while moving, seek effective cover quickly. Cover is something that will stop bullets. Once you have cover, seek better cover farther away while remaining concealed. Concealment is often confused with cover. Concealment will not stop bullets. Concealment merely hides you for a few moments until you can find cover. There are, of course, times when retreat is not an option. Under those circumstances, a choice must be made between an attack and an ambush. If escape is not an option, and a person is hidden with limited resources, the ambush is the better solution. Forget the High-Noon showdown. A counter-attack should only be used when the ambush is not an option. The counter-attack is the one strategy that drastically lowers the defender's chances of survival. There are times that a counter-attack is necessary, but it is not the solution to all defensive problems. Self preservation in a lethal encounter involves much more than simple marksmanship.

12.

When Im asked for a gun recommendation for women in my classes, I tell the person this: Shoot every kind/type of gun you can get your hands on. After that, buy whatever firearm you can easily manipulate under stress, shoot on target consistently and suits your carry or home defense requirements. The BEST Gun for someone is the one that he, or she, will actually carry, practice with, and be willing and able to effectively use.

13. Remember: No law ever written has stopped any robber, rapist or killer, like the cold blue steel in the hands of their last intended victim.
14.

Your weapon is that squishy grey mass between your earseverything else is just a tool. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation. But a firearm should be option number two, for when option number one fails.

15.

Keep this name and contact info in your wallet, right next to your CWL. JON H. GUTMACHER office 407-650-0770 2nd Amend lawyer

floridafirearmslaw.com/