Stop! I'm armed!

[flying eagle]

I've been teaching for over six years and this is what I teach students to do if they see a situation developing that might cause them harm. It has worked! I've had six people use it while holding up their emty hand in as a stop sign. I've had two students draw their gun and point it at the advancing man and threaten to shoot. That ended it. I even had one guy simply say "That's close enough." he wasn't even armed and it worked. Awareness counts.
By the way, I teach the course for $45.00 with $20.00 of that going to my club.

[Military Man]

Depending on the situtation my policy if I draw my weapon is to yell in a loud voice "license to carry, Freeze, I am a good guy" Hope fully this lets on lookers know that I am a good guy and also law enforcement who are there or arriving.

[thebrez1]

I too use the hand as a stop signal.

Personally, I would never yell out to anyone that I was armed, especially the bad guy. "Stop. I can not help you, or back up and leave me alone, followed by DROP THE WEAPON (at the top of my voice) if they are armed. No one is going to know I am armed until they see the weapon. and if it's out, it is going off. No fakes, no warning shots or warnings of any type. I am not going to relinquish the one thing going in my favor. I will not give the BG a chance to adjust his/her tactics or have one second to reevaluate. You keep coming after verbal warnings and you are going to be shot.

[amrote]

Guys, you all bring up valid points. If you are attacked and in fear for your life, you do not know what you are going to do. By rehearsing what you are going to say on a live range and then shooting as if you are defending yourself, you are ahead of the game. We fall back onto how we train and know your state deadly force laws. Does your state have a "stand your ground" law, does your state allow concealed carry (if it doesn't move)? Thebrez1, I love how you would yell, "drop the weapon." This is very important and very good to practice. The thing we have to remember about a deadly force encounter is bystandards are all going to "see" things differently, but they all will hear and hopefully remember what you "yelled." Have a plan, practice your plan, but have a second and third plan just in case. Things never happen the way we want them to. Great discussion.

[Oldgrunt]

My intention is to hold up my empty hand and tell the BG to STOP while having my hand on my weapon in it's holster. If he doesn't stop, then the gun will come out and then it's Katy, bar the door! Or, at least, that is my intention while thinking about it behind my computer. In a real life situation with adrenalin flowing, things might be a little different, depending on how fast the situation develops. There are a lot of variables in a situation like that but at least that is what I think I will do. With luck, the situation will never develop.

[Treo]

OK first I'm sure we all know that deadly force isn't justified if the bad guy stands down when he sees your weapon but I always feel compelled to point that out when I read posts stating "If my weapon comes out I'm going to fire"

Second, I am not justified in drawing my weapon unless I am in reasonable fear that I am going to lose my life or suffer grievous harm if I don't.

By 'reasonable" I mean circumstances such that I can clearly articulate to a jury (because there is a damn good chance that you're going to have to) "this specific action taken by the deceased lead me to believe that he had every intention of ending my life." and have them agree w/ me that I made the right call.

In such a situation (and I've been there) I didn't have time to say a word. The (would be) mugger stepped out from between the cars took three steps toward me in the time it took me to clear the holster, saw the gun and took off 45 degrees off my center. It was over in less time than it took you to read this paragraph.

[Oldgrunt]

OK first I'm sure we all know that deadly force isn't justified if the bad guy stands down when he sees your weapon but I always feel compelled to point that out when I read posts stating "If my weapon comes out I'm going to fire"

Second, I am not justified in drawing my weapon unless I am in reasonable fear that I am going to lose my life or suffer grievous harm if I don't.

By 'reasonable" I mean circumstances such that I can clearly articulate to a jury (because there is a damn good chance that you're going to have to) "this specific action taken by the deceased lead me to believe that he had every intention of ending my life." and have them agree w/ me that I made the right call.

In such a situation (and I've been there) I didn't have time to say a word. The (would be) mugger stepped out from between the cars took three steps toward me in the time it took me to clear the holster, saw the gun and took off 45 degrees off my center. It was over in less time than it took you to read this paragraph.

Treo: If the bad guy stands down, you are right, there will be no necessity of deadly force. I don't know how old you are but I am 74 years old. In any altercation, I am at a disadvantage and feel that I could very easily lose my life or suffer serious harm. That is why I carry a gun in the first place. If I pull my gun, I hope the sight of it will make the BG back down. If not, a.40 cal hollow-point will. I don't pretend to be "Billy Badass" by any means. I will not take a beating or harm from a young thug as long as I have a weapon to defend myself and family. I figure I will be leaving this world soon enough without any help from some doofless thug looking for an easy mark. By the way, have you heard the saying, "Don't start a fight with an old man who can no longer fight. He will kill you."? And yes, I will be able to tell a jury why the incident transpired and why I took the action I did. It may be a crap shoot but I will at least be there to take my throw. God willing, none of this will ever transpire and will become a moot point.

[mappow]

OK first I'm sure we all know that deadly force isn't justified if the bad guy stands down when he sees your weapon but I always feel compelled to point that out when I read posts stating "If my weapon comes out I'm going to fire"Second, I am not justified in drawing my weapon unless I am in reasonable fear that I am going to lose my life or suffer grievous harm if I don't.

"If my weapon comes out I'm going to fire". That's what we are authorized to do. NOT negotiate, not counsel, not perform LEO duties or some type of intervention. We are authorized to draw and shoot when our Life or in our State someone else's life in is eminent danger of being killed. NOT brandish, not yell, not reason but draw and shoot to defend and neutralize the threat.

NOW, with that said, there are so many scenarios and variables that we could go on for years talking about parameters of shoot / don't shoot. But in my mind I only know one thing as a civilian. I can legally protect myself to the nth degree. It would be rare that I would even consider a take down and disarm. BUT again, I can't cover every possibly until it presents itself.

[Treo]

"If my weapon comes out I'm going to fire". That's what we are authorized to do. NOT negotiate, not counsel, not perform LEO duties or some type of intervention. We are authorized to draw and shoot when our Life or in our State someone else's life in is eminent danger of being killed. NOT brandish, not yell, not reason but draw and shoot to defend and neutralize the threat.

NOW, with that said, there are so many scenarios and variables that we could go on for years talking about parameters of shoot / don't shoot. But in my mind I only know one thing as a civilian. I can legally protect myself to the nth degree. It would be rare that I would even consider a take down and disarm. BUT again, I can't cover every possibly until it presents itself.

You might want to read what I actually wrote there hero. I don’t recall saying anything about negotiating, counseling or performing LEO duties. I said the last time I had to draw the bad guy took one look and ran like Hell.

You go on ahead and shoot there bud. I’ll bring you some comic books in jail

[OngoingFreedom]

It doesn't help the argument when courts say a parent can't simply display a weapon to stand down an aggressive, armed (with a knife) hothead in the parking lot at school, and that he should have shot the aggressor.