Opinion
Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- “Is it ‘Legal?’”
I’ve written about this subject before, but the question keeps coming up in classes.
Inevitably someone asks:
“When this or that is going on, and this or that circumstance is extant, can I shoot this guy?
Is it ‘legal?’”
Such questions are meaningless and mostly irrelevant!
When you are compelled to shoot immediately in order to save your life, you won’t be asking yourself such silly questions!
When confronting a deadly threat, and you have no other viable option, then shoot carefully and don’t miss!
What other answer can there be?
We can’t know what prosecutors will do with a particular set of facts, but we shouldn’t be surprised when we see them enforcing agendas, not laws!
Three factors are universally present with recent mass murders:
- The perpetrator suffered from well-known and long-documented mental illness, or was a religious ideologue, usually both.
- Laws already on the books, IF ENFORCED, would have prevented the catastrophe.
- Bureaucracies, whose job it is to protect us from these violent criminals, seem mostly interested in growing their agencies, expanding their powers, protecting themselves, and little else!
When laws are not enforced (by design) and government bureaucracies thus consistently fail to protect us, politicians have only two “answers,” and they are oh so predictable:
- More suffocating laws, bigger bureaucracies (with chilling new powers), and our individual rights as Americans “regulated out of existence.”
- More malignant, burdensome, and noxious restrictions, not upon criminals (who won’t observe them anyway), but in an effort to “punish” every productive citizen who has something to lose, and who therefore doesn’t commit crimes, who works for a living, pays taxes, tries to be a good person, and plays by the rules (incomprehensible though they may be).
Those who constantly ask, “Is it legal?” need to rethink the subject of gun ownership.
There is no “safety!”
In a recent bank-robbery trial, during cross-examination the defense attorney grilled the lead detective, who was on the witness stand, with:
“Do you really expect this jury to believe that my client was so stupid that he wrote the stickup-note on the back of his own deposit slip?”
The detective calmly answered:
“We don’t catch the smart ones!”
We all need to worry less about being “legal,” and more about being honorable, and smart!
It will never get better! We’re on our own!
/John
About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or in-actions.
It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr. Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com
Get your State Legislature to pass a VERY STRONG Stand Your Ground law. In Idaho we tried to pass one that basically said the State must prove you did not fire in self defense, and you are presumed to have done so unless proven otherwise. A more watered down bill passed but not as strong.
Here in downtown Raleigh, NC last week a known criminal out on parole with suspended sentences,
had words with a 23yr old female, tried to take her purse, she pulled out her Glock 42 in .380 and
fired one shot to the chest, he dropped right there, he was taken to hospital where he received medical care.
When he is healthy he will be arrested and charged. The armed citizen was not charged and had a valid NC Colcealed permit.
Great advice, John! You forgot to mention that folks who illegally shoot others generally go to prison (an ‘unpleasant reality’). Being ‘honorable’ and ‘smart’ is NOT a defense for killing others without a LEGAL justification. God help your poor students who pay you to spout such ignorant bilge.
@"MCCLOUD!", Farnam did not say that honorable and smart are legal defenses. You are the one that joined “honorable and smart” to killing without LEGAL justification. There is no use in putting your mushy little mind the task of critical thinking. Have another snort and we’ll see you when you wake up, all refreshed.
Stay armed. Stay alert. Practice. The police will only show up after your dead.
Shoot when, and only, if you have *no* other choice … then it’s a no-brainer – it means that even if you are subsequently convicted, you will have no regrets. For example – if my children are threatened, and I believe that I must shoot in order to protect them, I will have no regrets, regardless of the consequences.
I think that a more accurate question would be: if the matter is referred to your local grand jury, what will they say? How will they judge your actions?
Lots of variables, no two self-defense shootings are the same: defending yourself against a perp with a lengthy record will get a medal pinned on you behind closed doors in some rural locations, defending yourself against a similarly ‘educated’ thug with a ‘fan club’ in an urban setting will get you run through the justice system with lots of courtroom drama.
good way to get dead, if you have to side-step and think……
A Dead Man Can’t Sue Ya !
His Family Can TRY !
(in most cases they fail )