{"id":69427,"date":"2017-01-31T17:24:42","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T22:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=69427"},"modified":"2017-01-31T17:24:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T17:29:32","slug":"ep-40-should-i-shoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/ep-40-should-i-shoot\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\" campaign=\"ep-40-should-i-shoot\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-69428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AK47.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a>\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0The following is a post by Ed Combs, the Associate Editor of Concealed Carry Magazine. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Check out the last five episodes in this series:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/ep-35-shoot-backup-gun\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\" campaign=\"ep-40-should-i-shoot\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\">Ep. 35 Should I Shoot? When All You Have Is Your Backup Gun<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/ep-36-shoot\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\" campaign=\"ep-40-should-i-shoot\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\">Ep. 36 Should I Shoot? Is that a Pellet Gun in My Face?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/ep-37-shoot-crazy-man-knife\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\" campaign=\"ep-40-should-i-shoot\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\">Ep. 37 Should I Shoot? The Crazy Man With the Knife<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/shoot-ep-38-lunch-date\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\" campaign=\"ep-40-should-i-shoot\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\">Ep. 38 Should I Shoot? Lunch Date Gone Wrong<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/shoot-ep-39-mad-bro\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\" campaign=\"ep-40-should-i-shoot\" title=\"Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? Your Carry Gun vs. the Man with the AK\">Ep. 39 Should I Shoot? \u2018You Mad, Bro?\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Greater and greater numbers of Americans are carrying concealed, not only for self-defense and the defense of loved ones but also so they can be prepared to stop rapid mass murder if necessary. Whether it\u2019s a terrorist with an international political agenda or simply a madman, this nation is one of the only on Earth where private citizens are allowed to fight back with effective means.<\/p>\n<p>Complicating this is the fact that even though gun sales have remained strong for several years now, a lot of those guns aren\u2019t exactly what you might consider \u201cduty guns\u201d or handguns designed for counter-offensive use. A lot of them are what you might call \u201cget-off-me\u201d guns: micro-frame pistols chambered in .380 ACP and five-shot revolvers chambered in .38 Special. I\u2019m not going to stand here and say that no one can hit much past 15 yards with guns like those, but I will stand here and say that most folks who own one don\u2019t train to. Why would they? It\u2019s a \u201cbelly gun,\u201d and most people end up using their guns to defend against close-in, face-to-face attacks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just private citizens either. Most law enforcement officers who have to fire are firing at assailants well within 25 yards, often no farther away than the average private citizen is from his attacker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost,\u201d however, isn\u2019t \u201call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few months ago, a deputy with whom I briefly served with was on duty with a different agency and, at a full run, stopped a school shooter with his service sidearm, a .40-caliber Glock 22. He was patrolling past a high school prom, and as soon as he was able to visually confirm that what he saw was, in fact, a young man with a firearm who\u2019d already shot innocent persons, he immediately stopped an active deadly threat to the individuals inside and outside of the school building.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m ashamed to admit that I hardly remember this officer \u2014 I\u2019d maybe worked a shift or two with him before leaving law enforcement to work full-time at Concealed Carry Magazine \u2014 so I do not recall what he was like as a shooter during training or qualification. \u201cShooting qual\u201d hardly enters into such a situation though; anyone who\u2019s in the least bit experienced with firearms will recognize what he did as truly outstanding shooting. Engaging a moving target with a sidearm under the extreme duress that only a rapid mass murder in progress can bring on and scoring incapacitating hits while you yourself are running is not only admirable, it\u2019s something that all who go about armed should occasionally (if not regularly) train for.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you suffer limited mobility or other limiting factors, shooting on the move at something that is also not stationary isn\u2019t a weird range drill &#8230; it\u2019s the kind of shooting that you as a concealed carrier are the most likely to have to employ. Even in the \u201cmost common\u201d circumstance listed above, your target will most likely be moving at least a little bit and you need to be moving in order to present to your attacker no better a target than necessary.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s close-in though. What about when you can\u2019t smell the threat\u2019s breath?<\/p>\n<p>Say you\u2019re pulling into the parking lot of a large store and, when you track some movement out of the corner of your eye, you see a young man behind the wheel of a parked pickup truck speaking animatedly into a cell phone that\u2019s held in a bracket on the dashboard. He\u2019s wearing all black clothing, but you can see large pockets and, as such, you can\u2019t tell whether he\u2019s wearing a vest of some kind over a black t-shirt or whether he\u2019s wearing a cut-off black BDU blouse. You can\u2019t quite tell; you\u2019re driving and your attention is split between him and the other vehicles moving about in the area. You glance back and see what you swear is the front sight aperture of either an AR or AK-type rifle bobbing around his face, and he\u2019s started moving and twisting in the cab of the truck. You\u2019re about 35 yards away now, and his door pops open.<\/p>\n<p>Yup, that certainly appears to be an AK-pattern rifle, and that certainly appears to be a vest covered with magazine pouches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cShould I shoot?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rather than run down a list of the options as I see them, I want to focus on one very specific decision: Do you, at that moment, reach for your cell phone or your firearm?<\/p>\n<p>If your answer is cell phone, exactly who are you going to call and exactly what are you going to say to them?<\/p>\n<p>If your answer is firearm, what are we talking about here? Are you reaching for an LCP or similar pocket .380? Are you snapping the \u201ctruck gun\u201d out of the roof rack and feeling especially grateful for the 30-round magazine of 7.62 NATO you have on hand? Maybe something in between? Do you drop it into gear and commence to ramming speed? Or do you sit there like a lot of folks will, reinforcing the reality that not making a decision is, in and of itself, making a decision?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cShould I shoot?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To a law enforcement officer, the most important point of order at that moment would be to ensure that the man getting out of the vehicle with a rifle did not get into the large store and start shooting. If you&#8217;re a sworn officer of the law, you immediately verbally engage him to clarify what exactly is happening, and if necessary, you do everything in your power to keep him from getting inside and starting to shoot, period.<\/p>\n<p>But private citizens aren\u2019t law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n<p>The cop or trooper who just drives away from this scene isn\u2019t just letting down his department and wildly shirking his duty, he\u2019s breaking the oath that he swore and fundamentally breaking the trust he is supposed to hold between himself and the community he serves. If it can be proven that he knowingly and intentionally fled the scene of a rapid mass murder, there will definitely be professional repercussions for him, and he would also be open to civil suits brought by the families of the murder victims.<\/p>\n<p>A private citizen? Your average Joe Range-Bag who carries a concealed sidearm just to be safe rather than sorry?<\/p>\n<p>The private citizen always has the option of just driving away.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Should I Shoot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The circumstance in the parking lot described above is a heck of a challenge to take on, but it\u2019s one that everyone who carries should at least think over before (God forbid) they\u2019d have to decide to investigate, accept or decline it. All of this is compounded by the fact that you don\u2019t yet even have an articulable, concrete reason to shoot at this man. For all you know, he\u2019s one of those open carry activists and this is his way of showing everyone in town what a big boy he is now. Maybe he was live-streaming a Facebook rant about how unfairly targeted open-carry activists are and how he&#8217;s about to peacefully walk into this big-box store with a GoPro strapped onto his chest to prove it.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe.<\/p>\n<p>But I wouldn\u2019t bet lives on it.<\/p>\n<p>What say you?<\/p>\n<p><em>For more critical information on the use of deadly force and other firearms and self-defense topics, visit\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscca.com\/GunsAmerica\" campaign=\"USCCAShouldIShoot\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"clickTracking\">www.uscca.com\/GunsAmerica<\/a><\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether it\u2019s a terrorist with an international political agenda or simply a madman, this nation is one of the only on Earth where private citizens are allowed to fight back with effective means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":69428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,234,216],"tags":[132,586,291,844,626,642],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-69427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-columns","9":"category-s-h-blannelberry","10":"tag-buzz","11":"tag-column","12":"tag-dgu","13":"tag-home-defense","14":"tag-opinion","15":"tag-should-i-shoot"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ep. 40 Should I Shoot? 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