[maddmatter1970]

Making yourelf as small as possible is always a good move when you KNOW a thing is a threat that is throwing lead from distance. Sometimes, I suppose, it would be a good move when you SUSPECT a threat but CAN NOT retreat.

Car accidents are good logic tests. Generally speaking, if your car is in motion, and strikes another car, at a minumun, the liability of failure to control can be assigned to you.

I cannot imagine a scenario where preemptive lethal force would pass the sniff test HOWEVER in the real world, how do we count potential rattlesnake victims who heeded the warning?

 

[Sr40ken]

I try and avoid the bad areas. But I have to go to west Springfield Friday to winterize my best friends Harley, for his widow. Number one, I’m not shirking my duty to my brother. I also know the cops that are in charge of that part of town. Usually have the G20 10mm in that part of town as well as an M4gery.
West Springfield was among the worst in the country a year or so ago, yeah, in the middle of conservative America.

 

[Regular Army]

Best bet is to avoid areas where this could happen,
however we all know we cannot stop going some places.

That's an understatement.
The world has changed in the last 20 years and has become a very dangerous place.

It's been 21 years since I was robbed at gun point by four "kids" in front of my house. Shortly after that I sold my very nice house. I moved to the end of a Dead End Road, as far away as I could from any city.

Some things don't change, they just get worse.

Two years ago, a very nice lady across the street from my old house was parking her car in her garage.
She was with her teenaged daughter when cornered by a 14 yo and a 15 yo. She refused to give up her car keys and they shot and killed her.

There is no possession worth your life.

 

[JTJ]

I am old so I carry a heavy cane or walking stick. Can even be carried on a plane.

 

[50 State]

I'd suggest that one does not have to run far to justify running. A short distance is enough to validate self-defense.

One doesn't need to out-run the threat, only need to run a few steps to prove he was a threat before firing.

 

[Tacky]

That's an understatement.
The world has changed in the last 20 years and has become a very dangerous place.

It's been 21 years since I was robbed at gun point by four "kids" in front of my house. Shortly after that I sold my very nice house. I moved to the end of a Dead End Road, as far away as I could from any city.

Some things don't change, they just get worse.

Two years ago, a very nice lady across the street from my old house was parking her car in her garage.
She was with her teenaged daughter when cornered by a 14 yo and a 15 yo. She refused to give up her car keys and they shot and killed her.

There is no possession worth your life.

Agreed. I live in a nice neighborhood, great neighbors, in the country. But I carry in the yard, in the shop hangs an M4, and in the house, I have a rifle ready. I do not under estimate anyone, and rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

 

[hlg]

OK, just being a smart ass
(Sorry)

 

[Tacky]

OK, just being a smart ass
(Sorry)
View attachment 272993

Running is not in my nature... 😉

 

[50 State]

Thank you for your service . . .

. . . but this subject-matter shows why the legal aspect can't be completely ignored

 

[Tacky]

Thank you for your service . . .

. . . but this subject-matter shows why the legal aspect can't be completely ignored

I give the glory to God, he gave me the ability to do it. 👍

 

[hlg]

Running is not in my nature... 😉

View attachment 272999

It is.
Only you run TWOARD danger. And glad we've got people like that to watch our backs.

 

[Tacky]

It is.
Only you run TWOARD danger. And glad we've got people like that to watch our backs.

I'm glad I have the ability and drive too, like I said the Lord gave me that calling, I'm just a tool to accomplish his will. If not for that, I'd be running too.

Funny I always tell the new guys, if you see me running...... do your best to keep up. 😁

 

[baltimoreed]

I pocket carry so my hand would be in my pocket if I suspected a threat but the op’s scenario is too vague imo. Where am I? Alone or in a crowd? Possible sniper on a roof or a possible shooter 20 ft away? A robbery or a pair of drunks arguing? Alien invasion or a zombie apocalypse?

 

[LarryNBoise]

Suspecting a threat does not mean it is confirmed to be a threat........... but if I am suspecting such, my suspicions are usually right on. Is the threat to take property or to take my life? Had the latter and it was a direct threat and the proverbial knife (3 knives) brought to a gunfight (5 rounds), but by 3 knives against my brothers Smith,Wesson, and I, . Everyone walked because I educated them as to the odds against them and the err of their ways. All walked away to live another day. Property, is not worth killing over neither is a threat if you clearly have the upper hand. Every situation is different. Brutalize or kill my kids or wife, they will become religious real quick.

Today, I'd 911 with my cell phone first so I had a witness listening and recording. Didn't have a cell phone in 1981. but did have 911 on the line recording when I de-escalated a situation between 2 armed parties in a domestic dispute after one had already fired a weapon in anger as a threat. I was given a letter of commendation by the police chief in handling that before the responding officers arrived. Using one's head and training and quick thinking has always helped me come out on top.

Similar to @Tacky, I don't run away... I run towards danger if it is to help prevent bloodshed or more bloodshed. I was the only civilian still standing in a Valparaiso, Florida bar in 1974 (with the responding ambulance crew and cops) after 3 leather jacketed knife wielding "fish-heads" had already gut stabbed and began stomping the guts out of the owner of the bar lying on the floor. I snuck up and grabbed them by their jackets from behind one by one and slung them hard behind me into a wall thus giving the owner time to crawl back behind the bar. Everyone else in the bar ran outside when they saw what was happening.

When the fish-heads picked themselves up of the floor and returned ready to pounce on me, I yelled "You stupid ****s, the cops are here!". I had no idea the cops had even been called, but was trying to buy time and make them think I was warning them. They turned their attention back to the bar owner who was lying on the floor bleeding out of his gut and on the phone with 911. After a about a minute of them yelling more threats at him from the patron side of the bar, the cops did burst into the bar guns raised, and the first one fired his revolver into the ceiling just like in the old westerns. I focused and pointed out the 3 standing at the bar, and the next thing was they ended up on the floor cuffed and stuffed after getting pistol whipped to the back of their skulls by the cops. I remember it like it happened just yesterday.

The next thing was a female cop came in and asked if I was "Larry" and when I said "Yeah?" wondering how she knew my name. She said I better get outside where my girlfriend was as she was hysterical. I walked out and all the people that had been in the bar earlier were all out there watching the commotion with cops and ambulances. I found my girlfriend crying and accompanied by her brother who also had fled when the $hitshow started in the bar. My girlfriend sobbingly said, "You are just too dangerous to be with and I can't be with you any more, so I'm breaking up with you." I told her, "Okay, I can't change that." and that was the last time I saw her.

I know this is not a one size fits all answer to the OP's wide open question, but my answer is "Do you". Run, hide, call 911, draw, shoot, etc. Whatever it is that YOU feel is the response YOU are most comfortable with at the time and live with the consequences of your actions.

 

[LoProfile]

I'm old, beat up, grumpy and antisocial

If I suspect a threat and I can't retreat .... I'm fixin to throw down

 

[Regular Army]

Sorry if I'm high jacking the thread. This has been eating me lately and I need to vent.

Cities have gone to hell in a handbasket.
In the 12 years that I owned my home in St. Louis I saw the "cultural" change. Over the years homes of older established owners were bought and rented out to people of questionable character.
About a year before I was robbed I drove to the drug store in the afternoon, gone only 20 minutes. When I returned, both of the antique wrought iron gates on different sides of my corner house were gone. I should have started to move then.

An example of how the character of the neighborhood has gone:
I bought the house for $50K in '92. Twelve years later I sold it for $95K. Recently, scrolling through a realtor website I saw the value dwindle, with the last asking price of $48K.

The problem is predators, both young and older career criminals, are out there boldly stalking neighborhoods for vulnerable victims.

This is one resent case:
HEINOUS Crime That's Gone Under The Radar

I'll be quiet now.

 

[dwade]

Tell the perp(s) that this is a gun free zone and to please leave because they cant posses those weapons here

 

[maddmatter1970]

I stay away from "civilization" in general. There is nothing they say I understand. There is not much they have I find of any import. But I do have to work.

 

[jayhdavis]

Used to work in Baltimore City. Carried every day. The stats for the last 28 days are: 4,083 total crimes, to include 8 homicides, 17 rapes, 163 robberies, and 19 car jackings. See map below.

Public Crime Map

 

[oldag]

Yes, your actions can have adverse legal effects. That is the risk you take when you decide to carry a handgun. That is the brutal truth. Don't want to take that risk, don't carry. That way you avoid those adverse legal effects. Simple as that.

You are setting up a false dichotomy. This is not a binary issue. One can carry but still conduct oneself so that the risk is mitigated. Simple as that.