Another Great Website

Do you check out the Officer.com website?    http://www.officer.com/

You should.  It’s not just for police.  The armed civilian can find useful information there.  There’s a lot of interesting articles as well, like the K-9 that fired a suspect's gun.  I’ll let you find that one.

Why?

Many of the same problems facing the police impact the armed civilian.

Do I have to explain our court system to you?  Frankly, I don’t think I could, but I know there are two systems: criminal and civil.  They have different standards and drastically different outcomes.  You could be brought to civil court without being charged with a crime or even after being found not guilty.  (Please note, you’re never found innocent, just not guilty.)

In civil court, you could be accused of being responsible because you fired too fast, too much or used too small of a caliber or just about anything.  Responsible means you have to shovel over money.  The court could find that you are some percentage responsible and requires you to pay that percentage of the requested damage.

Even in a righteous self-defense shooting you could find yourself in criminal court.  Don’t forget, you have microseconds to decide, the prosecutor and their team have months (or years).

The best defense in both courts seems to be the affirmative defense, which allows you to say, “Yes I did it, but I had such good reasons I should be excused from any penalty.”  This shifts the burden of proof onto you and you can only tell the jury what you knew at the instant you pulled the trigger.

This is where officer.com becomes useful.

“How Not To Respond On The Street” (http://www.officer.com/article/10887879/how-not-to-respond-on-the-street) deals with the myth fostered by IDPA, IPSC and the entertainment media of the 'double tap' stop.  The article has three links to FBI studies explaining how feeble pistol caliber rounds are.

Wouldn’t that be nice to have if you had to explain why you fired 8 times?  Think about it, an FBI study that justifies your 8 rounds and all you need to do is print it out, read it, sign and date it as 'read and understood' and stick it in a file.  You do have a self-defense file, don’t you?

Worried your weekly practice could be twisted into something it’s not?  The opposing attorney says you practice too much; you were looking to kill.  You can flip that coin over to you practice too little and didn’t have the skills needed.  How about having “Ammo Shortage Solutions: One Box Workout?” in your file?  Another article published by police in a police website.  Do you think that might help?

(http://www.officer.com/article/10882618/ammo-shortage-solutions-one-box-workouttm)

I’m just starting.  I suspect I could find many other articles which help justify my actions and explain them to a jury.

Tactical content?

My first and favorite instructor, Massad Ayoob preaches, “Know where the attack will come from and have a proven defense in place.”  Take that to heart.  Remember the Scouting motto:  “Be Prepared.”