Decrepit Old Fool

Several points of contention:

1. Do you actually shoot handguns? If so, on what kind of pistol do you manually pull back the hammer just before shooting? There are certainly no semi-automatic pistols where the manual of arms (do you know that term?) calls for such action. (To be sure, there are some common models on which this is an option, such as the good ol’ Colt 1911. But few people actually carry and use it that way. It is far more common to carry it “cocked and locked,” i.e., with the hammer back and the thumb safety on.) Are you thinking of a single-action revolver? If so, do you know anybody who carries a single-action revolver for self-defense? I have known and/or spoken to literally hundreds of permitted handgun carriers, and not a single one of them, to my knowledge, carries a single-action revolver. It would be a distinctly unconventional and awkward choice. All of which is to say that I’m baffled by your description of the fantasy shooter pulling back the hammer after presenting his weapon. My suspicion is that you just don’t know much about guns, and are drawing your knowledge from Hollywood. Am I wrong in that surmise?

2. The hypothetical shooter’s next action, in your mind, is to slip his finger inside the trigger guard. From that, I can be quite certain that you have never undergone any sort of firearms safety training. One of the cardinal rules of gun safety is that the finger does not enter the trigger guard until the decision to shoot has been fully formed, and the sights are on the target. People who really know little or nothing about guns, yet deign to write about them as if they do, nearly always betray themselves by slips like this, which stand out like sore thumbs to those of us who know the subject matter well.

3. Although this is not universal, I think you’d find that most professionals in the area of firearms self-defense would not advocate issuing a “Drop your weapon” warning in the circumstance you describe. Intervening on a mass public shooting in progress is different from intervening where one is merely threatened. Once he is firing at innocents, trying to get him to drop his gun is likely futile. You will likely not be heard over the gunshots. The shooter’s ears will be ringing from the shots he has already fired. And even if he hears you, most likely he will turn on you (as your hypothetical indeed has it). Waiting for that to happen means that you are left to react to his action, which could easily be a fatal mistake. If I decided that intervention were warranted, I would simply shoot, not challenge him verbally first. This differs from a criminal who is brandishing a gun, but has not yet pulled the trigger. There, one holds out some hope that he will decide not to take that final step if given sufficient fear that it will end badly for him.

4. If I did undertake to begin firing, I would certainly not pick standing in the open as my preferred venue, as you have your hero doing. I would make getting to cover my first priority, and taking out the gunman a secondary goal. I doubt that any self-defense instructor would advocate otherwise.

5. I suppose you might counter that this is not *your* scenario, i.e., how *you* would handle it, but that of a typical CCW holder. But my point is that your description is *not* how any well-trained defensive pistol carrier would handle the situation. Do you have even a shred of evidence that what you present here is typical of what the millions of permitted carriers imagine themselves doing? Have you talked to any? Or are you just pulling this stuff out of thin air? If the latter, why should anybody pay any attention to you?

5. You say that the typical police officer has “more training with the gun” than “you” (i.e., your reader) will have. How do you know this? What reader are you addressing with that “you”? I, for one, am confident that I am both better trained and more functionally proficient at using a handgun quickly, accurately, and safely than a typical police officer. I won’t bore you with my credentials, but suffice it to say that I’m quite certain that I could convince an impartial jury of that fact by certification, by expert witnesses, and by actual demonstration, should it be necessary. So either you are in error with this assertion, or I am not the “you” that you are addressing. But if not me, a humble, unbadged CCW holder, then who is the “you” there? Do you seriously believe that *no* civilians are better gun handlers than the typical beat cop? If so, where have you acquired such unfounded ideas? What is your evidence?

6. Can you point to actual episodes of innocent bystanders being injured by errant shots from the handgun of a CCW carrier firing at a mass public shooter? I certainly have heard of none. John Lott tracks such things carefully, and says (see http://goo.gl/4tYJf) that he knows of no such cases. There are millions of permitted carriers in this country. Can you not find one single instance in which the scenario you apparently fear has actually happened? If not, then it’s hard to for me to feel the same kind of fear of my fellow gun carriers that you do. I, for one, would not feel the need to worry too much about things that might hypothetically happen somewhere someday, but have so far only transpired in your fevered imagination.

I look forward to your reply.