4 ms·

What if you have a gun on you and no place to escape, do you attack right away, or wait for the shooter to come in and take him by surprise?

ryanmarsh 8y ago
“Violence of action” is the military version of our beloved “Zero to One”. What you lack in skill you make up for in aggression.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  This applies most in the situation where there is no escape and no one other than the shooter has firearms. If one is able to use tactics to even or upend the odds, then do that. Aggression is just the tactic of last resort.
stcredzero 8y ago
It depends. If immediately rushing the shooter would result in fewer casualties, maybe that's the best choice. However, if that would only result in your getting mowed down, then setting up an ambush and waiting for the shooter is arguably better. My recommendation, if you are in this situation, is to think one more time about your chance of escape. If there is truly no chance of escape, and if there are willing confederates, create a situation where the shooter is distracted and you can get the drop on him. (If possible, such that your confederate stands a chance of escape. They could distract by running and ducking into a doorway in the other direction, for example.) If there are multiple, determined, trained shooters, it's probably best to run.
LyndsySimon 8y ago
As someone who carries a firearm every day and is not law enforcement, it's situationally dependent. If my family is with me, my first objective is to get them to safety. If that's not possible I'm certainly not leaving them to "hunt" the shooter. If someone is actively engaged in shooting innocents and I'm alone, I'm going toward them under cover or concealment. I'm going to try my best to be as accurate as possible, and accuracy is proportional to the time taken to take the shot. The best resolution here would be firing before I'm seen and preventing the shooter from being able to continue their assault. That said, most mass murderers don't intend to survive to be captured, and someone returning fire is often enough for them to cut their massacre short through suicide to avoid that - so if I don't have a means to get closer, taking a shot that is unlikely to be effective is better than waiting and doing nothing. Even if they attempt to return fire at me, that means that innocents being targeted by them have more of a chance to reach cover. Finally, and by far the most likely, I wouldn't be close enough to the shooter to immediately stop the situation. In that case I would keep my firearm holstered and try to help others flee to safety. For what it's worth, I don't see any of this as being at all likely. On any given day I'm extremely unlikely to need a firearm; over the course of a year, a decade, or a lifetime, that chance goes up to merely "unlikely". By far the most likely circumstance I will ever use a firearm is self-defense is demonstrating the ability and motivation to defend myself, probably by merely preparing to fire by reaching for the gun. I'm 36, and this has held true in the handful of situations I've encountered thus far; I've had one instance where I made the decision to draw and fire, and in the second or so before I had drawn and began to pull the trigger my assailant had stopped their assault and began to flee.

ryanmarsh 8y ago

“Violence of action” is the military version of our beloved “Zero to One”. What you lack in skill you make up for in aggression.

stcredzero 8y ago
This applies most in the situation where there is no escape and no one other than the shooter has firearms. If one is able to use tactics to even or upend the odds, then do that. Aggression is just the tactic of last resort.

stcredzero 8y ago

It depends. If immediately rushing the shooter would result in fewer casualties, maybe that's the best choice. However, if that would only result in your getting mowed down, then setting up an ambush and waiting for the shooter is arguably better. My recommendation, if you are in this situation, is to think one more time about your chance of escape. If there is truly no chance of escape, and if there are willing confederates, create a situation where the shooter is distracted and you can get the drop on him. (If possible, such that your confederate stands a chance of escape. They could distract by running and ducking into a doorway in the other direction, for example.) If there are multiple, determined, trained shooters, it's probably best to run.

LyndsySimon 8y ago

As someone who carries a firearm every day and is not law enforcement, it's situationally dependent. If my family is with me, my first objective is to get them to safety. If that's not possible I'm certainly not leaving them to "hunt" the shooter. If someone is actively engaged in shooting innocents and I'm alone, I'm going toward them under cover or concealment. I'm going to try my best to be as accurate as possible, and accuracy is proportional to the time taken to take the shot. The best resolution here would be firing before I'm seen and preventing the shooter from being able to continue their assault. That said, most mass murderers don't intend to survive to be captured, and someone returning fire is often enough for them to cut their massacre short through suicide to avoid that - so if I don't have a means to get closer, taking a shot that is unlikely to be effective is better than waiting and doing nothing. Even if they attempt to return fire at me, that means that innocents being targeted by them have more of a chance to reach cover. Finally, and by far the most likely, I wouldn't be close enough to the shooter to immediately stop the situation. In that case I would keep my firearm holstered and try to help others flee to safety. For what it's worth, I don't see any of this as being at all likely. On any given day I'm extremely unlikely to need a firearm; over the course of a year, a decade, or a lifetime, that chance goes up to merely "unlikely". By far the most likely circumstance I will ever use a firearm is self-defense is demonstrating the ability and motivation to defend myself, probably by merely preparing to fire by reaching for the gun. I'm 36, and this has held true in the handful of situations I've encountered thus far; I've had one instance where I made the decision to draw and fire, and in the second or so before I had drawn and began to pull the trigger my assailant had stopped their assault and began to flee.