We Get Letters

"Most places today teach and talk about shooting to stop the threat... Is this mindset the best way to prepare for a gunfight?"

It's basically the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Well, Rosie is dumber so I take that back.

Stop the threat for how long? You tag a guy in the hip and he falls. The immediate threat is over. Give him a minute to recuperate and he offs you while you pose for Threat-Stopping Magazine's centerfold of the month.

The "shoot until you stop the threat" is cop-speak. Because they aren't allowed to say kill. Places that charge thousands of dollars to teach you how to hop on one leg while singing the national anthem as you repel the Washington Monument with a goat on your back also use "threat" lots and lots. They don't wish to be quoted by Soccer Mom Weekly as teaching little Johnny Wannabe to be a bloodthirsty sniper so they double-talk over what it is you have to do in order to survive. Think Marine boot camp teaches it's recruits to stop the threat? Give me a moment here because typing that made me spit coffee all over the monitor...

Ok, back. Where was I...

Deadly force. You may very well notice that it contains a variation of the word "dead". If you are justified in using deadly force, the intent must be to make someone dead by your being...get ready this is gonna sting...deadly.

The Lone Ranger and sometimes even Gene Autry shot the guns out of the bad guy's hand. They stopped the threat. Back on planet earth, if you shoot, you damned well better be shooting to kill. Virtually every last posting here that contains a reference to a civilian shoot goes something like this: Bad guy started being bad, good guy got a gun and killed him. If you've the gumption to fight for your life it better be with the intent to do everything in your power to kill the object of your disaffection. Start going mealy-mouth and hemming with intent to haw obfuscates what it is you must do in order to survive, and having the proper brain housing group alignment goes a long way in helping you to focus on what's important.

Let the scardy cats talk all they want about stopping this that or the other thing. Used to give me a hoot to hear the Army talk about Terminate With Extreme Prejudice. That's because kill the motherfucker doesn't sound good at a Congressional hearing. Far be it for me to tell someone else what to do. Question was asked, question was answered. Ya'll can carry around a stoplight and flash it to red whenever someone needs stopping or shout Halt, Who Goes There. Cease and desist thee, varlet, is a good one too.