When Have You Ever Seen These Headlines?

When have you ever seen or heard headlines like these?

Local Citizen Heroically Fights Off Would-Be Shooter
Citizen With Gun Prevents Mass Shooting
Armed Citizen Shoots, Kills Burglar Invading His Home
In Midst of Horrific Shooting, Citizen Pulls Out Gun and Saves Day
Good Guy With Gun Fights Off Attacker


Never? Yeah, same here. See my point?

I've read several pieces by former U.S. military veterans basically saying that these regular citizens who think they're going to stop a shooter in progress, or prevent terrorists, or fight off the invading Chinese one day, etc. have no clue how to actually handle a weapon in times of great stress. To properly use a firearm, according to these men, requires years of training and practice.

These people who think having a gun on them will somehow make them or others safer have apparently not considered the fact that they would probably fail at every action needed to successfully fire the gun when under the stress and adrenaline frenzy were they actually in the same location as an armed gunman: aiming steadily, controlling their breathing, calming their mind, reloading quickly and efficiently with no wasted motions, using cover for protection, avoiding hitting bystanders, and so on. These are skills that must be taught, practiced, and then practiced some more. It's muscle memory.

Another experiment I saw once on a documentary involved a soldier telling a guy to reload his gun as quickly as he could. The guy did fine. Then, the soldier told the guy to drop down and do twenty pushups, then reload the gun as quickly as possible again. The guy had a much harder time reloading his gun with an elevated heart rate. Now, imagine how he'd do in the midst of an actual shooting. He didn't have the muscle memory.

I even know a police officer in Denver that told me personally that the increase in gun sales has only increased the crime rate. People buying guns are using them recklessly and without the proper training, and people are getting hurt and killed because of it.

If you do not have combat experience, you are not prepared to fight off a would-be shooter. I know your intentions are good and that you want to keep yourself and others safer, but unless you get training and practice extensively, you'll just escalate the situation by pulling out your gun. So, if you're one of these people, better starting practicing.