MYTHS OF T “You Can’t Draw Your Gun Until
You’re Justified In Firing.” If you wait that long, you’ve wait-
ed too long. One night long ago, when I was a young police patrolman, an- other officer and I confronted a man wanted for threatening his estranged wife. The other officer asked him for ID, and the man reached upward across his T-shirt and under his short Eisenhower jacket as if for a wallet in the breast pocket of a suit coat. I instantly drew my Smith & Wesson from its Bianchi breakfront holster and took him at gunpoint. He froze, and it was over. From the spot un- der his arm that he was reaching for, we recovered an FIE .380 auto, fully
Professor Gary Kleck in Florida and Professor John Lott in Illinois. You lose that life-saving effect if you wait to draw the gun until there’s nothing left to do with it but shoot somebody — and because you are now behind the action/reaction curve yourself, there is a high likelihood that you’ll be the one to die if you’ve waited too long. “Shoot, Shovel, Shut Up.” Probably the most pervasive of
these insidious myths is after shooting a housebreaker, you should dispose of the corpse and pretend it never hap- pened. Terrific: you now fit the profile of the perpetrator of premeditated murder. A more common variant of the myth is “drag him into the house
izens to death on the street or quicksand in the courtroom. We offer a few “myth- busters moments.”
loaded with Super Vel hollow points, in an upside-down, thumb-break Bi- anchi shoulder holster. I had acted on reflex. Not until it
was over did I realize why. Eisenhow- er jackets don’t usually have inside- breast pockets, and you don’t reach upward to withdraw a wallet from such a pocket in any case. If I had waited to see his gun, he would have been able to shoot me and the other officer in the head before we could have cleared leather. History tells us far more armed en-
counters with criminals end without bloodshed when the good guy draws down on the bad guy first, than end with the necessity for gunfire and bloodshed. This is true for cop and armed citizen alike. For confirmation of the latter, look to the research of
60 “Misinformed advice can lead armed cit-
and plant a kitchen knife in his hand before you call the police.” The state of crime scene analysis technology today makes it virtually impossible for you to get away with this. Once your subterfuge is discov-
ered, you are basically prima facie guilty of obstruction of justice.
If
the prosecutor wants the grand jury to indict you for manslaughter, it’s a slam dunk: everyone in the general public has heard someone talk about planting a “drop knife” on someone they shot by mistake, and your hav- ing done so “fits the profile.” You have even left yourself open to a charge of premeditated murder, since most judges will allow the prosecution to argue alteration of evidence after the fact can be seen as an indication of prior planning of a crime.
ARM
distorts American citizens’ view of the real world. Unfortunately, following advice coming from a make-believe world can destroy your life in the real world. Let’s examine a few of the most pernicious myths that can leave you dead on the street or rotting in prison if you take them seriously.
he world of armed defense for law-abiding citizens is rife with mythology. Small wonder since gun fighting has been a staple of silver screen myths since the dawn of silent films, and the entertainment media pervades and
Following this horrendously bad
advice has now turned the death of the home invader from justifiable defense of self and others, to some serious prison time (obstruction of justice), up to 20 years hard time (typical max sen- tence for manslaughter) or life without parole or even the death penalty (pre- meditated murder). Such is the price of following stupid recommendations. “All That Matters Is That It’s A
Good Shooting.” Uh … no. What matters is the po-
lice, the Prosecutor’s Office and per- haps the grand jury believe it’s a good shoot. The family of the deceased criminal you had to shoot may not have seen the monster who forced you to pull the trigger, because many
REALITY CHECK • 2011 SPECIAL EDITION
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