Armed Citizen With Gun Does Nothing

[marinville]

Coulda woulda shoulda...........
It's all easy to say from the comfort of your couch.

A bad decision is still a bad decision, even when it happens to work out in your favor. This is no different than the Canadian cop a while back who miraculously didn't get himself killed when he refused to shoot the armed spree killer who was threatening his life. That was also stupid and he was also lucky.

[Hodgie]

A bad decision is still a bad decision, even when it happens to work out in your favor. This is no different than the Canadian cop a while back who miraculously didn't get himself killed when he refused to shoot the armed spree killer who was threatening his life. That was also stupid and he was also lucky.

You need to start or end your post with “IMO” because that’s all it is.

Cop vs civilian is like comparing apples to beef. In just about every way.

Here are a few:
Mindset, training, duty to protect, and personal legal protections.

[ExFlyinguy]

I didn't watch the video and don't intend to. That being said I don't feel any Joe citizen is obligated to carry, or even shoot if they do. If this were a cop, different story. Joe Blo is responsible for himself and no one else.

[Walleye Hunter]

I didn't watch the video and don't intend to. That being said I don't feel any Joe citizen is obligated to carry, or even shoot if they do. If this were a cop, different story. Joe Blo is responsible for himself and no one else.

I could go along with that and he was being accosted by an unhinged man with a knife who had just committed murder.

[lts1ow]

How would you feel if the maniac had stabbed another bystander while the paper weight holder was contemplating his mental health and legal fees? Would you still be as understanding?

He was lucky, and he probably might as well just save himself the future lower back strain and leave the gun at home.

Did any of that happen? Nope

My opinion is based on what happened in the video and the guy with the knife was wanting to get shot. Personally, I wouldn't want that on my conscience.

If we wanna go in what if land, sure, if the knife guy started to stab or attack, def would rethink my assessment.

[sbmania]

Misc thoughts:
I think the guy did well. He didn't want to kill the guy if he didn't have to. Only crazy people actually want to kill someone when its not absolutely, positively necessary. He wanted the guy to stop stabbing people and he succeeded in that.

He was probably thinking about over penetration, a crowded street, possible misses, every bullet has a name on it, etc, and was understandably reluctant to put his financial life and freedom on the line if not absolutely necessary. Let alone live with the thought of killing or injuring an innocent bystander. I don't blame him for trying his best to avoid shooting.

He might well have known about the Tueller Drill, but considering he had his gun up, pointed at his target, and assuming he was reasonably proficient with it, he was in a reasonably good position to stop the guy if needed.

I have to believe that the guy was willing to shoot should the other guy charge him or look to stab someone else. I believe he was hoping he wouldn't have to shoot, and this time, he didn't. But, if he doesn't know in his heart of hearts that he could and would have shot when positively necessary, then maybe he should reconsider concealing a firearm.

He took on a fair amount of risk in drawing on the bad guy after the woman was already stabbed. I would be curious to know what happened immediately after the initial stabbing. Did the guy with the knife look to attack someone else? Was he just standing there? Should the gun guy have drawn immediately if no second attack looked imminent, or should he have left his pistol concealed, gotten ready to draw if needed, and called 911 instead? By drawing, particularly if the guy was not making moves to continue attacking, he put himself in the dangerous position of having to possibly shoot the guy, and then convincing the jury that he felt at clear risk of death or serious injury. Maybe, maybe not, when the guy had his arms at his side and was not being overly aggressive.

What's with the pepper spray? It didn't seem to have that strong an effect. The sprayer could have easily become the knifee, it seemed to me. Lucky for him he wasn't.

The knife guy looked like he wanted to be shot. Even with the police, after initially getting down on his knees, he got back up and looked like he was planning to advance. The police showed restraint in choosing to taze him instead of filling him full of holes. Excellent police response as far as I'm concerned.

All in all, I think the guy did ok. Out of an abundance of caution, I might have hesitated to draw immediately and confront the guy (if that's what happened) unless I thought he was going to attack someone else. I might have preferred to stay unnoticed on the sidelines and acted only if needed to prevent further carnage.

[sota]

I can't find fault with the way that went down.
The previous posts above affirming that pretty much sum it up for me.
The bad guy is in custody, no one else got hurt, and an innocent didn't have to shoot him.

[SgtRecon]

The greatest philosopher and pistolero of all time, Dirty Harry Callahan sums it up like this:

DTUVvMKVQAEMon9.jpg

[marinville]

You need to start or end your post with “IMO” because that’s all it is.

Cop vs civilian is like comparing apples to beef. In just about every way.

Here are a few:
Mindset, training, duty to protect, and personal legal protections.

The common link between the cop and the civilian is that they are both human beings who were in jeopardy of being killed by an armed attacker who had just murdered someone, and both failed to act yet miraculously survived the encounter.

According to much of what I'm reading here, any dumb shit response is a correct response, so long as it happens to work. So I guess, the dipshit who got within arms reach of the armed murderer, in order to pepper spray him, was also acting wisely, since it didn't actually get him killed this time.

Another poster said he would have acted, once the guy made an obvious lunge to attack someone. The problem with that is, by that time the victim is probably fucked, and is also possibly in the line of fire. (Remember that police shooting someone referenced above? The one where the bystander was inadvertently shot by police?) How do you think this would have shaken out if knife guy takes a poke at captain pepper spray? I'm betting professor paperweight doesn't then shoot the knife from the guy's hand before he opens pepper spray's throat.

What I really want to know is: to the people who are defending this guy's (in)actions, if he had fired on the advancing knife wielder and killed him, would you consider that justified?

Edit to add: By the way, everything I type on here or state in real life is inherently IMO. I was unaware of any need to explicitly state that, when posting in a thread such as this one.

[Pizza Bob]

Do you know what he was thinking? Who knows? Looks like a suicide-by-cop type death wish to me. Maybe he wanted to delay the inevitable until the police showed up to deal with the perp. Personally, I could understand him not wanting to be forced into an assisted suicide.

This!!!!!!!!!!