At what distance do you think you are most likely to fire your handgun for SD?

[mercop]

The question is pretty straight forward. At what distance you think you are most likely to fire your handgun? Please vote and explain.- George

[TTR]

I voted 5-21

[Lazydog]

Vote for 0-5 feet.

Reason, an attacker isn't going to let you know before that distance. Most attackes are up close and personal.

[LittleRedToyota]

i voted 5 to 21 feet.

it was a toss up for me between 0 to 5 feet and 5 to 21 feet.

if you had said 0 to 12 feet or 12 to 21 feet, though, i would have definitely chosen 0 to 12 feet.

reasoning:

1. iirc, that's what the stats say.

2. i think an armed robbery/mugging is the most likely scenario in which i might need to use my gun. those tend to happen at contact distance or not much further. (maybe i should have voted 0 to 5 feet...)

3. i honestly have trouble envisioning too many remotely likely circumstances at greater than 21 feet where you would be justified in shooting where running for cover would not be a better option and where the incident would not likely be over before you had to return fire from that cover. though, of course, you could end up being in a mall when some madman comes in and starts shooting the place up or something and decide to try to stop him...

[Jake Mc.]

I would hope I could be vigilant enough to keep a bad guy from getting closer than 5 feet, any farther than 21 feet means there is a good chance to "de-escalate" the threat without using deadly force.

[markheck1]

i voted 5 to 21 feet.

it was a toss up for me between 0 to 5 feet and 5 to 21 feet.

if you had said 0 to 12 feet or 12 to 21 feet, though, i would have definitely chosen 0 to 12 feet.

reasoning:

1. iirc, that's what the stats say.

2. i think an armed robbery/mugging is the most likely scenario in which i might need to use my gun. those tend to happen at contact distance or not much further. (maybe i should have voted 0 to 5 feet...)

3. i honestly have trouble envisioning too many remotely likely circumstances at greater than 21 feet where you would be justified in shooting where running for cover would not be a better option and where the incident would not likely be over before you had to return fire from that cover. though, of course, you could end up being in a mall when some madman comes in and starts shooting the place up or something and decide to try to stop him...

What He Said

[DonSmithnotTMD]

I would combine your first two answers.

Most likely less than 10 feet, but the rest being me trying to get to cover if things go beyond the 2.5 round average.

[LittleRedToyota]

I would hope I could be vigilant enough to keep a bad guy from getting closer than 5 feet

me too...but the problem is that, if you live in a city at least, there are times throughout every day where you cannot stop people from getting within a few feet of you...

standing in line at the atm...standing in other lines. putting groceries in your car and someone who is parked beside you comes along and starts also putting groceries in their car (or, a mugger pretends to be doing this), just walking down a 4 foot wide sidewalk and passing people, etc.

[jcabin]

I voted 5-21 feet.

This seems like the most common area where you can detect an aggressor therefore you would be able to defend yourself within this range.

0-5 feet is where you don't detect an attacker, its where you react to an attacker.

I think most people with decent situational awareness would try to detect and defend from an attacker before they reached the 0-5 feet zone.

[ReconLdr]

I said 7-10 yds as of the latest information I saw that was the average distance. IMO anything beyond that is no longer Self Defense unless the BG is already shooting at you. If I shoot a BG closer than that I'm guessing my situational awareness isn't what it should be... If I shoot a BG further than that chances are I didn't look for away to avoid the shoot or deter him from further action.

Of course this is from a defensive point of view. If in an offensive type of situation I would think the distances would be greater perhaps even to 50 yds.