When I first went target shooting with some of my wife’s rural friends, they poked some fun at me when I got within 15 feet of the target when using my pistol. I’ve always worked from the assumption that in a self-defense situation, I’m probably going to be anywhere from touching distance to 5 feet of my assailant. If we’re 15 feet away from one another one or both of us is probably running away.
For clariification, the Texas law does not allow those ineligible to own guns to carry them in public (i.e. felons), prohibits carry in certain locations like schools, and allows private businesses to prohibit carrying a weapon concealed or openly on their premises.
I suspect that of the minute percentage of gun owners who fantasize about using their weapons to Save The Day, an even more minute percentage of that group would be ready and eager to do so if the opportunity presented itself.
Nope.
Data Visualization | Defensive Gun Uses in the U.S. | The Heritage Foundation.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. There’s good reason to believe that most defensive gun uses are never reported to law enforcement, much less picked up by local or national media outlets.
I have told my stoies here of the two times I pulled my CCW gun, and there was no reason to bother the police on my part in either case. Those are pretty standard.
I put those into two categories: Holstered handgun- Okay, NP. and those idiots who carry a AK47 into Walmart.
Sure if you have an open carry state, and you only want to carry a discrete but not concealed holster handgun, why bother with a CCW?
But there is no reason to carry some semi-auto 30 round rifle in public.
“Number of times a gun owner pulled their gun” is not the same thing as “number of defensive gun uses”. The vast majority of situations where a gun owner pulls their gun are situations that would have turned out just as well, or better, without the gun.
And that is a maybe, and something we will never know. Since we know the CCW guy didn’t actually shoot anyone at least.
Yeah no. DGU is absolute nonsense but if we get into it it’s going to be off topic for an IMHO thread.
This, a million times this.
Actually I’d say the average person drives pretty well. You remember the lunatics but not the thousands of times you saw a normal driver just boringly being in the correct lane and checking their mirrors.
Though the point still works as a relatively small proportion of awful drivers cause countless serious accidents.
Yet the stats don’t really back this up either. AFAIK, instances, where someone was open carrying and got into an altercation leading to death, are very rare. The Rittenhouse case was so sensational because it’s not something that happens very often. This, despite people openly carrying weapons to such protests on both sides…which is a hell of a lot more of a charged atmosphere than carrying your gun on your hip to the local Piggly Wiggly.
I totally agree with you as a ‘pure’ matter of statistics, but … (at the risk of veering OT):
I live in one of those towns that constantly congratulates itself for (anything) having some of the safest drivers in the country.
But it ain’t so.
If you ride a bicycle or a motorcycle, or drive a tall vehicle (allowing you to see what other drivers are doing), the % of distracted drivers is insane.
What this forces is the Better Drivers Among Us to be increasingly more vigilant and maintain quick reflexes.
Which may imply that the average driver is okay, but it probably also implies a high standard deviation from the mean.
Also (and maybe more on-topic), there’s a definitional thing here. An “average” driver may be effectively competent for normal driving circumstances.
But I’m reminded of a colleague who was basically in charge of FedEx’s air fleet. He once remarked that pilots – 90% of the time – have the easiest job in the world. What makes or breaks them is that other 10%.
When something out of the purely ordinary, but far from rare, happens, no end of driver reacts inappropriately. There’s a pothole, the car next to them is drifting, a tire blows out, inclement weather/poor traction … etc., etc., etc.
That’s where experience, training, equipment, judgment, physiology, and other factors come into play.
To bring it back to the topic, it’s not that hard to be decent at the firing range. Paper targets don’t shoot back 
From what I understand her Hyundai and some type of internet connectivity and she knew where it was. Instead of calling the police…
Paywalled for me.
ETA: NM. Second click through went through.
Some people let their temper get the better of them. I used to get my truck broken into a few times a year when I lived in Little Rock, and while it was annoying, it didn’t particularly anger me either. I kind of viewed it the same way I view hail damage, it sucks, but what are you doing to do? My wife took it extremely personal and was always annoyed by how blasé I was about it. I get it, you have someone take something you’ve worked for, something you depend on to make a living, and it’s easy to understand why you’d get angry.
But while I can understand getting angry, there was no moral reason to use lethal force here. Hell, who knows if any of the men she shot were responsible for stealing the car in the first place?
I recall an interview with an elderly Rex Applegate where he said he wanted to “sharpen his skills” in real-world H2H combat after he turned 60 years old. So he put on some expensive jewelry and walked around the worst areas of the Bronx. Someone would try to mug him every few minutes with a knife or gun. And then wish they hadn’t.
I have been to an open carry state. You might see a few dudes with pistols in holsters. The morons with the AR15’s in Walmart are a total outlier and rarity.
Bears have broken into our cars a number of times. They are rude and don’t close the car door when they leave.
I guess a sort of ‘defensive’ action is that when a car door is open. Bears will open the door or rip it off, we don’t lock the doors, less damage. You certainly don’t want to approach the car. I will shoot into the ground and see if the car rocks from a 400lb bear. I don’t like to have to do that because I then have to clean the gun.
So far nothing but footprints in cars. Some scrapes on the outside. Best not to eat a McD’s or anything in your car. They can smell it. And they are smart. They know how to get in cars. I think Mom trains her cubs.
As mentioned in the article.
“Thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles spiked this year following a TikTok trend showing users how to exploit a defect in certain models.” Turn off your WIFI.
The thing is that, in order to be legally justified in shooting someone, your own life has to be in danger. I know, there are exceptions such as protecting a third person but no sane person would actually want to be placed in mortal danger just so they could shoot someone else. That said, there are plenty of not-so- sane people out there.
To get away with shooting someone, you have to claim that your own life is in danger, and have no witnesses to contradict you.
Or just be in Texas.