Gunhawk
Posts: 254
Joined: 11/30/2006 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Vincenzo Beretta quote:
ORIGINAL: Gunhawk I'm not sure what your point is here, but if you invade someones home you certainly *do* risk your life as it only makes sense to assume a worst case scenario, and it's legal to shoot someone invading your home. Nothing circular about that. Notice how, for "legal to shoot someone invading your home" it must be assumed that, in the given country, it is legal to own weapons for self-protection. But still... quote:
No burglar is going to carry an assault rifle for protection. That's just plain ridiculous. A person who has been shot in the chest by 12 gauge 00 Buckshot or .45 caliber jacketed hollow point round is *not* going to be able to return fire "just fine". And, of course, you *are* going to shoot the invader more than once. I'm trained to "double tap" every time. ...The two dangerous assumptions somehow I never see tackled are right here. The first one is that usually the homeowner expects that the intruder will - for some reason - follow a script. The intruder will never be prepared for the eventuality that the homeowner is armed; he will always recognize his duty to die and offer the chest so to go down in a glorious blaze; he will never be more proficient with weapons than the homeowner; he will never pack more firepower than the homeowner; there will never be two intruders; it will never happen that only an intruder makes noise and at that point the second one remains quiet so to surprise the homeowner; and so on. The second - and most dangerous - assumption is that the homeowner will follow his own script without fault. He will never walk on the cat's tail in the dark; the intruder will never walk on the cat's tail in the dark; generally speaking, there will never be a sudden noise/unexpected shadow that will make the homeowner jump and fire prematurely; he will never keep his finger on the guard instead than on the trigger; he will always keep the correct pose and the gun barrel will never smash against his nose after the first shot; there will never be a skateboard left by the son in the dark; he will always either kill or critically wound the intruder before he reacts - and never just graze him; and so on. And all the above will be done right/go the right way the first time it is done, without rehearsals, in a tense situation, usually at night and in the dark, after having just been woken up. Special Ops and SWAT teams train over, and over, and over so that "everything goes according to a script". It is their job, and they, too, occasionally see things go pear shaped. But in our minds it will never happen to us. Frankly, it only takes a First Person Shooter to see how things can go wrong when you realize that you have five seconds to assimilate everything in a sudden situation, and then the same five seconds to develop a plan, press the correct keys, aim right and be sure that you did everything correctly. This even if while reading the manual or doing the tutorial everything is as clear as the sun. Add that in RL you don't even have a single save to rely on. Frankly, given the basics, I'd rather pork with a taser than with a .45. BTW, while reading our little scenario, did you remember to remove the safety? All you're saying here is that there are people that aren't trained well enough, and/or haven't practiced enough to be as effective as they can be in a home invasion situation, and I agree. As I said in a previous post, I believe that everyone that's within a reasonable distance from a firing range with regular IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) matches should go and learn to handle their main firearm under timed stress conditions. My local range offers matches that also include practical shotgun and occasionally practical carbine scenarios. You start as a Novice and then if you want to you can be tested to be classified from Marksman through Master, but you never have to test out of any classification, including Novice, if you don't want to, and you only compete against others in your classification, so newcomers won't be out shot every time. The important thing to know is that scenarios are set up so that you'll be in different situations each time you start the scenario, so you must expect the unexpected. You might have to re-load in the middle of the situation, or only fire with your weak hand, or fire against three different targets, or there might be an innocent bystander in the scenario, etc, so you increase your weapon familiarization which will eventually become second nature and you also condition yourself to react to varying situations. I don't think when I pull my weapon. It's carried cocked and locked. As I aquire my target I am already putting my finger on the trigger and unlocking the hammer with my thumb. I use my peripheral vision and keep myself in the best cover that I can. I can hit a man quickly and easily with my .45 at 50 feet which is a much further distance than I would ever have to deal with in a home invasion, but be advised, if you haven't practiced with your weapon you won't be able to do that. I promise you.
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