Armed Citizens and the Law

Don’t be there. Virtually all self-defense firearms instructors agree that the first rule of any gunfight is to be somewhere else when it happens. How can you manage that feat? Famed instructor John Farnam, head of Defense Training International teaches a four-layer avoidance strategy: (1) don’t go there, (2) be invisible, (3) be deselected, (4) disengage. Only if all four layers fail should you draw your weapon as a last resort.

Is there a “racial” link to bad shoots? It is a tragedy whenever a LEO (law-enforcement offficer) in low-light, ambiguous conditions shoots someone who was actually unarmed and surrendering. It a political nightmare when the bad-shot person was Black. Statistics on officer-involved shootings (OIS) show that unarmed surrendering African Americans are much more likely to be shot by police than are Whites. And yet shoot/don’t-shoot scenarios testing hundreds of experienced LEOs reveal no link between a “bad shoot” and the person’s “race”. A recent study explains the discrepancy. Surrendering unarmed Whites are culturally more likely to comply with LEO commands. Surrendering unarmed African Americans are culturally more likely to posture, threaten, and act defiantly.

On average, 14.3 victims are killed in each mass shooting that is stopped by the police. On average, only 2.3 victims are killed in each mass shooting that is stopped by civilian bystanders. We show how these facts were computed. Then we offer two possible explanations: First, police arrive too late. Second, armed bystanders are better trained.