Fox News had a story today about seven people murdered in a Brazilian pool hall after the losers of two games were mocked. Bad guys don’t like being mocked. Trash talking or good nature ribbing ought to be reserved for family, friends, or brothers in arms who have a wee bit of virtue. Pistol bad guy highlighted in the right upper corner in pink drew his firearm and held a group of innocent people at gunpoint waiting for the other bad guy to go get his shotgun from his truck. Shotgun bad guy returned and promptly went to work unjustly murdering innocents. Bad guy number one also joined in the shooting and killing. A couple of people fled and actually did escape.
The theological virtue of Hope is awesome as a theological virtue. However, as a plan for protecting yourself: hope – is – not – a – plan. There is no time to call the good guys (police) with guns to come save everyone from these murderous criminals. Once we arrive at the problem of an imminent deadly threat (ie; bad guy brandishing & pointing a gun at people) the solution is for one of these innocent people to have their own firearm concealed on their person.
Let’s think about some solutions or defensive planning. An innocent man or woman might initially comply just long enough to purchase complacency or over confidence from the unjust criminal aggressor. In the bad guy’s head he believes this is going to go like every other time he’s robbed or pointed guns at innocent folks. That initial compliance sells him on this belief. A good guy or gal might then use surprise, speed, and violence of action simultaneously moving, drawing, presenting and shooting. This is a defensive surprise party for the bad guy. A great time to launch this defensive surprise party is when this bad guy is reaching for his door handle (upper left in the photo).
Why? Most bad guys don’t shoot so well because living a life of crime they don’t have firearms trainers teaching them the fundamentals of shooting. Once a defender begins shooting he should not stop shooting until pistol bad guy A) shows a clear and convincing sign of full surrender like separating himself from his firearm and showing his hands, or B) he falls down paralyzed, unconscious, dying, or dead. The dying and dead part are always God’s business. Vengeance is Gods. Legitimate defense is ours. The moment we begin acting with revenge or vengeance we will most certainly have a major moral problem with God and a significant legal problem with the state. Had a good guy here with a gun started shooting pistol bad guy I doubt shotgun bad guy would still be interested in this fight. Most times when the momentum shifts in favor of the innocent man or woman vigorously defending themselves bad guys remember they left something cooking on the stove at home. In other words they flee. They look to save themselves. A great motto they should take up is ALL men left behind. Why? Simple bad guys live lives immersed in vice and sin regardless of how Hollywood might portray them. They don’t have high levels of self-discipline, virtue, or self-sacrificing agape Christian love. When the chips are down they’re getting out of Dodge City.
Whether the bad guy stays to fight or flees the good guy or gal is still going to need to transition from his first target to his second target as soon as is possible. What’s possible. Forget the idea of putting two in the first target and two in the second target. You have to STOP one threat at a time. This brings up an interesting question. How often do you practice target transitions? Most public ranges would never allow patrons to practice this kind of training. Either find a land owner who will permit you to train what you need to train or take up a competitive shooting sport like the USPSA. Yes, I know USPSA has shooters place two rounds in each target and then transition to the next target and repeat. A great way of imagining this is that you’re shooting a single person who’s moving rather than multiple targets. Why is that a good thing? Because in an actual gunfight or shooting with you doing all the shooting your bad guy is probably not going to put his hands on his hips like superman and stand square to you unless he actually wants to die. He’s going to be moving to get away from those little chunks of lead your sending towards his chest and face. In competitive shooting you’ll develop the skills for transitioning with accuracy. Initially you’ll probably find you’re shooting to early, too late, or missing the target completely for a variety of reasons. Doing the work to learn how to shoot under a little bit of stress imposed by peer pressure, competition, and / or time and accuracy constraints moves you in the right direction for a worst case scenario. Add moving to shoot and shooting while moving and these are the skills involved in the many and various examples of deadly force encounters. Being able to pull off a respectable retreating Bill Drill at seven yards and greater is a skill worth developing. Building skill sets take a lot more time than acquiring the knowledge base.
The number one takeaway from this tragedy is to treat people that you don’t really know like they are just six seconds from a murderous rage. Too many folks today are only a few seconds from becoming unhinged. The next time you’re feeling like handing your ego and mouth your personal checkbook, remember this incident. Just six seconds from madness.