You have to give police a lot of credit for the things that they have to deal with while on duty, and the officer in this video showed some great restraint, as well as using a non-lethal method in an attempt to stop his attacker before firing shots.
The biggest takeaways from this video, for the armed citizen crowd, are the following:
- A non-lethal method may not be enough to stop advancement
When trying to stop a threat, no one wants to shoot and kill the aggressor. The idea is to stop the threat, and sometimes a non-lethal method will work to do that. But when it’s not enough, such as in this case, another method such as a firearm is necessary to protect oneself.
- Even if you shoot and hit the target, you could still be a target
Just because your shots hit their mark does not mean that the threat has stopped. Adrenaline is a powerful thing and can keep a person charging forward right through your bullets. It’s important to continue until the threat is stopped and in the meantime…
- Keep as much distance between yourself and the threat
The officer in this video is constantly moving away from the threat, trying to maintain distance between them. It’s a difficult thing to do under the circumstances, but he’s able to maintain somewhat of a decent distance from him until the end.
Distance is always your friend in any self-defense scenario. As John said in the video, Stand Your Ground does not mean standing in place while a threat is coming towards you.
Keep that distance, keep your head on your shoulders, and do what is necessary to survive the encounter.
