INSTEAD OF GOING IT ALONE . . .
Next year will make three decades that I’ve been involved in shooting cases as an expert witness in the courts. I took my first case in New York City in 1979. It’s been an instructive part of my life.
One thing I’ve learned is that most private citizens who go through legal ordeals after they’ve had to use a gun in self-defense find themselves feeling terribly, terribly alone. They’re being demonized by the anti-gun media locally, and find themselves shunned by neighbors, friends, co-workers, and customers. Their identity as the good person, the good neighbor, the competent professional at whatever they do, has been subsumed by the new identity given them by the press: He Who Kills.
It’s easier for cops. They have unions and fraternal organizations to stand up for them, and to stand with them. They’re surrounded by peers who think, “That could have been me who had to shoot that dirtbag and bring down this crapstorm. There, but for the grace of God, go I.” The private citizen forced to do the same thing generally doesn’t have much of that peer support.
One guy who understands is my old friend and colleague Marty Hayes. He’s an ex-full time cop who went from patrolman to chief law enforcement officer, and who for the last several years has worked full time to bring responsible armed self-defense training to law-abiding private citizens as well as to law enforcement. First as Director of the famous Firearms Academy of Seattle, and now also as the founder of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, he understands that people who’ve defended themselves and their families may need support in many ways in the aftermath of the incident.
Gail Pepin recently did an interview with Marty for the ProArms Podcast. It’s on Episode 005. The interview explains what the organization is about and what it does. I’m on board with the Network as an advisor. So are John Farnam, Dennis Tueller, Jim Cirillo, Jr., and some other folks who’ve spent decades dealing with violent encounter survival at both the street level and the court level. I for one think the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network is an idea whose time has come. You can go to the Network’s website, which has lots of good info. As my old friend Farnam would say, “Strongly recommended!”
August 18th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
The possible legal ramifications of using a firearm in self-defense is probably the most overlooked aspect of defense training.Irregardless of the circumstances or if it appears that you were justified in the use of deadly force to defend yourself,THERE WILL BE A POLICE INVESTIGATION to determine whether or not you acted according to the law in using your firearm.So,it would behoove everyone to study up on what their State & Local Laws are or even get some professional training.
Even some very prominant “gun schools”do not fully address this issue as well as they should.One of the instructors at one of these schools was critical of Mas,saying “he is too overconcerned with all the legal aspects” and they(his school)were “only interested in teaching people how to win gunfights”.
That’s all well and good and of course everybody wants to learn the most effective techniques and strategies to defend themselves and loved ones,but I don’t believe anyone would want to spend years or even the rest of their lives in prison simply because they didn’t know the law inregards to what constitutes a justifiable shooting.