…I’d like to start amending/qualifying this statement to say that avoidance - WHEN POSSIBLE - should always be an option.
And we should be as ready as possible to avoid, de-escalate, and escape - WHEN POSSIBLE.
So judged by 12 > carried by 6…unless YOU CAN AVOID GETTING INTO A DAMN CONFRONTATION OR ESCAPING IT BECAUSE THE PROSECUTORS ARE NOT ON OUR SIDE!
There are times to be a hero and there are times to GTFO.
The other night, an a-h wanted to start an incident on the road. I won’t go into details. I was carrying (of course). So, I blended with traffic and disappeared from their view.
That was smart. If they follow you and you can’t get to a police officer, that’s another story.
I do not want to judged by 12 (people I can’t trust) and I’d like to wait to be carried by 6 until I’m very old and gray if it be God’s will.
Without the “edit” I avoided the subject!
Unfortunately they are making us prisoners in our own home!
I hate that slogan… “12… 6” … It never appealed to me.
Avoidance has been always first choice for me. Then de-escalate. So far I have never had to escape… so I have no idea if I can do this. 
To be honest carrying the firearm taught me avoidance, de-escalation and common sense. My life became easier and slower, my thinking became faster and clearer.
So,
I’d say… this is not an option… this is a right choice and should be the only one.
I know a lot of trainers and people will say Judged by 12 or carried by 6 is an ignorant thing to say…. But, there’s laws out there that restricts on our ability to carry life saving tools.
For example Michigan makes it a felony punishable for 5 years to carry a knife on your person concealed.
If you end up having to use that knife in self defense, and you may get away with the murder charge, but your attorney will have to negotiate with the prosecuting attorney about the knife law.
I find it troubling when articles in ‘True Stories’ say things like someone “…heard a noise, so they grabbed their gun and went to investigate…” with no context as to why they would do what all the training advises not to, instead of securing themselves in a safe place and waiting for law enforcement. The fear is it will encourage someone to take an ill advised course of action and get themselves in serious legal trouble, or worse, get themselves killed.
This is a human nature. The moment you owned and started carrying the firearm you made a decision (hopefully conscious) to change your life, your thinking.
Some people still act wisely, as always, keeping the firearm as the last resort, but rest never changed - you still think ahead, you know that you don’t need to be a hero in everyday life.
Others can change their life in opposite way. Their ego suppress their thinking. They don’t use the firearm as “last resort option”, they use it as “tool of first choice”.
I spoke with many friends, I’ve been shooting with, about home invasion / robbery situation. What would we do after “hearing the noise”. All of us agreed to arm yourself, find a safe place for the Family, find the best defensive spot for yourself and call 911.
For me that’s the best tactical approach to stay alive and avoid prison time in any State.
What’s the deal with Michigan? How can a state with so much beautiful rural area be so obsessed with making felons out of normal people who carry a knife? (Granted, this is the same state that wouldn’t let people go to their rural vacation homes during COVID. No no, you must stay in the city, where the transmission rate is exponentially higher.)
How do you open you open plastic packaging if you can’t carry a knife?
Why don’t pro-2A groups fight stupid laws like these? Why do we wait until they’re confiscating our firearms before we stand up to them?
The sad thing about the LEO is they don’t serve to protect any longer they are only there to investigate the issue
I thought Michigan was good but they got some sucky laws.
I see some video or online training on how to keep calm, when it’s “appropriate” to use lethal force, when not.
I’m interested in live in person training on this topic, but hard to find them, just preferring in person live classes better.
Here’s a brief good one (vid), I thought, on using: critical thinking and reasoning, intelligence, and above all - maturity. Not just from a criminal defense viewpoint but from a civil defense, the law, and doing the right or better thing.
Maybe USCCA could offer a live training at the next conference/Annual Meeting, which is September 2023 in Wisconsin
I wouldn’t be surprised; They are good. One legal seminar they had, in which I attended - did touch on the subject, but not as in depth as Mr. Ayoob.
You can be right, and still be in a cell or hospital bed or morgue. If I am ever forced to defend myself, I can count on wearing handcuffs, having to get an attorney, getting sued, etc. So I’ll avoid that by any means necessary. Run away if I can, de-escalate if necessary, tell the other dude he’s right, I’m an enormous ■■■■■, whatever. Let him meet his karma at someone else’s hand. I just want to go home.
Words of wisdom. Same advice I received from my mom. She still would occasionally remind me of it.
The answer to your question is that, contrary to what government continues to lead us to believe, it is a “… fundamental principle of American Law” that no federal, state or local jurisdiction or political subdivision thereof may be held liable for failure to provide government services (police protection, fire protection, water) to any individual . . . only to society as a whole. It is the responsibility of the individual to provide for their own immediate safety, to be his/her own first line of defense, with police “providing only an auxiliary general deterrent.” Warren v District of Columbia - 444 A 2d, 1(DC Appl., 1981) This decision upheld similar decisions by inferior courts at all levels in an identical way.
This begs the question, “If our immediate safety is OUR responsibility, why are governments at all levels trying so hard to prevent us from carrying it out?” “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”, and going armed with the right information is critical in this battle for our survival as a free people.
