This can be a benefit and a challenge if you find yourself at a public gathering where you hear shots fired but don’t know who started the shooting. Or maybe even the person who started shooting was firing at a bad guy but you just can’t see that the bad guy was in the process of attacking others from your vantage point.
Unlike the anti self defense folks we can’t afford to assume that anyone with a gun in their hands is a bad guy. We know there are lots of good guys with guns out here. Hope to never be in one of those situations but if I am my biggest fears are being mistaken for the bad guy as I respond to the threat or mistakenly identifying another responder as the threat.
I agree completely with both of your points! It very could have been that there were armed, off duty LE folks present and I definitely thought a lot about being mistaken for a threat instead of a good guy in such a situation. I like the idea of coordinating LE coverage amongst the parents if it exists! Being in a suburb of Chicago, guns in general are a very derisive topic and I’m reluctant to even bring it up with educators and parents because I don’t know how it might be perceived/received. As stated in an earlier reply to this post, chances are astronomical that anything would happen but I think we’d all agree that it’s for that very occurrence for which we prepare.
Agree 100%. One of the things one of my instructors said is that we might have to wait for crowds to disperse before we can intervene. There were probably 600 or more people in this concert venue. Even if shots were fired in a setting like that, I’d be awfully slow to pull a gun out until I really knew what was going on.
Seriously? Is this state wide or per county? Does this permission come from the sheriff, school board, principal? Is this a one and done for the entire school year or is permission granted on an as needed basis? Also, when was this statute initiated?
I agree. I don’t think it is a good idea to draw a firearm in a public setting until you have eyes on the threat and are sure they are truly the threat. Even then there are likely some situations when it might be best not to draw right away.
My pre-intended and dryfire practiced response for an active shooter situation in a public setting where I haven’t positively IDed the bad guy(s) and/or do not have a clear shot is to have a shooting grip on the pistol but to keep it fully in the holster.
I suspect many people wouldn’t even notice that I had a firearm. Especially since I mostly either appendix carry or front pocket carry. Those that do will hopefully realize that I am not the one doing the shooting since my firearm is not deployed. And if LEOs arrive I can quickly get my hand off the weapon without having to futz it back into the holster or place it on the ground. But my response time will be noticeably faster with my hand already on the pistol if I do suddenly have an opportunity to stop the threat.
Sorry for the delay. As far as I know it is state wide I just remember reading it somewhere. What I remember was written permission from person in charge. I just asked the principal and she said yes.