The problem is that sometimes people carry firearm and are not ready to immediately take another human’s life.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work this way. If someone is not ok with taking the risk of taking life, carrying deadly weapon is not a good choice. It may bring more harm than good for the carrier.
Yes, his unwillingness to harm another did get him killed, but as she was leading them into the woods, she likely had planned on killing them, regardless. It would seem he did save his girlfriend, though, so it wasn’t a complete failure.
A firearm is a last resort when faced with great bodily harm or death. You are correct, if one draws, one better be willing and able to use it for it’s intended purpose. He did not get the opportunity to learn that lesson, but it is another lesson that we get to learn from.
To me, once you point a gun at me with obvious ill intent you will kill me. So my only response can be stop the threat, immediately, might not be this second but at the first opportunity.
My CCW instructor spent a good amount of time about this that I thought twice and thrice to the point of asking myself, “do I really want to go ahead with this permit process? I’m in a self-defense situation. Would I pull my weapon? Would I pull the trigger? Could I pull the trigger?”
Just a good reminder that if you are carrying a gun for self-defense, it is idea to use it when capable as if your life depends upon it because it does.
I’m not sure that’s a “problem.” Killing someone is never a good thing. I believe the proper sequence is “ready, aim, THINK, fire.”
Yes, it is the problem… and your understanding is wrong.
First - it is not a killing. Don’t think in this category, because if you do, you should never carry a firearm.
Second - you must be prepared for everything, even taking human life. You train to stop the threat… but you have to realize it may end with somebody’s death.
Pulling the trigger in the sequence you wrote:
it’s nothing else just physical process of tensing your muscles to shoot the projectile. You take the THINK part out of it.
There is no time to THINK. You must be prepared to shoot without thinking… your thinking must be finished before pressing the trigger, otherwise you will end up like Adam Simjee… 
There is always time to think. Make time to think.
Have you read the article from OP?
That guy made him time to THINK… 
you are ever in that situation so that you do not need to “think” as you already “know” what must be done, like fighting, or learning a different language, at some point “thinking” is not part of the equation, as your mind knows what to do (or say in relation to language) without consciously processing it.
Tragic account. Interesting discussion.
I’ve often thought that one of the problems with many in the gun community is that they haven’t faced the demons before they strap on their piece. They think the gun is a talisman that makes all problems go away. The gun gives off this invisible force field and simply makes us feel better when in fact, it could make things worse if used incorrectly. They’ve never really faced the demon of actually thinking through the horror of shooting someone.
I think another issue here might be that the perp was a female. No real man wants to shoot a woman. So what about self defense against a woman? Shooting anyone goes against rationale human nature. A real man shooting a woman seems to add a second layer. Gender shouldn’t matter when a perp is threatening you or a loved one. However, I suspect to some it will be a hangup. Get some paper targets with pictures of female perpetrators on them. That’s one simple step to inoculating against that potential.
F- that, if the perp is a deadly threat, it’s a deadly threat. Firearm = deadly threat. Firearms are no less deadly when wielded by a female, the whole reason why firearms also are the best at equalizing the disparity of force of a larger person.
In my opinion, the Jeff Cooper quote sums it up nicely.
In the scenario of the story that we all read, Mark697 is completely off the topic with the “ready, aim, think and fire”.
The time for thinking should be in the front of your mind while training, BUT, in the instance of the story, that person leading them into the woods WAS INTENT ON KILLING THEM BOTH, and leaving their bodies to rot until someone, days, weeks, months or years happened upon them.
In that situation, you are NOT hunting for game, you are the hunted. We will never know just how many opportunities the boyfriend had before he pulled his weapon to neutralize the assailant on the walk to the point where he responded. The time for thinking in this case was on the walk down, not after he drew his weapon.
True, civilized society dictates that “killing” is a bad thing. Indeed it is, but the situation demonstrated that, there was no other option available according to the story.
Thinking is hesitating.
In the OP, it proved fatal.
Could be, but having watched enough violence perpetrated by women in recent years, I can say I’ve been “inoculated.”
Note that it’s in the strict context of self-defense.
People may be using the word “think” differently.
It would be unwise to use lethal force on another human being (potentially killing them) without any thought into your actions.
Even declaring they are an imminent deadly threat, to me, means you had to think in order to make that determination. I wouldn’t want to kill someone without even thinking about it, even if that thought process took 2 seconds.
We are all probably familiar with the OODA loop stuff…Orient - Decide = thinking
Now, on the other hand, that (when presented with the imminent threat of serious harm/death) is not the time to think “am I willing to potentially kill someone to save my own life?”