Greg Ellifritz posted an article today that has some great advice on what to do. While it’s geared toward an active shooter event, what to do after applies a self defense shooting as well.
“If you choose to act, get your gun out of sight as soon as the threat is neutralized. Holster it. Keep your hand on the gun if you think you need to, but don’t be in a high-profile shooting stance. If you feel safe doing so, put your hands up in the air to show responding cops that you aren’t a threat. Position “Sul” is useful here too if the threat is still active. Even a modified “Sul” with the weak hand hiding the gun would be a good option. The closer the gun is to the body, the less visible it is to responding cops. If the other hand is shielding it, even better.”
Put yourself in a crowded club, mall, or busy sidewalk. The last thing I want to take a chance on is them getting their hands on the weapon again or that weapon being picked up and used against me/others, or walking away from the scene.
Whether I’m going to prone them out would depend on the circumstances.
When police arrive if I can avoid it, I don’t want to have the my weapon in hand either but I do definitely want it handy and secure.
There have been a lot of cops who lost their jobs and ended up in prison when a subject’s gun ended up in the wrong hands or walked from the scene and I sure don’t want to be the civilian that happens to.
When I say “secure it” I simply mean getting it out of their reach and having it where I can control it.
It is very easy to explain why you secured the weapon and how as long as you do so reasonably. It’s all but impossible to explain how it disappeared from the scene or how you allowed someone else to pick it up and use it.
Yess’m. I wouldn’t suggest picking one up unless I had to.
Consider a DGU where you didn’t have to fire at all and the perp surrenders their gun, or they are only slightly wounded and still very much able to pick it up and get back in the fight if they so choose or when there are multiple “subjects” involved and lastly when there’s an unknown or unfriendly crowd encroaching on the scene.
Yep, anytime a gun is used defensively, whether it’s drawn, shown, fired, or you simply tell the bad guy, “I have a gun and I’m willing to use it”, they all fall int the DGU category statistically.
My brother who fought in the jungles of Vietnam and saw and killed many enemy told me to be prepared for the horror of seeing someone’s body destroyed and life taken and don’t be surprised if you suffer from PTSD same as he has suffer for 50 years. I pray I never have to pull the trigger unless there is absolutely no other choice.