So I have been watching so many USCCA videos that I had a dream of a self-defense scenario. I wanted to share the dream I had. Here is the setup and story.
Driving down the road, I see a friend’s business, Lights on the doors are open. It’s 1-2 AM. As I go by the company, I hear gunshots and see muzzle flashes! I immediately pull over, get my gun out of a lock box, and load it. ( In the dream, I did not have a CPL; however, I was openly carrying earlier in the night, and my gun was in a lockbox unloaded.) I leave my vehicle and stay on the driver’s side, calling 911 with my weapon in hand. I see someone walking out from behind the business, fumbling with a gun and counting money. I raise my gun and yell, hay, stop! He raised his weapon and yelled FU! Dropping the cash and firing at me at the same time. I fire back, and that’s when I hear Kevin Mcclusky (SPELLING) from the USCAA videos ask. What did you do wrong? As I was lying on the ground bleeding, I reply I got out of my car with my gun!
That is when my dream stopped, and I woke up. Anyway, thanks for the great videos that make you think and, in my case, dream. And yes, as of 02/16/2023, I am a new CPL holder.
Welcome. Good for you on your accolade. Tons of responsibility.
Just curious, I guess one can say maybe a lesson imprinted on you from the education and now having a permit, was try to avoid danger within reason and morals. One can argue, you heard gunshots, thus get to safe distance, call 911; Then maybe call your friend’s business?
Sounds like you are doing a deep dive into the world of responsible self defense. There is a lot to learn and process! One word of caution I would give. While most people don’t do nearly enough study and training it is possible to try and do too much too fast. You need to be careful not to overload your brain. That can actually reduce the quantity and quality of the information you are able to process and maintain. This can lead to fatigue, stress and burnout regardless what skills you are trying to learn.
The mind tends to work better when digesting small bits of information repeatedly on a regular basis. It is often better to watch the same lesson a few times over the course of a week to fully absorb its key points than to try and cram a whole course worth of lessons into a brief period.
The chances of needing to defend yourself in the near future are pretty slim unless you live in a really really bad area. So don’t feel like you need to cram everything in for the final exam tomorrow:)
After that dream, I told myself that was not how to handle that. I would stay in my vehicle; maybe I would load a weapon, However, I would keep a visual from a distance, and also call 911.
This would be the recomended solution in most circumstances. Be a good witness. Though in your dream scenario you stated the business belonged to a friend. If you had good reason to believe your friend was inside that makes it a much harder decision of whether to try and help or just call 911, stand by and hope help arrives in time.
Though engaging a fleeing suspect likely wouldn’t help your friend all that much if they were injured inside the building.
Sometimes it may be best to be a good witness. In this instance, I would have kept my distance, called 911, and gathered as much info as I could. You are no help to anyone if you’re dead. If in the dream you would have survived unscathed, how much info did you gather while you were getting your firearm, getting out of your car, yelling at the suspect to stop, and returning fire?