Weekly Target Feedback!

Are there legal ramifications for posting range results online? Could these results IE targets be used against you in a court of law if you are ever involved in a shooting where you had to defend yourself and God forbid, you had to take a life?
I mean, after all you did brag as to how “good” of a shot you were… couldnt you just have shot John Doe in the leg? Why did you have to kill him? Personally, i would never post anything about my range results online.

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Thanks James, yes it was a flyer for sure, I like to shoot at dimes and quarters for some reason, I don’t post those pics because someone always just has to tell me how wrong it is to shoot at US currency. I never really looked at it that way, and when I bring a shooter to the bench that’s never done any precision shooting, I tell them,if you just listen to what I tell you, you’ll hit a dime at 100 yards within 3 shots, and about 80%-90% of them do, it’s so exciting for them, then they’re hooked for life. :sunglasses:

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Great question, @Tejano1968. A good self-defense attorney will use your targets to say that you are training to be as safe as possible.

A few other points the attorney will make - if needed:

  • The only time we can use lethal force (shoot) is when we’re in imminent, unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm. If we’re in that kind of danger, we do not have the time to aim for an arm or leg.
  • Aiming for an arm or leg in a high-stress situation could mean missing and hitting an innocent bystander and that is the last thing we want to do.
  • Our goal is to stop the threat. We do not what to kill anyone. We realize that our shots may kill, however, our goal was to stop the threat as quickly and safely as possible.
  • We train so we can be as safe as possible - and the majority of our self-defense is avoiding questionable situations.
  • By posting our targets we’re looking for feedback on how to shoot even more accurately and safely.

If the DA brings up our target practice, it opens it up for our defense attorney to bring all of our training out - which is a good thing for our defense. We train to be safe and avoid bad situations. When the bad situation is unavoidable, we train to handle it as safely and quickly as possible.

Does that help, @Tejano1968?

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@Dawn, I like what you just said about stopping the threat without intending to kill. I definitely don’t want to kill anybody. Unfortunately I felt motivated to buy firearms to defend my family as well as myself with all of the news reports and neighborhood watch stories of robbery, breaking. Home invasions and outright hearing gunshots periodically near our nice neighborhood. But even then I don’t want to kill even someone trying to kill me.

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It is a huge differentiator as responsibly armed Americans, @KillJoy. Our intent is to save our lives, not kill anyone. It took me a very long time to carry after I got my license because I knew that my shots may kill. It’s an ethical dilemma for us all. The thought that pushed me to carry is that I refuse to let someone cause death or grave bodily harm to my children and I need a way to stop that threat if they ever face it when I’m with them.

I never want to aim my gun at anything but a paper target. I hope and pray I never have to aim my gun at anything but a paper target.

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Being aimed at by a loaded gun is no picnic, it’s scary as hell as I’ve been in that scenario at least twice. Long stories. I was unarmed. First, a cop arrested me on bogus charges and his chief fired him that night. Speeding trap. Second, a girlfriend’s brother went crazy on me and came at me with his gun. I somehow managed to leave without harm. He was being an a-hole and lost it when I verbally defended myself. I married a different girl from a much better family of preachers, deacons and elders. Some are LTC.

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Thank you, that sheds a whole new light on this subject.

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The one thing we have to learn to do, is switching from the everyday person and mundane thoughts, to immediately having the worriors mindset and survival mode. This is where situational awareness comes in, and the consistent asking ‘What if’… We do not want at any time to have to put rounds on a “human target”, but we must be mentally prepared to do so. Amazing comments on this. As I write these words Mr. Ayoob and Mr. Branca come to mind. Mr. Branca says:“You carry a gun so your hard to kill, know the law so your hard to convict”. Maybe a mis quote but the meaning is there. Train hard to defend yourself, train harder to know when to shoot.

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Agreed

And a lot of the mindset training is to also keep you out of situations where you might have to go to the extreme lengths to defend yourself.

Its not about being scared or paranoid its about being smart.

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Who has a target they’d like to share? I’ll be on the range on Friday - so watch for one from me this weekend!

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If this class keeps going the way it’s going, you might see a college book with holes at the end of the semester. Lol.

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I have to say, in Massachusetts, if someone breaks into your house, threatens yours and your family’s life, and you shoot the guy and wound him, he can sue you, it’s happened a few times here, it’s ridiculous but it happens. I have no choice but to shoot to kill, not shoot to wound. I hate that idea, but I’m not going to be sued by a perp that’s broken into my house and threatened my life.

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The phrase I always use and suggest others use as well for their legal protection - and because it’s really the truth - I shoot to stop the threat. I realize my shots my kill, but my goal is to stop the threat.

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Sue me if I stop a threat to my life. You can’t get blood out of a turnip.

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@Steve-G Unfortunately I don’t that’s unique to just us here in Massachusetts, and if you kill him/her, their family is probably suing you anyway.

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You should counter sue for damages to you.

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There are a lot of states that make it illegal to sue for damages if the damages occur during the commission of a crime.

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I realize this is a totally different situation, but many years ago my ex wife was involved in an accident in which the other driver was found 100 per cent at fault. The vehicle was repaired at no cost to us our our insurance company.

About a year later we get a letter from our insurance company stating that the individual is suing for injuries. I call the insurance company thinking this must be a mistake and get the response “Don’t worry, he’s suing the insurance company directly, not you” I point out that he was found completely at fault, and she tells me that they’ve looked into his background, he doesn’t work and has a history of suing insurance companies. I say “Great, so you’re going to nail him, right?” and she goes on to tell me that they’ll most likely settle with him for 10K rather than go to court!

I don’t have much faith in “the system” to take care of the good guy/gal!

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IMO: The amount of people who play the system is increasing by the minute. It is very hard to try to work within the system without the appropriate checks and balances in place to stop the abuse of it.

There are days I have to wonder: who is John Galt?

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Very true. We have a guy at work who doesn’t abuse the system in that way, but expends an inordinate amount of energy into getting out of responsibilities, etc. I told him if he put half as much effort into his job as he does into getting out of doing his job, he might be a halfway decent employee.

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