I was recently speaking with a retired police officer who talked about how he’s arrested 7 people at gun point when he easily would have been justified in pulling the trigger.
His point was that often officers don’t give folks a chance to think again.
It started me thinking. What if one reveals his gun in order to nullify the threat but not pull the trigger. Would this be brandishing?
Probably depends on where you live. If you do, then probably best to call 911 immediately and say what you did.
Like @Joseph161 said, call 911 to CYA.
In CA, I should immediately inform the sheriff’s office too as IA (issuing authority).
Welcome aboard! @Kevin502
Hello and welcome @Kevin502
@BeanCounter the new CA law is that you must immediately arrest yourself. 
@Kevin502 Welcome to the community!
Welcome
Long story short, no matter where you live, don’t pull your gun out unless you intend to use it to protect yours or your family members life. Lastly, I think everyone should look into taking a conflict resolution course.
My two cents……
My thoughts exactly. The weapon stays put unless it is needed to end a situation. All this “hold them at gunpoint” crap is for LEOs, not for us armed citizens. You’re not in this to bring criminals to justice. You’re doing this to protect yourself, your lived ones, and the general public.
This really depends on the local gun laws and the specifics of the situation.
In general, as others have pointed out above, a firearm should not be pulled out unless you feel the need to pull the trigger in order to stop an imminent threat of death or severe bodily harm to yourself or other innocent people.
A firearm is not a very good deescalation tool for a civilian to use from a legal and life protecting perspective in most situations.
Love it!
Welcome to the family brother @Kevin502 and we are glad you are with us.
Yeah. This “brandishing” thing is a made up trap to put indecision in the mind of the good guy. Many crimes have been prevented by the good guy drawing his weapon without having to shoot the scumbag. Well, the Gubmint can’t have that! So they cooked up this “brandishing” B.S. Once again, inventing a crime to make a criminal out of the good guy. “Show me the man, I’ll show you the crime.”
I think that brandishing a firearm, as in displaying a firearm to threaten and intimidate someone without any legal justification, is a serious crime.
The problem is that most of the brandishing laws are very poorly written and/or improperly enforced. Regardless of the laws, I think it is a bad idea to draw a firearm if you don’t feel that your life is under a serious imminent threat. Under an imminent threat it is usually best to draw it and use it instead of drawing and threatening to use it. Unless during the act of drawing the threat clearly decides to stop being a threat before you can pull the trigger.
The act of drawing a firearm creates an imminent deadly threat against the person you are drawing on, even when they deserve that threat because of their actions. That draw is likely to cause them to react immediately. That may mean running away or may mean instantly attacking you to stop your threat. Best to not give them time to do the latter by waiting to see how they react to your draw before making the decision to pull the trigger. Hesitation has gotten innocent people killed on more than a few occasions.
But now that illegals can own firearms, do we still call it “citizens arrest”?
I think Momala said they are to be called New Americans, I could be wrong, the narrative changes often.
You should only Pull your firearm when it is the only choice you have to stop a deadly threat.
It would also be considered kidnapping or false imprisonment or some other such charge in many states.
IMHO, it all comes down to how and why you draw on your firearm. I’ve been trained a certain way as a civilian and a specific way as a soldier. Both have very different intents and scopes of training. Because of this, I have more choices in my actions than those who have never been trained. All simply referring to my training… What an average person would do might not apply to those with training… Thoughts?
Welcome to the community @Abraham8
More training certainly equals more options. You just need to be careful which training you use in which settings. I suspect that at least some of things you were trained to do as a soldier could get you in legal trouble when acting as a civilian in a non military setting.
While some of the training I have had has come from instructors with military experience, all of it was based on civilian self defense scenarios and civilian legal restriction.