imported post
spectr019 wrote:
When doing the CCW course, it was BOLDLY explained that when we carry concealed, we are NOT to reveal our gun unless our OWN lives are in danger. Recently I've been reading a bunch of self-defense stories on where a man thwarted a bank robbery, somebody was able to save a woman from a burglar, etc etc... While these people were permited to CC, the police did not charge them with anything.
My question: Where is the line drawn about revealing your firearm? Are we LEGALLY ONLY able to draw it when our lives are threatened? If I'm in line at a quality dairy and somebody runs right in and holds up the clerk, am I able to do what I can to stop them? I'm just confused on what to do if a scenario like this were to happen. Is it one of those situations where doing the 'right thing' (i.e. not acting as law enforcement) isn't doing the 'right thing' (being humane and helping a fellow person in need/perile)?
Ben
As mentioned earlier, the exact legality of drawing your weapon varies state to state. YOU must make the decision as to when you will and will not draw your weapon. YOU must decide on your personal priorities. YOU must know the law to the extent necessary to match those priorities in every state in which you live or travel. Since I think it is a personal question with a personal answer, here is my answer:
I will draw, reveal or brandish my firearm or other weapons when my personal morality and risk assessment tells me that it is the right and moral thing to do regardless of whether it conforms to the letter of the law.
Early in my "carrying career" I studied the state statutes and incessantly considered scenarios for legality online, in my head, with LEO friends, etc. I wanted to ensure that I am within the law if I draw my gun. But something happened. I did a little bit of traveling and in my incessant research realized that the laws about everything handgun related are different everywhere pretty much. Good God I thought, do I have to memorize the law for every state I am going to visit or travel through to ensure that I don't break the law?? What about those places that technically say I have to retreat no matter what but I see an infant being abused by a grown man as recently happened in CA? Do I still have to retreat. What if he is unarmed. What if, what if, what if?
And some sherriffs, constables, highway patrol, state patrol, highway state patrol, DAs, CAs, ADAs, justices, judges, magistrates and a vegetable soup of other prosecuters, lawyers, bureaucrats, law enforcement, administrators and a variety of other people can arrest you, jail you, interpret the laws all different ways. Depending just on which side of which street you are on and where the city limits line runs when you defend a life may mean the difference between a hero's welcome and gratitude and an arrest, grand jury and $20,000.00 in legal fees. So I realized there is no way to know all the laws or necessarily to follow all of them.
What it boils down to is that I am a law abiding citizen. I'll do my best to follow the laws as written and enforced. But at some point, I may be in a life or death situation where I or some I love is a principal or where it is a stranger who is threatened. I, or anyone else in that situation, will have to decide within him or herself how to react and it is nearly impossible for anyone else to honestly second guess the decision as it was you and not them standing there carrying the weight of that decision.
If that moment ever comes I know that I will not be standing there thinking, "Well I'm in such and such state and they do/don't have a castle doctrine law. Now suchandsuch vs suchandsuch ruled that using lethal force is blah blah but soandso from OCDO was arrested for thisandthat and has a case pending about blahblah..." I'm going to make a risk assessment and a moral decision. Is it reasonable to act, safe to act and do I have the tactical edge to act? And a moral decision of do I need to act, what happens if I don't act? And I am probably only going to have a few seconds to make that assessment which may be a life or death decision for me or someone else.
So do your best to learn the laws of your state and those places you travel. But realize that when it comes down to it, it is not going to be you and the law that is standing there deciding whether or not to draw, but rather you, a bad guy and maybe innocent people as well. You will only have your training and moral compass with which to guide you at that moment and you will have but seconds to decide. As anyone who has been in combat will tell you, you will probably be afraid and adrenaline will be coursing through your body in a fight or flight response. The law will not save you but it may punish you no matter how righteous your decision. And in the end it is you and only you who decides whether or not to draw your sidearm and whether or not to pull the trigger. That is what it means to carry a gun. That is what it means to be a sheep dog instead of a sheep. That is what it means to be a free man.
Edit: spelling
