Absolutely lets stay on topic of the thread, sorry if I strayed. Outside the home, use of deadly force. Here are some of the things I think of when scenarios are presented,
1) assume at all times that your actions are being video taped from some unknown loaction, which in most cases may be true. A bank atm camera, a traffic cam, 7/11 security camera, parking lot cameras. Everything you do will be shown to a jury. act and speak accordingly.
2) whether the law is on your side and you have proven to the jury of your peers there was no other choice, you must expect a civil suit from the criminals family. Do only as much as the law allows and no more.
3) in a high stress situation, even with preparation and extensive training, adrenaline will alter you ability of self control guaranteed. I have many years of managing highly stressful situations and witnessed others manage as well, maturity and self restraint are affected on everyone. You ever wonder why LE after chasing a suspect and then capturing them tend to beat the s*** out of them? Until you have actually chased a dangerous criminal and caught them, you have no idea how you will react. I have done that before, adrenaline is a powerful behavior modifier. So I expect that although I can rationally think through now what I would do in a deadly force confrontation I know what will actually happen will not be what I planned for.
4) My teachings have been that drawing/loading/aiming may actually stop the immediate threat to my life, shooting may not be necessary. And thats EXACTLY what the prosecution will try and convince the jury of that you really didnt need to fire. Just something to be aware of.
There are quite a lot of options before DLAS...
-situational awareness, tactical movement/retreat
-defensive posture
-verbal warnings
-use of cover, intervening terrain
-immediate flight/retreat
-verbal de-escalation
-Draw low hold
-Draw, load, low hold
-Draw, load, aim
but if I cant use any of them I can always DLAS..but it should be very near the end of the list of choices.
But to answer the next obvious question, the knife wielding assailant charges or already has a drawn firearm and is or has shot already then DLAS moves up very quickly.