On Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:43:19 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


wrote in message
...

Anyway, some of you have firearms for protection.. What do you think
is safer:
Retreat, call 911 and warn the perp that he could get shot?
or
Run downstaris totally out of cover and hope to reach the first floor
before some asshole blows your balls off or you end up in a gunfight
with some little kid...??

I would love for someone who has had training to make the call
here...

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I knew a guy who was an advanced level martial arts blackbelt. He taught
several of the popular self defense techniques or styles.

His first line of defense and advice to be used against any aggressive
intruder with a gun was, "Run like hell".

Personally, I don't like guns, even though I own a shotgun. If I were
forced to use it, I would, but not before several warnings to an intruder to
get the hell out and only if I felt that my wife or I were in immediate
physical danger.

If the intruder is unarmed, I'd use a bit of old Navy training learned while
standing Shore Patrol duty. (sorry Harry). I keep one of those short
aluminum bats (used by fishermen to knock a big fish senseless) handy in
the house. A solid whack with it applied to the shins of just about
anybody will usually cause them to crumple to the floor in pain. Unless
they are drunk. Causes no permanent damage, but grown men have been known
to sit on the ground, bawling their eyes out after a good thunk!

You have to be very careful in situations like these. Case law points
in one direction only - imminent danger. For you to take any
aggressive action at all you have to be in imminent danger.

The problem lies in how imminent danger is defined in your state and
how your local prosecutor chooses to handle each case individually.
Mostly case law sides, believe it or not, with the concept of
non-aggressive action - meaning retreat to a safe location and/or out
of imminent danger. There is also a question of intent. If you
choose to act aggressively, do you intend to act to inflict harm or
did you act strictly in self defense. Further complication is that
imminent danger is often defined as a direct threat - such as hitting
you or some other type of physical assault - not necessarily the
threat of same.

Just some food for thought.