A bunch of other bloggers are sharing this, I thought I’d take a different angle:
First up, police aren’t going to be filing charges, so this is what a clean shoot looks like.
A few small notes, first no good guys were harmed, and no charges against the defender are filed. That’s a perfect score, full stop. In this exact situation he couldn’t have had a better outcome, PERIOD.
Still there are a few things that bug me. First it looks like he has a small-frame auto in his pocket, and when he draws it the pocket holster comes with the gun. He sweeps off the holster and still has it in his hand as he re-holsteres the weapon after the threat is over.
First up, good on him from using a pocket holster. It seems to me that the number of pocket guns flooding the market in these days when concealed carry is getting to be VERY popular seems to have surpassed the people who know about pocket holsters. Use them, they can save your life. Still while a good pocket holster and a good draw should leave the holster in your pocket, I find that when I’m practicing my pocket draw I find that a small percentage of the time the holster will draw with the gun. Practice sweeping it off. Also remember like empty magazines lose holsters are WORTHLESS in a gun fight. I heard one instructor say in a lesson about speed loaders and speed strips in a revolver class say “They are less worthless than garbage, as you’ll throw away garbage, just let them drop”. You shouldn’t be tying up a free hand with equipment that isn’t necessary to keep your immediate life and the lives of others safe.
Security cameras are tricky, and the video is quick, so you can’t tell if he used concealment to his advantage. Internet cafes and other commercial shops are built light and cheap, there is nothing in there, save possibly the support columns that will give much resistance to even a small caliber bullet. If this was 10 years ago, maybe there would be a few CRT monitors that I can first hand attest will stop handgun rounds, and take a LOT of energy off some VERY powerful rifle rounds. But flat panel monitors and sheet-steel computer cases won’t stop much of anything.
Still these thugs could have at any time turned and returned fire, so don’t present much of a target.
Last look at all the people who just sit there like a duck-in-thunder. There’s that one woman who all three men run past who just stands there in the middle of mayhem holding her ears.
DON’T BE THAT PERSON! Always have a plan in case something goes bad. Be that fight back, get out, or hide. When you don’t have a plan your mind can easily go blank with panic, and that COULD get you killed. Thankfully she didn’t get shot by the thugs, taken as a hostage, or walked right into the crossfire.
You see one of the guys in the front row fumbling with his pocket. He seems to do it when the thugs aren’t looking. At first I thought he was the guy who was going to fight back…maybe he too had a gun, but didn’t engage. Maybe he was going for his wallet to be ready to make the violent criminals happy….maybe he wanted to hide his wallet so he wouldn’t get robbed.
I don’t know, but I will say that if you hand over your wallet to a violent criminal who has threatened your life the ONLY thing that has changed is you are without your wallet. They are still a violent criminal, they still have threatened your life. If they were willing to kill you over your lunch money before, how are you any safer?
And last, if you’re a violent criminal in America, understand that Gun Culture 2.0 is in full swing. People still hunt and target shoot, but now the most popular reason for owning a gun in America is self defense. Further be it Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, or California, carry permits are at record high levels, and I suspect a much higher percentage of those permit holders are carrying than ever before. Your vocation is very likely to get yourself hospitalized, if not killed. You’re better off running the fry-daddy at the local burger joint.
Good show for the old man, he probably saved some lives that day, as there were a LOT of people in that cafe, and unless those guns were unloaded or fake, the chances of one of those people panicking enough get shot is pretty high.
Carry your damn guns, you never know when you might need them!
