Use of Deadly Force

We are going to start a series of discussions on some of the more important topics of gun craft. Hopefully, we will be able to give you a more comprehensive and better understanding of what you need to do during a critical incident, in order to neutralize your target. As you are aware, or maybe not, most gun fights happen within a distance of approximately 3 to 7 feet, this is generally called the conversational distance, or your vulnerable zone, or whatever. The important thing to realize is that if it is going to happen, this is where it is going to, MOST LIKELY, take place. The number of shots fired are in the neighborhood of around 3 to 5 rounds and this happens in a very short amount of time, 2,3, or 4 seconds, with the latter being the more unlikely. Your whole world will slow down, it will seem that you are moving in slow motion, and you probably will not have any recall as to how many shots you fired. Statistics show that usually the person that gets the first critical hit is usually the one that wins. Remember it's not the first one who fires. You could be the first one that breaks the shot, but unless you hit something good, Thoracic Area, Central Nervous System, or Lateral Pelvis, it don't count.


Handgun rounds are probably not the best source for being able to stop someone, RIGHT NOW, that is trying to cause you serious bodily harm or death. They do not instantaneously cause a person to stop what their doing. That is why we instruct our students to fire multiple shots. The consciences of opinion of most experienced instructors is, "What do most people do after their shot with a handgun, Answer, the same thing that they were doing before they were shot". Now, can one round cause a person to stop immediately, of course, but it must hit them in an area like the T.A. or C.N.S. There are too many variables to take into consideration when your involved in a life threatening situation, so you must error on the side of caution. That being said, you need to shoot until the threat is over. Meaning that you have to destroyed that person's will to fight.

We will cover some additional areas in regards to the different variables a little later. But, right now you must remember this; YOU DO NOT SHOOT TO KILL! YOU ONLY SHOOT TO STOP THE THREAT! YOU SHOOT MULTIPLE TIMES 2,3, OR HOWEVER MANY IT TAKES TO STOP THAT PERSONS ABILITY TO SERIOULY HURT OR KILL YOU!

Let's be honest, with ourselves. No one wants to take another humans life. But, there are bad people out there that don't feel that way. They fall into that 1% of the world population. They are the wolves of the world. They will stop at nothing to get what they want, and that includes killing you or anyone else that tries to stop them. If you have to shoot someone that falls into that category, a wolf, and that person dies because of you having to shoot them, OH WELL, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE PUT THEMSELVES IN THAT POSITION.

There are 4 major components that would have to be immediately present in order for you to be justified in using Deadly Force to protect your life or that of another. They are; the perp has to have the Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy, and Preclusion has to exits. Let's now look at each one a little closer;

1. Ability, does the person have a weapon or means that could cause you serious bodily harm or death, i.e., knife, gun, baseball bat, or because of their size difference or their training.

2. Opportunity, is that person in a position to effectively use that particular weapon to seriously hurt or kill you i.e., conversation distance 3-5', 10, 15, yards or further. This is a crucial element. Say for example the individual is standing across the street from where you are and waving a knife or bat. He's yelling that he is going to kill you! Now he has the ability but not the opportunity to put you in imminent danger right then and there. If that same person was standing 7' away from you and his intentions were the same and he advanced toward you, now he would have the opportunity. If that same person was standing 15 yards away with a firearm in his hand, an pointed at you, stating that he was going to kill you. You think the opportunity exists, you better. A firearm gives you the means to deliver deadly force at a distance.

3. Jeopardy, basically means that anyone that was witnessing this situation would agree that this individual had the intent and the means to cause you serious bodily harm or death right then and there if you did not act in order to protect yourself.

4. Preclusion, simply stated, means that you have exhausted all possible means available in order to protect yourself and that Deadly Force was the only action that would prevent your demise.

Next we will cover the Components of Acceptability