srothstein wrote:Excaliber,
You, as usual, make some very good points. You are obviously correct that all of the risks I mention can be mitigated with a little prior planning and correct action at the time. You are also correct about the odds of police being there in the first two to three minutes. I think most agencies still consider three minutes as a good response time for an emergency call, and that is from the time the officer in the car gets the call. There is always a delay between the call coming in and the police officer being dispatched and that does not include the delay of getting someone to actually call it in.
Most important, the decision is a personal one and no one should fault a CHL from making either decision in this situation. I would not fault a CHL for trying to help and I would not fault them for staying put or leaving the area instead of going and looking for the bad guy.
I guess the only real difference between us on this is that I do counsel people to not go looking for the bad guy. I generally think the risks are greater than the benefits. In the interests of full disclosure and having posted my advice earlier, I should admit that my training and experience, both military and law enforcement, has been to move towards the sounds of the guns. I would probably not take my own advice if I were in that kind of situation myself.
I think that your last paragraph makes what is probably the most critical statement of this whole discussion. I believe that way too many holders of a CHL or other state permit believe that just because they have qualified for that and shot at the range, that they are then fully prepared to respond in the heat of the moment to that kind of a threat. Then there is military experience and law enforcement experience, which provides a whole different set of qualifications. I am glad that someone with the right qualifications and experience is ready, willing, and able to move towards the sound. And I think that anyone lacking those qualifications may well receive a serious reality check one day if they believe that their limited experience somehow has prepared them to go look for the bad guy. Note that I said go look for, and I wasn't speaking about responding if the bad guy comes to you.