This is one of the perpetual problems of self-defense, especially against random criminal assaults (as opposed to altercations where you KNOW something is happening before it gets serious.)
If we present our firearm with cause (e.g., fear for our life) then we likely may be subject to criminal charges or losing our license.
If we wait too long to defend ourselves we may already be victims, robbed, injured, or dying.
There are however ways to improve our situation that go BEYOND mere adminonitions of alertness or color code levels.
My self-defense group has a module and practice we term
Avoiding Criminal Attacks which is outlined and explain in some detail here:
http://www.meetup.com/AustinCombatives/ ... d/10163916
Avoiding Criminal Attacks addresses everything up to the time when you are actually fighting for you life.
This is specific practice with actual methods to identify threats (as early as possible), avoid the threat when practical, tactically position ourselves to meet the threat, and if to optimize our ability to respond with counter-force if the threat actually becomes manifest.
Criminals want to minimize their own risk, so seldom will they attack "from a distance" but general prefer to get as close before manifesting their intentions. They NEED to control their victims to obtain whatever they seek. They have no intention of creating a "fair fight".
One method is the "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile." If the criminal can encroach on your space and intimidate you in small ways this both improves his odds and indicates that your are better suited as a victim (for most overtly criminal purposes.)
Besides my specific drills and techniques for maintaining alertness and threat assessment (read my link above for much of this) my main method is what I refer to as "Tripwires".
Each time the criminal crosses or ignores a barrier I have set up he "crosses a tripwire", crossing enough tripwires tells ME (and any witness or later law enforcement) that he is more certainly a threat.
If I ask him nicely, "Please back off." while he is still some reasonable distance away AND he continues the approach, he has crossed the first tripwire. He is not typically proven a threat at this point (depends on distance and the totality of the circumstances) but his threat potential has increased.
If I then command him, "Back OFF!" (it's typically delivered like a military close order drill command), and he continues then my threat assessment continues.
If I YELL at him to "BACK OFF!!!" then it is likely time to present the firearm and defend myself or my family.
This doesn't automatically mean it is either legal to shoot him OR that I am going to even present much less fire but it does mean we are very close to that point.
PLEASE NOTE: We cannot always go through this full sequence and depending on distance and context we might START WITH YELLING "BACK OFF!!!" while drawing and firing.
Part of the reason for the repeated "Back Off" and unchanging verbiage (except for the initial 'please') is to AVOID PLAYING INTO HIS GAME or SCHEME -- the criminal doesn't care about his lost dog, his cigarette light, directions to the nearest bookstore or whatever. He rather wants us to ENGAGE OUR MINDS in his game so that his approach has more chance of success.
This method TELLS US WHEN to take action. It makes that decision FAR MORE RELIABLE and FAR MORE LIKELY TO be "On Time", neither too early (legal problems) nor "Too Late".
Just the "Back Off" and movement set of actions has been measured in the very violent cauldron of urban South Africa to remove eliminate some 85% of MANIFEST criminal assaults.
When you combine that with our alertness and assessment drills as well as (eventually) presenting a weapon, running, or fighting it is likely that 99% or more of criminal assaults can be eliminated with no shots fired (merely presenting) and no serious injury.
[There is quite a bit more in my full course on this -- and I typically present or teach this for free or nominal costs.]
Now if you are reading the above and agreeing that it makes sense, please understand that through my experience teaching this and role playing with hundreds of people it has become obvious that almost no one can perform these steps correctly without both training AND PRACTICE.
If ever you are in Austin, come to our regular
Austin Combatives http://www.Meetup.Com/AustinCombatives practice (Mon/Wed 6:30pm -- Sat 9am) and I will be happy to share it with you for yourself or to teach to others.
The Texas CHL
http://www.txchia.org/ has asked me to present a class on these methods at their Seventeenth Annual Convention Kerrville, February 28 through March 2, 2014 so if you will be there please come introduce yourself and let's talk.
We (almost) all here carry tools for personal defense against criminal assault but practically everyone would be delighted if that assault never happens to us.
With these tools, we can reduce the likelihood of assault to a SMALL FRACTION of what our odds would be randomly, and we can IMPROVE OUR RESPONSE and our ODDS OF SUCCESS for those cases where the criminal persists despite our efforts.
Combining this with the increase ability to ARTICULATE the reasons for our actions and the actions of the criminal which let us to take those actions this offers quite a bit of protection and value for only a modest investment of time and practice. (The equivalent of a couple of range sessions.)
Ok I know this isn't as sexy or as much fun as making things go "Bang" but this practice it a critical component in *MY* self-defense plan.
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Fight your strengths; train your weaknesses.
