I did this to have the option, and after the stark reality that if you do have to save your life that you’ll probably be presumed the bad guy, who knows….

“This is not a license to be a junior Gman” is the key quote. Just leave me alone, go away, just leave, that’s the first defense, what’s on the hip is the absolute last resort.

The inside the head scenarios and ‘what will I do if’s’ are probably as important as the range time.

I had flashbacks to my gun safety training from the youthful days as my Advanced Hunters education classes my dad (luckily) made me take, while at the class Saturday.

You can never learn enough about gun safety. Further proof that guns don’t kill people, people do.

Again, all good tips, and great class. God willing, I’ll never have to…..

Firstly, thanks for the kind words, Kevin. The class was even more fun than usual, and the usual is a lot.

And, yup, that’s a common reaction to that hypothetical. Which is, IMHO and all, great. The classroom is the place for second thoughts, after all, and that’s kind of why I trot it out, just that way, after going through the legal requirements stuff.

For those who are interested, here’s the hypothetical, pretty much word for word, the way I put it in class:

You’re walking down the street, minding your own business, and all of a sudden a guy leaps out of an alley, thirty feet away from you. He’s running at you, faster than you’ve every seen a human being run before, and he’s got a machete in his hands. [I whip out a small pocket knife at this point.] And, as he’s running at you — faster than you’ve ever seen a human being run before — he’s shouting, and because this is a hypothetical, he’s making it easy for you, ’cause he’s shouting, “I’m now going to chop you to death with this here machete.”

Now, since you’re carrying your handgun, you take it out, and point it to his center of mass — and we’ll get to why center of mass, later, honest . . .

Do you shoot the Olympic-grade-springing, machete-wielding maniac?