[BillCA]

Zincwarrior,

You wanted an example of a situation where a shooter had a ~50-yard shot inside a shopping mall -- Oregon a few years ago. The shooter was concealed inside a store, had a visual on the shooter and willing to drop the hammer on him and waiting for him to get a little closer -- until the shooter turned around and he saw the shooter was about 14 years old. Alas, instead of taking the shot -- and the heat from authorities & media for shooting a child -- he holstered his gun and tried to talk the kid down. As a result he was shot and paralyzed. The outcome was a result of poor decision making.

***How on earth is someone popping effective rounds at you in a parking lot from 50 yards? It must be an empty parking lot. Again, to quote the movide Dodgeball “duck, dodge, duck, dodge, duck”
in a parking garage, perhaps.

I did not say someone was shooting effective rounds, that's your interpretation. That said, friends and I were late getting from dinner to a movie theater to see a new movie. We arrived just after a drive-by shooting in the parking lot. From info we received, the shooters drove by the crowd, located their target, fired 8 -10 shots, drove up an aisle and were forced to stop for 10-12 seconds by a car backing out about 40-50 yards down the aisle. (Surprisingly the only person injured was hurt falling on a sprinkler head in the bushes. They hit no one).

***Again, it must parking garage. Absent being the President who exactly is taking a shot at YOU at 50 yards?

You or I do not need to be the target of the shooting. Other unarmed people may be the target and you have a clear visual on the shooter. Then it's your choice to engage or to do nothing.

At least knowing that you can make the shot helps increase your options for survival.
***NO it means you're wasting valuable training time on nonsense.
Perhaps. Or perhaps you only think it's so. Or maybe it is possibly beyond the limits of many modern pistol shooters.

It simply is not that far away given our daily lives. In the area where I live, 150' (50y) is about the distance, diagonally, across the intersection of a 6-lane arterial street and a 4-lane street. It's also about the distance between the East/West front doors of our local Safeway grocery store.

We originally trained on shooting at 50 yards - standing, prone and kneeling. Even with the weak hand (and making those shots was a bear).

I'm trying to contemplate the self defense situation where one legally defends oneself in a 50 yard shootout with someone.

If you include "defense of others" it doesn't become very hard. However, I suspect you wouldn't, so let's try the Apartment building shooter on the 4th floor and you're behind a car parked on the street. Of course, you're not going to engage him with a snubby .38 or your M&Pc.