Warning, temporary thread hi jack, sort of:
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If you carry a CCW, don't even get into verbal altercations. Walk away.
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Agreed. I would only add, 'whenever humanly possible'. SD situations are rarely cut and dry. I am a firm believer that if you carry a gun, you ought to also have some means of non-lethal defense with you. For me that is pepper spray. Some might prefer a taser but a gun AND a taser is traveling a little heavy, even for me.
The benefits of doing this are many. Number one is that you can usually diffuse a situation without an ambulance, or a defense attorney becoming part of the story. You may be less likely to brandish (legally speaking), when your intent was self defense.
If there is one person that is about your same stature and physical abilities, who is threatening to kick your @$$, then a court is probably going to frown on your drawing a gun for defense.
If you are challenged about the use of pepper spray, but you are legally CCW, you all of a sudden seem like the most reasonable person in the world: "Your honor, my attacker was angry and threatening, I didn't want the situation to escalate into one involving my firearm, so, for the defendants sake, and mine I employed a non-lethal defense."
And by all means, report it. If he makes the call first you are screwed.
If there are multiple assailants, or if there is otherwise a disparity of force, (because you are handicapped, or elderly, or a 90 pound women, etc) and you are threatened, you may be justified in drawing. If you have pepper spray in your possession, it's easier to argue that you are not out to shoot someone, it's just that this particular situation called for a greater level of resistance.
Either way, you have just exponentially increased the chances that you get to go home that day, and your assailant to jail, instead of the morgue or hospital. And that's a good thing.
THREAD HI-JACK OVER