[daddyo]

Incidentally, daddyo, we do have far more in common than we are divided by. Like you, I am enjoying the discussion and am enjoying the opportunity to explore the mindset concept more thoroughly and more critically.

The problem is that we are walking along a very sharp ridgeline at the top of a mountain. There are steep cliffs and sharp rocks on both sides of the ridgeline. To take one foot off the trail in either direction will result in tragedy. On one side of the trail, you can fall to your death at the bottom of the cliffs by not responding soon enough, or effectively enough, to a violent attack. You can fall to your death on the other side of the trail and land on the sharp rocks of the legal system. Either way, falling off the trail is not ideal. So we have to stay on a fairly narrow mindset pathway.

I suspect that you believe I am likely to fall off the cliffs on one side of the trail. And I believe that many of the posters in this thread have been concerned that you will fall to your death on the other side of the trail. But we do have some common ground, and that common ground is worth exploring.

We agree that if you do have to fight for your life, you need to do so effectively and without finicky caution for your attacker's feelings or physical status."Do not worry about your condition; make the assailant worry about his condition," wrote Jeff Cooper many years ago. I think you and I can agree on that one.

Another aspect we have in common is that we both agree that you must stop fighting as soon as you have reached safety. Safety might be defined as physically removing yourself from the area. It might be defined as that the attacker has stopped trying to harm you – he has run away, he has surrendered and thrown down his weapon, or he is no longer able to attack you because he is unconscious or dead. Neither one of us intends to continue a fight after safety has been reached.

So we do have a lot in common. I am concerned with the phrase "go animal," because I think it fails to encapsulate some important mindset concepts. However, within the context of your larger list – and with extra explanations – I do not believe it is as problematic as the first responses you have seen in this thread. Unfortunately, I also believe that juries are made up of people who – like everyone else on the planet – may have limbic system, gut level, knee-jerk reactions to language.

Hope this makes sense.

Totally understand and agree with all of it. Not a great choice of words but I defend it simply because my expressed meaning of going animal what listed. Words mean different things sometimes. My meaning was " (Must be ready to become extremely violent without delay or hesitation)". I feel as though I have a good grasp of the things that could come back to haunt me. Go Animal isn't high on that list.