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There was a study done awhile back that showed police officers tend to shoot the wrong person (identify the wrong person as the bad guy and shoot him) more often than armed private citizens do.
The analysis indicated that the reason for the difference was that an armed citizen had a better chance of seeing the incident develop and therefore had a better chance of actually understanding what was going on, who was in the right and who was in the wrong.
Cops tend to show up after being called to the scene and must make a rapid assessment of the situation with very little information and while under considerable stress. Not surprisingly it can be extremely difficult to do that accurately and sometimes mistakes are made.
We have to understand that unless we see the situation develop and therefore have a reasonably accurate picture of what's actually going on, that there is significant potential for trying to rapidly assess a stressful situation and getting it wrong.
Does that mean we shouldn't act at all? No. But it does mean we must be very careful about deciding when to act and how that action should be carried out. It's one thing to point out the wrong guy to the cops when the evidence and other witnesses will likely sort things out in the end. It's another thing entirely to end up in a situation where you would like to "unshoot" someone now that you know all the facts.
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