[Leaf]

One of the issues with these sort of discussions is that folks generally have opinions based on either limited experience, some degree of training, reading and discussion or scenarios either from training or invented in their minds. It's also the case that opinions are often based on favored scenarios.

My experience is far from limited and I have far more than “some training." I do in fact have a creative mind but that is not particularly relevant in this discussion. A close up confrontation with an attacker intent on ending my life is not in my opinion a “favored scenario.” It is one of the worse kind of attacks one can experience. If your response isn’t focused on immediately stopping the threat, that’s it for you. Odds are you will be dead, gone, no longer existing but for the fond memories of your loved ones.

Leaf has said, if I understand correctly, that shots in the head are better in very close encounters because they are more likely to guarantee an immediate stop. Well OK. It may be true. But in many cases, shots to the head do not produce a one shot stop. A good hit that penetrates the skull depends on a number of factors that the shooter has little to no control over. A solid hit for example. But there are other exceptions as well.

And a shot to the chest or even a bucket full of shots to the chest is far, far from adequate and almost guaranteed to not stop the threat even if it has become a "soon to be dead person" in his/her last moments. You will probably be dead at the end of the attack too. That shot to the head is far more likely to instantly take out the assailant than your shots to the chest. And yes, accuracy counts. The more you place up there into the main brain housing group the better your chances of survival.

In many cases it may not be possible, for a number of reasons, to get the gun up high enough, or at the right angle, for a shot to the head. This may often be the case when the distance is inches and not yards. In these situations you may have to shoot what is available to hit that can do the most to stop the attack, not in the abstract, but in the heat of that precise moment.

Now you’re just making excuses. You either go into these kinds of situations with both eyes open or you say goodnight, Gracie. Like I’ve said before, you can either take my advice or leave it. It’s your life, your decision. I’ll nonetheless honor you for relieving this world of the criminal predator even if it was needlessly at the cost of your own life.

The old timers stressed body shots, not because they guaranteed a stop. But because they were the most likely to be able to make a hit with and they knew the importance of that.

Makes me wonder just what “old timers” you’ve been listening to mutter their theories because they sure don’t sound like they have much real-world experience.