[pax]

Originally Posted by daddypro

I still have to believe that in the vast majority of self defense cases, the justification would be overwhelming. After all we are pulling our firearm to stop the imminent threat of death or grave bodily injury. Seems that this is overkill.

Not overkill at all. Even a solid self-defense shooting can go south in the aftermath, whether from political pressure, or from mistakes the shooter makes immediately after the most frightening incident in his life, or from lost evidence, or from some other cause. And once it has gone south, literally everything is on the table -- including your previous words.

Here's one example that came from an ACLDN article about the Larry Hickey case in AZ a few years back:

Alarmingly, out of context advice from instructors to “always cheat; always win,” and the axiom that one should treat every one else in a polite manner while simultaneously having a plan to kill them painted an inaccurate picture about Hickey’s outlook on life. Nicolini harvested these quotes from the training notes and handouts, and made much hay with them, especially during his closing arguments in which he described Hickey in highly inflammatory terms.

The prosecutor told the jury not to consider the case from Hickey’s viewpoint, from “what was going on in his paranoid mind,”

... "But I think Larry Hickey has an additional motivation in this case, he wants to be vindicated, he wants somebody to say, yes, Larry, you exercised your Second Amendment rights to defend yourself and your family like a good American. And you know something else? The same reason why four of his gun instructors have come in here to testify, the people who taught him to use guns, and when to use guns and taught him that aggressive mindset... they want to be vindicated, too."

That's some scary stuff for those of us who teach. We know that the things we teach can be held against our students if we get it wrong. For any ethical instructor, that should provide a very strong urge to keep your own training and understanding very current. It should discourage you from getting sloppy or lazy with your use of the language. It should drive you to study harder, learn more, dig deeper. And it should inspire you to be brutally honest with your adult students, trusting them to complete the mindset-building process appropriately after you have taught them what you can.

pax