The common response to some crime incident or self-defense item of news is that somebody should get a gun. I am all in favor of guns, the 2nd Amendment, concealed carry, and the like but it is not “THE” solution.
A handgun solves a subset of self-defense problems: given an identified deadly force threat a handgun will solve that situation at a distance relative to the skill of the operator.
Pure marksmanship increases the maximum distance that the gun can be effective – but not the minimum. Regardless of how good of a shot you are unless you can get your gun into play it will not be a factor in the fight.
If you have a really fast draw stroke then you can reduce the minimum distance, but not down to zero. A half-second draw will optimistically let you engage targets as near as 7 feet, a little outside of conversational distance.
Having all of these gun skills will not make a non-deadly threat solvable with a firearm, and situations can have a way of escalating. The non-deadly problem can turn deadly – but you have manage it well enough to get your firearm into action. Shoot/No-Shoot isn’t real life. “No Shoot” targets can turn into “Shoot” targets in a few quick seconds.
It is easy to pat ourselves on the back after shooting a decent group under controlled conditions and pretend that is “fighting.” We read the little lists of bullet point tactics that are so popular on the internet (heck I have written a few of them) and believe we understand what we need to do to prevent victimizations. I applaud the decision to get a firearm and carry it for protection, but that is not the destination. It is true that in many cases simply producing a firearm will scare off the assailants, but what about the cases where this is not true?
What I am getting at is that all of your mindset, tactics, skills and equipment are the solution to a range of problems. It is easy to envision getting woken up by the intruder who is breaking into the house, it is much harder to contemplate getting woken up by the intruder who is standing at the foot of your bed. Having solutions to the simple scenarios is a step in the right direction, but having a plan for the harder scenarios takes a lot of work.
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