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In regards to drawing my weapon I'm kinda like Steve, it's happened so much that it's now just a non event. If I recall correctly, the first couple of times it happened I replayed the event over and over in my mind just critiquing and playing "what if" scenarios. After a while though you don't even think about it really, other than asking yourself did I draw soon enough, or what would I have done different. Prior to leaving the scene it's history and you're off to the next call. Even late at night when I'm driving home after a shift I don't even think about it. In fact, reading this post if the first time in years that I've even given it any thought. Probably a lot of this just has to do with being an officer in Dallas where we have to deal with these type of situations more frequently than in other areas - especially if you work nights in certain sections of our fine city.

I've never been involved in a shooting so I can't personally respond to that. However, for several years I worked with a partner that had been involved in three separate shootings and based upon our conversations he handled it well. I will tell you though that in having spoken with him and other officers on our department that have been involved in shootings, that there will be a period of time where they "process the event" and it may take months before they are acting anything like they were prior to the shooting. I speculate that what really goes on in the mind of someone that shoots another person is only truly known to that individual. What they share with others, including spouses, coworkers, and psychiatrists is probably not everything that they felt (or still feel). I think we as human beings try to cope as best we can and then get to some sort of normalcy in our lives.