I have always thought when I am armed, I can back down; apologize even if it’s not my fault etc. BECAUSE escalating to a use of deadly force could easily ruin my day. Pride and ego get left behind when I carry. The last place you want to be in a fight is on the ground or wrestling with some guy over your gun…..it is going to deteriorate exponentially if he sees or feels it. Something else to consider, just because the guy is whipping your rear, doesn’t mean he isn’t armed, it just means he thinks he can take you without it or might still deploy it later.
I have taught my children to keep their egos and attitude in check when they are dealing with an unknown person. You never know who you might be dealing with. Years ago I had a customer wanting to “give me an old fashioned whuppin….” I was 6’3 220 LBS and I had to look up at the guy! My boss heard this and stepped between us, all 180 LBS 5’3, 59 years of him looking up at the guy and says, “Well then go ahead and start with me.”
The big guy looked at my boss, gears turning and decided to back down….the expression on his faced had fallen and he looked scared. Later when he had calmed down and my boss had left, he said he had never seen a look like the boss had given him. I explained to him the little man that had got in his face used to be a “Tunnel Rat” in Vietnam and had also beaten cancer a few years before. I guess he recognized a trained killer when he saw one.
Like I tell my kids, that guy you cut off in traffic or step on in the bar etc. just might be back from Iraq, Afghanistan, Ranger school, A SEAL, SAS or any other professional fighter or just as easy the champion knife fighter from Juarez or Dallas that has skills you don’t want to test. They might instinctively use lethal force to stop you.
To sum it up, I’m not going to “take” a beating. I might try the threat of deadly force first if the situation allows, but I will use it if necessary. I think the skill is really avoiding situations and places where you might get into a fight. The real world doesn’t always cooperate as the truck driver that was pulled from his rig during the Rodney King riots learned. But just because I have a gun doesn’t mean I’m using a ATM at night or going to a “stop n rob” at two a.m. either.
I guess "my limit" is that me and my family are going to go home alive tonight.
