Use Of Firearms For Personal Safety And Defense

For many years, firearms have been consideredcould be used by an assailant in the same manor
effective defensive weapons. If you think thingsagainst the victim, the consequences are not as
through you will realize that due to the deadlypotentially lethal.
potential of guns they are really a poor choice forSometimes the emotional trauma and psychological
personal protection for the vast majority of people.effects of a victim shooting another person can be
The use of firearms is unwarranted in mostdevastating. Even veteran law enforcement officers
circumstances. Their use in any situation can haveare many times affected, especially if the perpetrator
grave consequences. The use of a gun in defendingis killed. Many victims are unprepared for the intense
one from an assault could be considered "excessiveemotional aftermath of killing someone [even in
force" in many jurisdictions. It would be up to theself-defense] and whose agenda was to only protect
victim to prove that a life-threatening situationhim or herself. This scenario is a very real possibility
occurred and deadly force had to be used. Pleasewhen firearms are used.
bear in mind that nearly 80% of all the assaults in ourWhen there is a presence of a gun the crime
country are committed without weapons of anysometimes escalates the likelihood for death or
type. Increasingly it is taking place that even whenserious injury. Once a firearm is introduced by the
the victim is not charged of a crime for using avictim, its use is the only action remaining and an
licensed gun they could find themselves on the losinginnocent person may be injured or killed; and as
end of a civil lawsuit.previously mentioned, the use of the gun by the
The intent of personal protection devices is to onlyvictim [ justified or not] is subject to legal litigation.
distract and disable the attacker and be able toMaybe the victims will not be charged with a crime,
escape to get help. It is also known that most peoplebut it would be very likely for them to find
using a gun for defense don't know when to pull thethemselves at the wrong end of a long and costly
trigger and when not to pull the trigger. Professionalcivil lawsuit.
law enforcers have to go through intensive training inLast, but not least there is large burden on the gun
shoot and no shoot scenarios and yet they stillowner to properly secure their firearms. There is
sometimes get caught up in legal problems.always the possibility, no matter how secure the gun
Believe it or not, using a handgun can actually be lessis kept, a child or teenager could get their hands on a
effective at stopping an attacker than usingfirearm with tragic results.
self-defense devices such as defensive pepper sprayIn closing, I would like to mention that firearms can
or O C spray. Besides, assailants have been knownhave a legitimate and useful role in self and home
to kill or seriously injure someone in a matter ofdefense, but only [and I stress only] if the person is
minutes after they had been shot defensively, evenfully trained on the use and handling of the firearm,
many hours after being shot with so-called mantotally comprehending the responsibility and
stopper ammunition.consequences of the use of a gun and has the
A firearm used defensively can be taken away frompsychological toughness to use a firearm for the
the intended victim and used against them. Evenpurpose of self-defense.
though it is a fact that defensive technology devises