Back in the days when I was working in executive protection, we had a team leader (TL) who was a seasoned, salty dog. In the field for several decades and on the verge of retirement, at a pre-deployment briefing he once said to us “As protective agents, if you boys go to guns you failed.”
We were dumfounded by his words as firearms training was paramount to deployment. In fact, our hard skills requirement was such a high priority that if you didn’t pass the firearms qualification you would not be eligible for deployment. How could he get away with saying something like that?
He considered firearms “lifeboats on the Titanic.” His thinking was a ship goes down due to negligence. If you go to guns as your one and only response, you have instantly raised the use of force, eliminated any other options, and placed everyone involved at higher risk.
What he was trying to make us realize was, that if you rely on only one tool, the lifeboat, then you have failed miserably in your job responsibilities to protect those in your charge. Going to guns should be considered a last-ditch effort.
As a civilian, and the protective agent of your household, aside from the reality that you’re not allowed to carry a gun at the likes of airports, federal buildings, hospitals, schools and posted businesses, consider other advantages of not going to guns.
Imagine you’re in a situation that offers you two choices – go to guns (shooting solution) or don’t go to guns (alternate solution). You identify an active threat and determine that going to guns is a justifiable solution.
Given your level of training, you shoot the bad guy with your gun. Further assume you succeeded in stopping the threat and, other than the bad guy, nobody else was hurt. At your criminal hearing, all was found to be by the book, your shooting was immaculate, textbook perfect, and it was determined to be completely justified.
However, the price tag in civil court for your perfectly justifiable shooting may well exceed over $150,000 in attorney’s fees plus the next three to five years of your life in and out of depositions, hearings and or courtrooms. Again, that’s if everything went right. What would have been the result of that same scenario if you didn’t go to guns and there was another way to stop the threat? What if there was an alternate solution?
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