That’s plausible. I have used a firearm twice for self defense. In both cases I made it clear to the perp that I had one; both perps immediately remembered some sort of pressing engagement elsewhere ...
One just has to watch you tube videos of self-defense shootings to see just how poorly trained some users are.
But yet they prevail over the criminals that are attacking them.
It all goes back to the number one rule have a gun.
“Myth: You Must Be Highly Trained for Successful Handgun use”
True, look at the fuzz. Most of them can’t hit the broad
side of a barn. Their average is 30 rounds fired to one hit.
I got involved with action shooting in 2000. I disliked it. I was trained by dad who fought as a Marine in the Pacific in WW 2, how to shoot. I was taught to squeeze off shots. Not run around and shoot a bunch of targets in a certain order with only enough accuracy to hit center mass. Though I shot action matches for 7 years I was much better picking my targets at my leisure and squeezing off bullseyes.
I can draw and get on target pretty fast but my prime gun practice is to use ‘ the Patriot’s’ lesson to his boys. “Aim Small Miss Small “.
That’s just me, everyone needs to pick their own way.
Most handguns never fire 1,000 rounds. But they are used effectively by many people.
Some people, too, have a knack for things.
For example, I was not highly trained (no practice shots) with my new crossbow 6 months ago.
Yet with 4 raccoons (that had killed chickens and pillaged my trashcans), the first 4 bolts I fired from crossbow ever, were direct hits (kills) on the raccoons. Illuminated sight made it easier, too.
God made man but Samuel Colt made them equal
Watch any video dash-cam of a cop who is surprised by a thug pulling a gun. It is bedlam.
One of my firearms instructors told me the FBI estimates there are between 2 million and 5 million legal defensive uses of firearms per year. Most go unreported to police, many “reported” or called in to police generate no official paperwork. The instructor himself had done that. Stopped a carjacking of his truck, not shots, no personal nor property damage (perp ran away scared). Called it in, no action taken. My own mother scared away someone lurking outside her open bedroom window with the classic racking of here 12 GA pump. He (probably a he) took off stumbling and crashing through the landscaping. Mom fixed it up but never even called it in.
So yes, I believe that literally hundreds of times per day firearms stop bad situations from escalating to worse. I know of these two examples out of a small group of family and friends who own/carry firearms. I also know a few people who did not or do not who have had bad things happen to them including one rape. I am convinced, overall, firearms save lives and reduce violence.
depends on what they mean by ‘highly trained’
In all honesty, if you have the hand and eye coordination to use a blowdrier, and you had a squirt pistol as a kid, you can use one to your benefit in most cases.
The more training the better, but the shooting world shoots itself in the foot when they scoff at people who have little interest in making it a hobby.
We shouldn’t make people feel like using a pistol is like learning the Samurai sword and becoming a karate man.
Articles like this one are dangerous and reckless, not giving the entire picture. Yes, most of the time if the attacker knows/sees the ‘prey’ is armed they stop. IOW youre relying on the attackers lack of backbone for protection. In all other cases youll need to shoot or flee. Most seem unaware they own each shot whether it goes into the attacker, a bystander or something not living. If you own it then youll have to give an account if you kill or wound a bystander. That and most criminals are terrible markkmen...perhaps only marginally better than someone unpracticed/trained or perhaps not. Here again youre relying on the attackers lack. It seems pretty sketchy that a defense strategy revolves around something someone else has/hasnt done....ie your safety is out of your control.
Then theres the idea of what youll do in an emergency situation. Theres a long list of studies/evidence showing that no strategy results in no affirmative action. Frankly, anyone carrying a weapon w/o training is lazy having the wrong mindset and endangering himself and those in the area.
The original “point and click”.
Nevertheless, a trained shooter is nearly always going to out-perform an untrained one. You don't want to have to be subvocalizing "Let's see, tap, rack, what was it now?" in the middle of a fight for your life.
I'm not sure which gun I will carry but I'm leaning between a Sig P238 and a Ruger LC9S. I also tested a Kahr and didn't like it all. Any advice?