I have been lucky enough to just show my HOLSTERED weapon and difuse the situation. Push the situation, forcing me draw it, then the odds are someone is going to get shot. The last thing I want is to have my revolver in my hand and for it NOT to be pointed at some, about to recoil. If I allow the threat to get that close and haven’t killed him, that would indicate someone else has done it for me.
“I have been lucky enough to just show my HOLSTERED weapon and difuse the situation. Push the situation, forcing me draw it, then the odds are someone is going to get shot. The last thing I want is to have my revolver in my hand and for it NOT to be pointed at some, about to recoil. If I allow the threat to get that close and haven’t killed him, that would indicate someone else has done it for me.”
From marktwain:
I am glad that you were able to avoid a shooting. It is the more common experience. In a number of states, however, just showing that you have a firearm can be effectively the same as “brandishing”. I put “brandishing” in quotes because we do not have a “brandishing” statute in Arizona, but there probably is a state that has such.
One thing that has stood out to me in the past several years is this: Criminals lie. There is a disturbing trend for criminals, when thwarted in a crime, to call the police and complain about how someone with a gun threatened them. Montana and Arizona have put forward legislation to redress this issue by explicitly making it legal to display a firearm in the act of self defense. I do not believe that this legislation has yet passed in either state.
Displaying a gun can have consequences, but we always have to weigh the benefits and costs.