If you miss the opportunity to implement your situational-awareness training and avoid a fight, your options for survival become extremely limited. People may argue that it’s not necessary to use deadly force, and that human beings should attempt to preserve life when at all possible, even when faced with death or serious injury at the hands of another person. Prosecutors will argue in court that you, the gun owner who used deadly force, could’ve retreated, that you are a gun nut, and that your use of deadly force was premature and unreasonable. “Why did you carry a gun anyway?” “Were you looking for a fight?” “You could have gotten away without hurting anyone if you had just paused to consider all the options.”
Those of us with sufficient training and experience realize the importance of the split-second decision-making required when faced with a life and death situation. The second, or fraction of a second, spent considering whether it would be possible to get away can spell death for the innocent.