Let me throw a monkey wrench into the mix...
Say you intervene and fire on the bad guy... only his buddy, or brother, is outside serving as lookout. BG #2 hears the shots and runs inside only to fire back at you. Now you're in a full blown gun fight.
Let me throw a monkey wrench into the mix...
Say you intervene and fire on the bad guy... only his buddy, or brother, is outside serving as lookout. BG #2 hears the shots and runs inside only to fire back at you. Now you're in a full blown gun fight.
OK, to elaborate, I would only if I was in danger directly. Otherwise I would likely get out of the area, on't want to be around when the shooting starts and catch a stray round. It isn't my job to stop a robbery and unless I was able to get a cler shot or if I was in the stoe prior to the police arrival and it appeared the guy was going to shoot the clerk or had already shot him/her, I wouldn't shoot the BG just to stop the robbery.I'd be a good witness unless the robber directly threatened me or mine.
Id shoot the clerk, and split the money with the robber...
Depends ==>> Commentary by Evan Marshall
Wow. I went away for a few hours and 3+ pages of really good dialog popped up. Thank you all.
To some these made up scenarios may seem pointless but I really wouldn't want to go through this thought process in the instant that I had to make a decision. Certainly all actual encounters would be different and require thought and decisions but it helps tremendously to have a reasoned and decided disposition and framework to apply.
My my first reaction is to play what I think are the odds and stay out of it. But if the perp seemed pretty anxious and out of control and I had a clear shot it would be really tempting to make sure the clerk was safe and one less violent criminal was walking the streets.
One concern through, if he is pointing a gun at the clerk and I hit him in the back with an initial .380 or 9mm round will he pull the trigger and maybe hit the clerk or a bystander? That seems like a real risk. I could make sure he received 3-4 rounds and was out of commission pretty quickly but he would still have an instant to get off a shot.
Carrying is a big responsibility and these things need to be considered.
Depends ==>> Commentary by Evan Marshall
May be silly or irrelevant, but is there any correlation or statistics to the BG being masked or not? Like, if he's masked, he wants cash and wants to leave. If unmasked, he may be more inclined to not leave witnesses?
What's to say thw bad guy won't shoot the clerk and then turn and shoot anyone else in the store? I say take him out if the opportunity presents itself.