Another interesting article from Warrior talk
http://www.warriortalknews.com/2012/11/-on-killing-or-not-killing.html On Killing (or not killing)
A recent thread on a state gun forum I frequent brought this to my mind. The poster had put up a video clip of Gabe from his Force on Force DVD. The particular part that got the most comments was Gabe saying that as part of your mindset you had to be willing to kill. Of course this brought out the usual responses of being ready to “stop the threat”, not kill. I did not immediately jump on those people. Why? Because that is how I used to think as well. I think using the following couple of experiences from my days as a LEO, you will be able to see why I made the transformation in my thinking from the pc “shoot to stop” to my current mindset of being willing (under justified circumstances) to kill.
We will start with the man with a knife. It was a normal day, which meant I was chasing someone. I did that a lot, drugs, B&E, warrants, robbery, mostly drugs though. I don’t remember exactly what I was chasing this youth for, but as I gained on him, I gave him a shove which sent him face forward into the ground. Well sort of like in the Johnny Cash song, he went down but came up with a knife. Fortunately for me, as he went down, I had stopped and drawn my Sig 226. Of course I had also planted myself in a good Weaver just like I had learned in the academy and stood and ordered him to drop the knife. Yes, he was well within 21 feet. For not the first or last time, God was on my side and after a few seconds that seemed like minutes he dropped the knife. A recurring theme here is that yes, my tactics weren’t the best although I did act as trained, beyond that I did not shoot him, because I didn’t want to kill him. (More about that later.) Backup arrived, we took him into custody, and the shift went on. The scenario, and whether I did the right thing by not shooting, nagged at me though.
Another incident that really got me thinking started out with a call of, man with a gun, officer needs assistance. It was wintertime so I sped to the scene as fast as I could on the snow covered roads. (Which was a little faster then I should have been going.) The address was familiar to me as I had been there a number of times for domestic calls before. As I made the 90 degree right turn onto the side road, I slid into the ditch, but somehow hit hard enough to bounce out and end up pretty much in front of the scene. Upon exiting the cruiser I located the officer I was there to assist standing about 5 feet in front of the all too familiar suspect. The officer was standing in the open, his pistol drawn and pointed at the suspect who was holding a double barrel shotgun in what we would call low ready, pointed in the general direction of the officer. In my infinite wisdom, I run up and stood next to the officer drawing my own sidearm and pointing in on the suspect. What ensued were a couple of minutes of me talking to the suspect and trying to convince him to lay the gun down. I remember starting to squeeze through the long double action pull of the Sig 9mm when he finally put down the shotgun. Again, bad tactics? Yes, but more than that.
So what do these two incidents have in common with each other besides the obvious tactical issues? If you said an unwillingness to kill on my part, you would be correct. The reason for this could be multifaceted, but mostly came down to two things. First, the constant drumbeat from the department and my trainers of liability, and by extension shoot to stop the threat. The other thing has to do with the certain moral and ethical viewpoints that we individually hold. Some might say, what is the problem, both situations worked out okay. Yes, they did, but not because of what I did right, but more because of luck or God’s blessings. Surely the department was happy with the outcome. Let’s face it; shootings are nothing but problems as far as they are concerned. In both cases it would have been easy to justify taking the shot, and these days I would. What changed? My mindset.
It became evident to me, that to not display the hesitation that could easily get you killed, you have to yourself be willing to kill. Is killing the threat your ultimate goal? No, it is not, but you have to come to grips with the realization that stopping the threat as quickly as possible may very well result in that threats death. You are responsible for defending your life, or more importantly the life of your loved ones. Don’t let someone else slow you down by casing you to constantly be worried about lawyers or legal outcomes. These things need to be thought of ahead of time but have no bearing on that moment of decision when you have to make YOUR life or death choice.
The other problem to tackle may be tougher. If you were brought up as I was, in the church and led to believe the good guys never shoot first, it can be hard to come to grips to what I am advocating here. For me it came down to remembering that the fifth commandment is “Thou shall not murder”, not “Though shall not kill”. It also may take some reminding to yourself that you indeed are fighting the righteous fight and were put into this position by the other guy, not because you chose to be there. So get over your hesitation, train hard, and remember, you may have to kill to win the fight.
Michael Swisher
Suarez International Staff Instructor
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