Concealed Carry Identifiers
After reading some of the discussion about having some kind of CCW Identifier (badge, sash, or drop down panel) I have to conclude that this an answer looking for a question.
The theory is that if there was some kind of incident, an armed citizen would display this credential and be less likely to be shot by responding police officers. The bad guys can’t get these? Who says the police are going trust people wearing them? If you are at ground zero of an incident and holding a gun you just have to hope that the police are observing your actions rather than simply seeing you as a “threat target.”
If you are standing there with a gun you are forcing the police to deal with you immediately and I would rather have the police deal with me after they have a handle on the situation. Once the police arrive on scene I want to be holstered and I want to have moved to a location where the police can deal with me on their terms (meeting the police in the parking lot would probably be best), hands up and identification out.
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Another attempt to gadget your way out of a problem (to steal a phrase from John Fogh!) that seems to prevalent among the nerderati.
Take a tactics class, do some scenario-based training, but don’t buy yet another gizmo expecting that it will somehow solve a problem better dealt with by behavior-based training.
[…] Fogh isn’t too keen on the idea either and offers some more […]
I am thinking by what I am seeing written that perhaps my words may have been miscontrued. In a shooting aftermath situation, I would concur, secure, call police and cooperate to a reasonable level(that is until they try to extract a statement and nail you to a cross for defending yourself) but in some less deadly situations it can seen as the dog catching the car situation. What if you are confronted and draw your weapon and the bad guy just stops and surrenders? Are just gonna let that guy walk away and attack someone else? IF you hold that guy at gun point until police arrive, then you put yourself in danger because poorly trained trigger happy cops will shoot you in your ass! If you can show something that says “Im the good guy” it is protective in nature. Some professionals in this feild recommend just holding up your credentials(which usually means a wallet) in your free hand so they can see you have some type of credentials. In my area, some of the local police have TOLD people to use the idiot badges for thier safety! So on goes the discussion, I rarely use mine even though I have one, I figure situational awareness is your best tool and if someone is DELIBERATE enough to come after ME SPECIFICLY I am probly going to shoot the SOB.
I am going to let that guy walk away, because holding him at gunpoint increases the chances that somebody (the assailant, or myself) is going to get shot. In a perfect world the assailant will run off, the police will have a description, and they can arrest the assailant in short order.
I know that holding him at gunpoint increases the chances that the police will make a mistake and shoot me. If I buy into your ‘protecting society argument’, you are asking me to risk taking a bullet to protect someone else’s wallet.
If I shoot this guy, it is going to be expensive. Probably more expensive than my wallet, legally I can expect to lose more money that was in my wallet in the first place (attorney fees, lost days at work, etc.) If this is the case I am risking my freedom and paying my money to protect someone else’s wallet.
I am sorry that society has limited the ability of good people to act for it’s greater benefit, but I wouldn’t pay thousands dollars out of my pocket, risk prison, or risk a bullet for what is in someone else’s pocket.