Colorado Bureau of Investigation Authority to Investigate Firearms Crimes
Concerning the authority of the Colorado bureau of investigation to investigate illegal activity involving firearms, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation.
When we see students come through our classes, we know from experience that most of them will not continue to train with their guns and self defense skills. It’s an unfortunate reality and it tends to be for very important reasons: Time and Money. These two factors are hard to argue with.
I want to acknowledge these hurdles. I have my own budget and schedule that can get in the way of training. What I tell students in the class is that we need to remember the high stakes of what we are preparing for, and to encourage them to find a balance for themselves between their competing priorities and their need to be ready for a self defense incident.
How much is training is enough? Obviously there’s always more to learn. But a reasonable amount of training for most people is at least one live fire defensive handgun class a year. That is manageable for most people. Yes it’s time consuming and expensive, but remember what motivated you to take responsibility for your safety in the first place. You understand the high stakes, the training should follow. Ongoing education can and should augment the training. Fortunately great education is widely and easily available these days.Your preparation for self defense is a journey, not a single destination.
I saw an amazing Instagram post the other day and yet at the same time, it’s not that amazing at all.
The story behind this photo is that a woman was shot in the chest, and the bullet was stopped by her implant.
When people discuss the merits of different pistol calibers, one of the common fallacies that is overlooked is how inefficient handgun calibers are. Most people don’t realize how well protected the heart, lungs, arteries and spine are by things like skin, muscle, rib structure, or in this case, added parts. The more I study ballistics and injuries and outcomes of shootings, the less I am surprised when I read something like the above story.
Handgun rounds are not very powerful, given the wide range of performance of different types of guns and calibers. When we choose a handgun for self defense, we are giving up a lot of the power that we would want in a firearm. We chose the handgun because it is convenient to carry. But there are no reasonable handgun calibers that reliably cause the kind of damage that we would want to stop an attacker in his/her tracks. For that kind of performance, we would be much better off with a rifle.
The other thing that we need to pay attention to when discussing handgun calibers is how they perform in the moment. If the bad guy dies eventually from his wounds, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the handgun round had the desired effect. Our goal when we shoot someone in self defense is to IMMEDIATELY stop the behavior that put our life in danger. It turns out that handguns kinda suck at this. There is a mountain of video evidence to support this across ALL commonly carried handgun calibers.
What turns out to be the most important factors when it comes to the performance of handguns against threats is location of the round and how many rounds find their way into the target. Skill is an important element of this and this is why we emphasize training and practice. So when choosing a handgun caliber, we want something that is easy to practice with.
Between price, availability, shoot-ability, number of rounds that can be carried in the gun and ultimately performance of the round in self defense, the round that tends to check these boxes for most people is 9mm. This is why we suggest this round for almost anyone who intends to carry or stage a handgun for self defense. There are benefits to other calibers in theory, but in practice, 9mm wins.
In our Law Focused Free Concealed Carry classes we spend time talking about what motivates Prosecutors, District Attorneys and the rest of the Criminal Justice System to file charges in self defense cases. Most people look at that decision as being decided on moral grounds. The truth is, it’s a simple practical decision, for the most part.
The chances of charges depend on the chances of a conviction. In this news report out of San Francisco in which a security guard fired in self defense, the local news reports exactly what the District Attorney said about criminal charges.
The lesson we take from examples like this is simple: a case that is not likely to get a conviction is a case that is less likely to get charged. The legal outcome is pragmatic and also highly dependent on the circumstances. You cannot predict the circumstances under which you will need to defend yourself. It’s your job to win the fight, and it’s your job to be prepared for the legal fight afterwards. Making yourself hard to convict makes you less of a target for a DA. Don’t gamble with your legal outcome, have a plan.
While everyone generally agrees that we as human beings have a right to self defense, what most people either ignore or don’t understand is that we also have a responsibility to defend ourselves. People have died to protect your rights, but with that equation comes the truth that those some people died so that you could uphold your responsibility to self defense.
That is an enormous burden to bear and adults should be aware of this responsibility to protect themselves. That burden also extends to our children, who cannot reasonably be expected to protect themselves until they reach an age of maturity to take on that responsibility for themselves. We as parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, teachers, and caretakers take on this responsibility when we accept the care of children.
On Father’s day in Wilson’s Mills, North Carolina, a father was put in the position where he had to do exactly that. A 23-year-old man approached an 11 year old girl who was playing with other children in the yard of their home. When the children ran to the house to alert the parents, the man followed the kids and tried to enter the home. The father of the 11-year-old retrieved a firearm and shot the attacker, killing him.
Those are the facts as reported by local news outlets. But if we take a moment to picture the scene, the story can be quite unnerving. It was late evening on Father’s Day and there were probably celebrations that might have been winding down. Children, maybe siblings, cousins or friends are enjoying a warm summer night and playing in the relative safety of the yard. The parents are inside, probably cleaning up and thinking about getting the kids inside.
Out of nowhere an unknown young man appears and approaches these kids who are vulnerable. The kids somehow have the sense to know that this man is bad news and that they need to go inside the house to get help from mom and dad. Not only do they run inside in fear, but this attacker follows them and starts aggressively trying to get through the door. The kids must have been absolutely terrified at this unfolding nightmare.
Dad hears the commotion, and the kids inform him that something terrible is happening. He must make a series of life and death split-second decisions. Are these kids telling the truth or are they misinterpreting the situation? Where is the problem? Maybe he had to ask himself if he should arm himself, or maybe he already had his firearm on him. Is this really happening right now? Whatever thoughts ran through his head, the situtation turned out to be a nightmare scenario as Dad finally made the decision to shoot this attacker who tried to accost his daughter. The stakes could not be higher.
This dad is a hero, and his daughter will never forget that her dad was there to protect her. Dad will know that he did what he had to do to keep these children safe from evil. But he’s going to carry this event with him for the rest of his life.
When we take on the responsibility to protect ourselves and our children, we must take that seriously. The consequences are extreme in any direction, and ultimately, we hope this never happens to us. But it’s our job to be as ready as we can be.
Get trained, educate yourself, build your skills, think and act defensively. Make yourself harder to attack. You have a moral responsibility to be as prepared as is reasonable to defend yourself.
