Last week, we sent an email with a story about why it is so important to have a legal plan for the aftermath of a self defense encounter. This week we will be talking about a horrible situation involving two young girls shot in a road rage encounter.
This story is tough to believe. But the way it starts is all too common. Two drivers take offense at the other’s driving, which leads to brake checking, swerving, obscene gestures, thrown objects and ultimately gunfire.
William Hale and Frank Allison were involved in a road rage incident in north Florida on October 8th, 2022, that ended with both men shooting each other’s daughters.
We will probably never learn exactly what started the confrontation between these two men, but witnesses say that both drivers were driving erratically, chasing each other, trying to get in front of each other. We do have a witness statement that at one point one driver flipped off the other. Then an object was thrown. That escalated to a gunshot from one driver, which hit a 5 year old girl in the leg. The other driver then fired multiple rounds at the other vehicle, striking a 14 year old girl in the back.
Both drivers pulled over near a deputy who was already stopped on the side of the highway and then began fist fighting until the deputy broke up the fight. Both girls who were shot survived, one with a collapsed lung. Both drivers are now charged with attempted murder.
What can we learn from this incident as responsible gun owners and self defenders? The first lesson I take from this act of stupidity is that we have to remember that our actions have the potential to affect more than just ourselves. Both of these men acted selfishly and their children paid the price.
The second lesson is that what may seem like self defense to you can easily be read as escalation to your opponent. I’m sure both of these men felt like the other driver was escalating the confrontation, while in reality both of them repeatedly increased the intensity and stakes of the fight. Either one of these guys could have stopped this confrontation by refusing to continue, but both of them chose the wrong options. And from the reports, it wasn’t just the men driving, at least one passenger engaged in the escalation as well.
The third lesson from this story is that when you hold the power of life and death in your hands, the consequences for wrong actions are extreme. Both of these dads not only caused life changing injuries to their children, but both of them now face legal consequences that will affect them for the rest of their lives. In addition, there will be life changing financial impacts for both of them. Both will lose their jobs, both will have serious criminal records even if they don’t get convicted. Both will have trouble getting jobs in the future, qualifying for loans, for insurance, Whether or not they accept responsibility, both will live with the knowledge that they put their child in life threatening danger over something so idiotic that it defies belief.
This story reminds me of another road rage tragedy from 2013, in which two Michigan men, both with Concealed Carry Permits, shot and killed each other. James Pullum, 43, and Robert Taylor, 56, escalated from tailgating to murder within a few moments. I’d be willing to bet that both men probably felt like they were in the right for defending themselves, and both are now dead.
When we cover when it is appropriate to use deadly force in our Free Concealed Carry classes, we discuss the concept of Could versus Should. It is important we don’t focus on asking when “can” we shoot, we instead ask, when “should” we shoot. The defensive mindset includes understanding what is truly at risk when a confrontation starts, and doing everything we can to deescalate an encounter. If deescalation is ultimately not possible, we may find ourselves in a position where we have to resort to deadly force to protect ourselves. Road rage is a common example of people losing sight of what is most important, and this story is no exception.
In a majority of self defense incidents where a gun is used to defend a person, the gun is used without having to fire it. This is the best case scenario as it limits the overall risk to the defender. But in some of these cases, the bullets do start flying. Once that happens, the risk to the defender becomes extreme.
Two weeks ago in Seattle, a father of 2 was forced into this position. Returning home with his wife and children, a 30 year old man was accosted by two armed bad guys who pointed guns at him. Drawing his own gun he fired at the attackers who fired back. According to the good guy, he moved away from his family while the shooting was happening to draw the attack away from his wife and children. He ended up with 3 bullets in his legs and foot. He applied a tourniquet to one of his legs while waiting for police and ambulance.
He survived the shooting, and the two bad guys escaped and have not been found. Our good guy demonstrated not just bravery but also preparation by having the ability to think and act in the middle of a dynamic critical incident as well as to help himself survive after the shooting stopped. He is certainly a hero to his family.
His story demonstrates to us that while it is a great advantage to be armed when attacked, these are highly dangerous encounters and our training should reflect that. I cannot recommend enough that you not only train on how to use your gun defensively, but to also learn how to treat life threatening bleeds and carry the tools to treat them. A good place to start with this training is StopTheBleed.org.
This man’s wife and kids not only can thank him for being prepared to act, but also prepared to survive.
This week I want you to take 3 minutes and 49 seconds to understand an extremely important concept when it comes to your personal defense. The topic is presented in the video below by Rob Pincus, founder of I.C.E. Training and developer of the Intuitive Defense Shooting curriculum that we use to teach our students about using a gun for self defense.
Before we get to the video, I want to point something out that I think many people don’t fully understand. When we say “Warrior Expert Theory”, many people think to themselves, “Well I’m no warrior, how does this even apply to me?” You may or may not be a “warrior”. But if you are ever targeted as a victim by a violent attacker, you ARE in a war. This makes you a warrior, even if just for those few moments. What kind of warrior you will be will depend in part how prepared you are. This is why understanding how we should learn to respond to these kinds of threats is important.
The video is short, but the mindset described in those few minutes can take a long time to develop and understand. Take some time to reflect on your own mindset when it comes to your training, your education, and how you understand the very high stakes of a violent attack.
Last week, we sent an email about the Warrior Expert Theory and why it’s essential to self defense training.
This week we will be talking about some of the people we have welcomed into our classroom.
Over the last decade, Guns For Everyone has instructed over 100,000 students in Colorado in our Free Concealed Carry Classes. We’ve had every walk of life in our classrooms and on the range. It’s not unusual for us to have current or former law enforcement officers in our classes which always adds an element of interest for our students as we provide our perspective and compare that to what an officer would say. We take it as a point of pride when the concepts and principles that we teach are affirmed by these professionals, especially when it runs counter to the conventional narratives that students usually come to class with. But ultimately, most of our students will never be cops and the overlap of these two worlds is not usually very important.
What can be very eye opening is when we have lawyers in the class, and even more so when those lawyers are prosecutors and district attorneys. In 2022 we have had at least 4 local prosecutors and district attorneys in our classes. When we start discussing the legal processes and risks of defending yourself with a firearm, students are usually quite surprised to learn how the system actually works, and even more surprised when what we say is affirmed by these professionals who work in this system every single day.
Often times, the people who really grasp how brutal the criminal justice system is are the people who have been through it.
When we have criminal defense attorneys speak in our classes, either as students or as invited guests, there is a certain amount of natural skepticism from the other students in the classroom. The question often running through students’ minds as the defense attorney lays out the legal risks is, “How much of this guys’ perspective based on him trying to sell his services to me?”. It’s a natural reaction to be skeptical when someone is telling you how much you’re going to need their services in the future.
But when a prosecutor or DA starts speaking about how they actually prosecute these cases, people tend to listen. The DA isn’t selling anything, he has no incentive to exaggerate or spin things. In our classes these professionals have offered up their input and expertise about the post shooting legal processes. What the students get to hear from them is that the legal system is far more complex and loaded with risk than they assumed.
What we try to communicate to our students in our classes is that the legal aftermath is far more challenging than almost anyone knows. Often times, the people who really grasp how brutal the criminal justice system is are the people who have been through it. And most people in our concealed carry classes have never been anywhere near this system, let alone through it. It’s hard to grasp the reality of these risks without first hand experience.
In addition to the risks, most people do not understand how self defense cases are investigated and prosecuted. This is where hearing from a criminal defense attorney is helpful. But I’ve heard at least a dozen criminal defense attorney’s lecture on what an affirmative defense is and how it’s used to claim self defense, and I still wouldn’t feel confident that I’d be able to walk this knife edge in the aftermath alone. The more I learn, the less I feel like I know.
This story is an excellent example of how a normal day can spiral into a life changing legal mess in just a few moments. This Ohio father protected his daughter in a home defense setting, and yet the last paragraph of the news story reveals the awful legal aftermath: this case made it all the way to a grand jury before the father was ultimately not charged. The prosecutor had a lot to work with in this case, despite the apparent moral certainty of a father protecting his child. While many people watched the video of this shooting, few watched the video of the father’s initial interrogation with detectives. Without legal representation, the father gave the DA enough evidence to pursue a grand jury indictment. If you don’t understand why, it should become obvious to you how unprepared you are for the legal aftermath.
Guns For Everyone is partnered with Firearms Legal Protection to offer our students an affordable legal plan for the aftermath. The cost is low, the stakes are incredibly high. There is no simpler way I can try to put it. Most people are skeptical when offered a service like this, which is natural. But I can tell you with 100% certainty that that skepticism isn’t going to help you after the shooting stops and you’re about to be chewed up and spit out by the criminal justice system. My best recommendation is to have an attorney on speed dial, and to have that attorney fully paid for with the plan offered by Firearms Legal Protection. I carry a gun to protect myself from physical harm. I am a member of Firearms Legal Protection to protect myself from legal and financial harm.
This week we’re going to talk about tragic accidents involving firearms.
Last week a Florida sheriff’s deputy accidentally killed his best friend while playing with his gun. According to an affidavit, Deputy Aaron Larson pointed his firearm at his roommate and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire but Larson apparently then pulled the slide back and pointed the gun back at his roommate and again pulled the trigger. This time the gun did fire, and 23 year old Austin Walsh was killed.
If gun owners rely only on a set of rules for safety but do not first and foremost respect the risk of handling the firearm, at some point the rules may very well fail to keep the user from doing something they shouldn’t.
Walsh and Larson were best friends and now two lives are essentially over. Larson is facing manslaughter charges as well as the end of his career and most importantly, the psychological weight of being responsible for the death of his best friend. Walsh’s life was over in an instant.
The obvious reaction to a story like this is disbelief and an incredulous response of “this is why you follow the rules!”. But I’ve seen enough examples of negligence around guns to know that we can’t count on rules to keep people from having the wrong mindset about firearm safety. It’s no secret that this young deputy made a very stupid and life changing decision to treat this gun as a toy. But there are other examples of deaths caused by firearm accidents that are much less boneheaded than this one, and the end result is the same. People lose their lives when people take safety for granted.
On November 20th, an 11 year old boy in Wisconsin was accidentally killed by his uncle in a hunting accident. As the boy’s uncle was attempting to unload his rifle while it was laying in the truck, the gun fired and the bullet struck the 11 year old in the chest, killing him.
Both of these accidents have something very important in common. In both stories, the person with their hand on the gun failed to maintain the proper mindset when in control of a gun. I’m fairly certain that both of these men knew “the rules”. But knowing the rules is not going to guarantee that you have the mindset necessary to respect the risk of handling a firearm.
Guns are dangerous by their very design. They have the capacity to cause enormous damage with very little effort. If gun owners rely only on a set of rules for safety but do not first and foremost respect the risk of handling the firearm, at some point the rules may very well fail to keep the user from doing something they shouldn’t. Cultivating the mindset of acknowledging the serious risks of guns is intended to not allow a user to become complacent about safety.
Every action you take with the firearm should be guided by an understanding of the risk of what you are doing, and what the benefits are. The benefits should always clearly outweigh the risks. Is there a benefit to hunting? Of course there are lots of benefits. But is there a benefit to attempting to unload your hunting rifle while having it pointed at your 11 year old nephew? The life changing risk was ignored.
I don’t even need to analyze the risks and benefits of playing with a gun and pointing it at your best friend’s head. It’s easy to understand the stupidity of that action. But there are plenty of accidents with firearms that happen in much less stark circumstances. An Ohio firearms instructor who was accidentally shot by a student in the classroom in 2016. A Houston gunsmith who killed a customer when he accidentally fired a rifle he was working on in 2017. The LA police officer who accidentally killed a 14 year old girl in a department store changing room while the officer was shooting at a violent criminal who had been assaulting multiple people with a hammer.
Guns are inherently risky. We must never assume that they are not. We as a community have a responsibility to cultivate a mindset for gun ownership and gun handling that keeps that reality front of mind for everyone. This is how we address safety in all of our classes and more importantly, it’s how we think about safety in every action we take with our firearms.
