it's not the rational part of your brain that going to stop you from pulling the trigger. It's a deeper part more "primitive" part of the brain that stops you from killing another person.

During and before WW 2, only 2% of the frontline soldiers actually have had shot to kill. The rest didn't because they couldn't, they where stopped by there primitive part of there brain. Those 2 % that can shoot people won't suffer from psychological damage afterwards, the rest usually will if they did killed a person.

These days army's train there soldiers in such a way, so they can pull the trigger easier, because they have "conditioned" there soldier to associate the enemy with shooting at them. (Bit like Maslov and his dog.) But these training methode won't prevent you from getting pshylogical damage, unless your one of those 2%.

So wenn you plan to use firearms to defend yourself, make sure you'r properly trained (so you will pull the trigger if you have too) and accept the fact that you will most likely suffer pshylogicaly if you do pull the trigger. Ofcorse you don't have to fire a firearm to be effective. Pumping a 12 gauge will be pretty effective in scaring unwanted people away.
Having something thats more effective than showing the gun and not as effective as shooting, will fill the gab between them and prevents you from doing thing you don't want to do, unless there is no other way. Or incase you discover that pulling the trigger is a bit harder than you have thought.

It seems to me that your sister hasn't yet even faced the decision of whether or not she is willing to use lethal force. That may take some time. I know of people who swore that they would NEVER use it and after some serious contemplation, have changed their minds. The question is not an easy one. She needs to look into it a lot. I will reccomend a book by Massad Ayoob titled Stressfire. While it deals primarily with (obviously) the use of lethal force via a firearm, it delves into the physical and psycological aspects of it. Another good book IMO is his book In The Gravest Extreme. It too deals primarily with Firearms, however it too speaks of when you may need to use lethal force. They also talk about what to expect afterwards...legally and emotionally. Whenever I taught firearms classes I'd strongly reccomend reading them. Although they are both relatively small in size....They read very well and easily but provoke a lot of thought.

If you plan on using pepper spray in a rioting/martial law type situation you better get one of these:


Personally I would rather have Less-than-lethal shotgun rounds instead of pepper spray. Just the look of a shotgun may be enough to ward of most, no matter who is holding it. While a women holding a can of pepper spray isn't as intimidating.

If you're shooting at someone, is the objective to kill on the grounds of self defense? Or is your objective to scare someone away by spraying them with birdshot?

I can imagine the law suites coming after maiming them, but not killing them, with birdshot.

I think he meant rubber bullets or bean bag shot or the like. Rounds designed to be less lethal rather than just inapproprate rounds.

Even so, there has been a lot of discussion on the internet about the wisdom of less lethal rounds for self defense.

My take on it is that these rounds were developed to be used in controlled situations by trained professionals (consider police shooting a knife weilding holed up suspect with bean bag shot instead of shooting him outright). It's unclear that this translates well to a self defense situation.

-john

I don't have a little sister to ask, but if someboby's desperate enough to try to take my "stuff" by force, I don't want them coming back (that much more P.O.ed) after the sting of the pepper spray wears off... something else to think about, eh???

Troy

Chances are if you spray them with Fox 40, hit them with a club, or shoot them with rubber bullets you are going to get sued either way. But, If someone can't handle shooting someone with regular slugs/buckshot then the best alternative would be L-T-L rounds, it would make it a lot easier mentally to shoot someone and could be used effectively at a distance (If I was a women I would rather keep four guys 30 feet away from me, then have them be at arms reach trying to use pepper spray or hit them). It would also be just as effective, if not more effective then pepper spray (which has also killed people, so it isn't 100% L-T-L either). Plus it still has the intimidation effect of a shotgun even if you don't fire a single shot.

BTW, L-T-L wern't just developed for police use, they have been around for a long time for home defense. Years ago it was common to keep a home defense shotgun loaded with salt shot with the thought that it wouldn't kill, but it would stop the threat by causing them extreme pain.

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Allright guys, there's a time and place for everything. All this talk of guns and the talk of defending oneselves with guns is making me a bit squeamish. Have any of you ever considered trying the SNIVEL Technique? <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Being you're in Richie's Republic, you're pretty much burned, even if they're in your house (Yes I'm from Illinois... for now) but my own personal choice is to be tried by twelve rather than being carried by six. Come to my home with ill intent in mind, and you won't leave under your own power, period.

Troy

My thought is this....if you have a firearm and you pull it out...LTL or not....it is CAPABLE of and generally seen as LETHAL force. If you want LTLONLY then go completely LTL.

There are new tasers available for use that work even on drug hyped perps. Even the manufacturer of that says that it is for deployment at the 15-20 ft range. That is well within the the lethal range of 21 feet that officers are advised on. So if someone is with range of the taser and they have a knife......lethal force is justified. Many have said that the taser is good for those who CAN"T go with a firearm or for those who Won't (for whatever reason).