Dan McKown update
Heartless Libertarian has more on the CCW holder who attempted to engage the Tacoma mall shooter:
“I’m looking at this guy,” McKown said. “He’s a kid. I would have had to shoot him in the head.”
McKown just wasn’t ready for that. It’s not easy to shoot someone in the head, McKown said. McKown also didn’t want to get in the way of the police if they were handling the situation
HL asks CCW holders a simple question: are you prepared, psychologically, to take another person’s life?
November 30th, 2005 at 10:45 am
“HL asks CCW holders a simple question: are you prepared, psychologically, to take another person’s life?”
If I’m at a freaking shopping mall with my kids, and some lunatic starts shooting, you bet your sweet ass I’ll be ready to take the SOB’s life. I’d think no more about it than swatting a hornet before it could sting one of my kids. The legal hassle is nothing compared to the nightmare of watching one of my children get harmed when I could have done something to prevent it.
I just hope and pray I never have to put my resolve to the test. I’ll go to my grave a VERY happy man if I never have to fire a single shot.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:35 am
What Jay said.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:36 am
I got kicked out of a high school sociology class back when I was 17 because I indicated that I would be willing to kill someone who presented a threat of grave bodily harm to me or my family.
We had a classroom discussion on vigilante justice and the right of someone to use deadly force to either protect themselves or someone they loved. Discussion grew out of a video the teacher (a “peace activist”) had shown that I found amusing in its unrealistic portrayal of a crime and I foudn exciting in the recreation of a parent beating a daughters (maybe its his wifes, not sure) would be rapist over the head with an axe when he had broken into their home.
The teacher called me a psycho, grabbed me by the ear, and pulled me out and down to the principles office. He ended up scheduling an emergency conference with my parents – pulled my dad out of work – to talk about my serious issues and need for psychological help.
Dad ended up yelling at him and the principle for wasting his time and threatened to haul them both off to court and that was the end of that.
Nothing’s changed since. If someone presented a threat to me or my family I would have no problem doing the right thing.
As for HLs post – its also worth pointing out that there he is reporting another CCW holder in the mall who almost engaged the assailant but couldn’t get a clear shot (know your target and what’s beyond it) and decided to protect his family and get them out instead.
November 30th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
Of course it’s situational. If I see the shooter at the far end of the mall heading away from me and my family, I’m heading for the nearest exit. Getting my kids out and to safety is my number one priority: I am the dad, and as such, protecting the family is my job. And I take my job VERY seriously.
If the shooter is in close proximity and heading towards me, I’m emptying the magazine into his upper body. Then beating him with the empty gun if need be… My children will be harmed in my presence only after life has completely left my body. That is a solemn promise I made to them and myself when my son was born.
November 30th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
If you can’t pull the trigger on a malefactor, don’t carry.
November 30th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
When I first began training in my current martial art, my instructor asked if I was willing to use deadly force. My reply was this;
“I am an able bodied adult male. Any person who would threaten my safety clearly has no regard for life. In that light, anyone who would attack me would attack a less capable person – my wife, daughters, sisters, or mom. So, I take it upon myself – as an obligation – to ensure that if someone were to endanger my life in that way, I need to prevent that person from endangering the lives of those I care about.”
I then took a deep breath and summarized it this way;
“If someone attacks me, I feel obligated to kill them – for my protection and the protection of my loved ones.”
The result was that I was always shown that “extra technique” that could result in death for my opponent. And am still appreciative for that knowledge. It has served me well.
November 30th, 2005 at 6:11 pm
“When I first began training in my current martial art,”
Dang, how many do you have?
November 30th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
I think there is a separate question to ask here. Bear with me, I really do think this is important…
It’s not so much “can you take another life”? It’s more a question of “when you see that guy carrying an AK through the mall, will you really believe your eyes”?
Reading McKown’s comments, I get the feeling that it all just seemed too bizarre, too unreal. I can understand that. I can imagine trying to rationalize it away – maybe it’s a prank, maybe he’s a cop, maybe it’s somehow not what it seems – and not having enough faith in your judgment to just reach over, right now, and kill this guy without a word.
I mean, you have to be really, really sure before you take a headshot at somebody. Every fiber in your being wants this not to be happening. The fear that you are making a mistake must be overwhelming.
I think this is what that ‘condition orange’ stuff was all about – always expecting to see an attack, so that when you do see it, you’re not shocked into helplessness.
Honestly, I dunno if I could act that fast. I’d like to think I could, but I’m a careful guy, and when I’m in doubt, I will hold my fire. That doubt, not the caution, is what is dangerous.
November 30th, 2005 at 9:45 pm
Good take on it, Mike.
December 1st, 2005 at 2:41 am
If I may engage in the after-action spirit (i.e. not wanting to criticize or second-guess McKown in any way, only to learn from this incident), I think where he went might have gone wrong was in confronting Maldonado without being ready to defend himself. After all, he’d already heard several rifle shots…
December 1st, 2005 at 3:53 pm
Not enough.
That’s like asking “How many guns do you have?”
Same answer.
đŸ™‚