How Many Shots?
Personal defense when using a firearm is a set of paradoxes. In this post we will explore the issue of how many shots to fire when attacked.
There are two opposing positions:
First, to enhance the probability of you surviving an attack, you need to fire as many shots as required to stop the threat to you. Consider the following:
1. Under stress, your accuracy will deteriorate significantly, so you are likely to miss with at least half of your shots. Furthermore, most shots that do hit are likely to strike peripheral areas that are not immediately disabling.
2. Most assailants are not stopped with a single shot. In many cases, humans do not even realize that they have been shot for 20 or more seconds.
3. Even if hit with a .45 ACP round in the heart, a determined assailant still has enough oxygen in the brain to continue at nearly full capacity for 15 to 20 seconds, plenty of time to stab or otherwise harm you.
4. In most cases, you will not be able to see whether or not you have hit an assailant. It is a Hollywood myth that bodies are knocked down or blown backward by bullets. Furthermore, with most clothing types, impacts will not be immediately visible, and don't expect to see geysers of blood spurting forth.
5. The average number of shots fired in officer involved shootings is 7.6. Officers are likely to be better trained and exhibit better marksmanship than civilians, so if this number is reasonable for officers, it should certainly be reasonable for civilians as well.
In summary, the first position is to fire as many shots, as rapidly as possible, center mass, until the assailant had dropped from your sight picture.
The second position is the doctrine of proportionality, namely that you should apply only as much force as is threatening you. A liberal district attorney is apt to argue that an assailant with just a knife should only justify a single shot, and even that shot to a non vital area. Furthermore, there is no way to predict what a jury will do. Most jurors have little if any firearm knowledge, and can be easily manipulated by a misguided, zealous, or corrupt district attorney. A good defense attorney, and perhaps expert witnesses, can blunt this type of prosecution, but there is no guaranty, the cost your defense will be exorbitant, and the experience will be traumatic.
Complicating matters is the fact that in most situations you won't have time to evaluate the seriousness of the threat. Most attacks develop rapidly. Experiments have shown that the average attacker bearing a knife can close a distance of 21 feet in just 1.5 seconds.
Perhaps the critical factor will be the time between shots. Shots fired rapidly while you are under attack should be justified, but shots fired after the threat has ended will not be justified. If an attacker is down, disabled, and disarmed, don't finish him off, and if an attacker, wounded or not, is fleeing the scene, don't shoot him in the back.