Reply #19

Aww, nevermind, I just love that line from the movie.

I have been taught how to deal with the old gun in the face scenario. My instructor started the class with these words "Since you're probably going to die anyway this is your best bet." You're right, you want the assailant to see your hands and you start the move with them in a "surrender" position but not fully extended over you head. Based on my experience with a training pistol I have a 50/50 chance of surviving it, depending almost entirely on the shooter.

And your comment on the end of the barrel reminds me of an encounter I had with a young man one night. We got a call that a subject was threatening suicide and said he'd kill any police officer who tried to stop him. Naturally, they sent me on that call. I get to the house in question to discover the suspect had left in his truck. While I'm getting some information from his wife, he pulls up the driveway in his truck. By this time another officer had arrived on the scene. I approached his vehicle with my weapon drawn and commenced to getting him out of the truck and on the ground. He was incredibly cooperative except he seemed kind of stuck on just staring at me and wouldn't turn around and get prone. It was at that point I noticed that he had wet his pants. After getting him into custody and talking to him for a minute or two I got his side of the story. He and his wife were arguing, he decided to leave rather than escalate, and she decided to screw him over royally by calling us. He only came back home because he heard we were looking for him. Then he asked me "What on Earth kind of cannon are you carrying? That was the biggest gun I've ever seen in my life. Were you really going to shoot me?" All he could see in his tunnel vision was the business end of that .45. He had frozen up and wasn't able to process any of my verbal commands, to the point that he lost control of his bladder. I'm very grateful neither of us were in a hurry to get anything done that night because it would have resulted in him being dead.