KUBICEK: Shoot to live

by Fred Kubicek
(November 14) – Yesterday I spent an incredibly cold and windy day completing the final 8 hours of the Illinois mandatory conceal carry training. Prior to that time I had completed the NRA’s Personal Protection In The Home Course, which consisted of two days of lectures and firing line practice (300 rounds fired).  Both of these courses were put on by GSL Defense Training out of Champaign, IL.  I would highly recommend them to everyone. The GSL Defense Training staff were highly competent, totally dedicated to the safe handling of weapons by all concerned, offered great tips to each student and overall made every effort to help each student as they learned the requisite skills needed to safely and legally conceal carry.

Some people have a misconception that those who choose to carry concealed weapons have a strong desire to get involved in some deadly incident. Actually, I believe that the reverse is true. You see, as a Christian I know that life is precious. As such, I want to be in a position to protect myself, my family and those innocent people around me who might find themselves in harm’s way. One of our instructors yesterday put it as well as could be said. “We don’t shoot to kill, we shoot to live.”  And even then only when no other option is available!  One of them added that if available, the ‘Nike’ defense was always a better choice. What is the ‘Nike’ defense you ask?  Run like He**.

But when all else does fail, and you are faced with a life or death situation, my desire to protect life has led me to this point. While I do not look forward to ever being placed in such a situation, the news we see every day, prophetic warnings and Scripture
make it clear that perilous times are coming. One of the core principles of self-defense training is what is known as the ‘21 Foot Rule.’ Basically what this means is that an assailant with a knife or club can traverse a distance of about 21 feet in 1.5 seconds, which incidentally is about the same amount of time it takes a trained individual to draw a weapon and fire the first shot. Therefore, if and when such a situation happens to you in the future, you only have about 1.5 seconds to decide several things. First, ‘What should I do?’  Second, ‘If armed, am I willing to actually kill someone?” Needless to say, unless you are properly trained, and have practiced your response, and already spent a fair amount of time thinking through that second question, you probably will not survive that encounter, nor would those individuals who are near you that you are trying to protect (ie. your loved ones).

Concerning that second question here are my thoughts up to this point. The individual attacking me has put himself in the position whereby he may very likely get shot. I did not place him there. That individual has threatened me or my loved ones with great bodily harm to the extent that we reasonably fear for our lives. I (we) did not threaten him. That individual has left me with no viable options or alternatives other than using deadly force to stop that threat from continuing. In other words he has left me no way out other than using deadly force to defend against his actions. Should that individual loose his life as a result of my defending myself, I have not sent him to hell. I am not his judge. His and his relationship (or lack thereof) with the Lord will determine his eternal destination. And finally, while he may very well have a wife and family which has just lost their principal means of support because of his death, that again is not my responsibility. By attempting to kill me, he was demonstrating that he was perfectly willing to take one of my families’ support mechanisms away from them, and my concern will always be for my family (friends and innocent individuals near me who are being threatened) rather than he or his family under those circumstances.

Obviously I have never been placed in that position, and I hope and pray that I never will be. From everything I have read on the topic, I know that the aftermath of such a situation will be traumatic. However, by thinking about it now and training appropriately, I hope that should that situation arise I would not hesitate to act, and that my lack of hesitation would then result in I and my families’ continued well being.

One Last Thing – Natural disasters and survival situations are not pleasant, especially for those who have not prepared in advance to deal with them. For instance, some survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines are eating rats and stray dogs, while at the same time trying to avoid armed gangs of looters.