by John Boch
At the Rangemaster Tactical Training Conference, some of my fellow GSL Defense Training instructors attended a seminar by nationally-known instructor Massad Ayoob titled “Lessons from Recent Trials“.
In that session, Mr. Ayoob counseled against automatically asking responding officers for an ambulance ride to the hospital to get checked out following a defensive shooting encounter. He says that in at least one trial, the victim of a criminal attack asked for that ambulance ride to get checked out and police later tried to use that against him to establish “inconsistencies” in his truthfulness.
You know how it goes: if someone will lie about one aspect of an event, they’ll lie about other aspects, especially with the self-interest of staying out of jail.
For this reason, Ayoob said, don’t automatically ask for that ride.
To which I say to all of you (and Mas when he reads this): “Better safe than sorry”.
“Officer, I’d like an ambulance. I’m not feeling so well right now.”
There’s no need to lie to the cops as to the reason you’re asking for a ride after you just had – for most folks who haven’t shot people before in the civilian world – the biggest adrenaline dump in your life. To say nothing of the rest of the chemical cocktail your adrenal and other glands have dumped into your body, concealing all manner of potential injury as Frank Sharpe writes about in his piece, “Requesting Medical Attention After a Defensive Shooting“. What’s more, your blood pressure is probably hovering well above medically sound levels. High blood pressure is the silent killer, after all.
“Officer, I’d like an ambulance. I’m not feeling so well right now.”
It’s not that hard. If skeptical or disbelieving Officer A. Hole wants you to provide a medically sound diagnosis of what ails you before summoning medical help, or a detailed description of symptoms, repeat after me: “Officer, I’d like an ambulance. I’m not feeling so well right now”.
To hesitate in asking for a medical evaluation could cost you your life. Be prudent and cautious. It’s not time to play Superman after a defensive gun use. After all, look what happened to Superman – he fell off a horse and broke his neck.
Yes, if you’re clearly uninjured and you take down bad people trying to kill you on a semi-regular basis, you might not even crave a cigarette after surviving a near-death encounter. In that instance, don’t ask for an ambulance.
But to automatically encourage reticence on the part of the average out-of-shape, over-weight Joe or Jane Sixpack seems an over-reaction to put it kindly.
Yes, don’t lie in the aftermath of a defensive gun use.
If nothing is found in the aftermath of the exam, and a prosecutor later maliciously mischaracterizes your request for an ambulance as a willful deception, you can recite some of Frank Sharpe’s piece (or similar works) to the jury, or hire him or other expert witnesses to testify on your behalf, gutting the prosecutor’s sleazy attempt to discredit your testimony.
It’s akin to a prosecutor trying to hang you out to dry for using “super-deadly, banned by the Geneva Convention” hollow-point ammunition, or having a “hair-trigger” job on your gun. If you can articulate the reasoning behind the decisions you’ve made and how those decisions make it safer for you and the people around you (and double points for making you less-deadly to the bad people you shot), you’ll not only survive a sleazy, self-defense hating prosecutor’s questioning (can you say Angela Corey, Marilyn Mosby or the prosecutor in the Harold Fish case?) but you’ll make them look like the idiots they are – undermining their attempt to undermine you.
Where do you learn how and what to articulate? Through high-quality training.
How do you know what is high-quality training? Here’s a primer on choosing a good training company, as opposed to an average or sub-par company.
Finding the right (quality) firearm training program for you
Pay particularly close attention to the sections on “FINDING A GOOD COURSE” and “RED FLAGS”.
Taking the ambo ride was one thing my wife and I had never considered before taking your class. It seemed like a really good idea then, and remains a good idea.
I know Ayoob is famous, and well-respected. I’ve read his stuff for decades now – since the 80s (man, does that make me feel old!), but getting checked out seems like a no-brainer.
As does not lying to the cops for what little you tell them before you lawyer up.
Sam
I’m not suggesting the “ride” is necessary. All I’m suggesting is that arriving EMS check you out. If they say you need to go to the ER, then go. If they say you’re ok, and you agree, then good enough.
I have two paramedics on staff, and they will tell you: The CCL holder on scene is not the first concern if someone else has been shot. It’s up to us to request they give you a look, and that may require calling for a second rig.
-Frank
Good training is invaluable. I got mine from the GSL crew. (GSLDefenseTraining.com)
I learned so much more in my ccw class than my friends. They just look at me in disbelief when I tell them I shot 250 rounds, learned the real law from lawyers and practiced things like fixing jams and shooting around cover. Their classes consisted of hours of power point (snore) and a tiny bit of dry fire with a single teacher trying to teach 18 people by himself or maybe with an assistant. And then they shot only as mant shots as they needed to qualify. A joke.
It’s only their life. I valued mine when I sought out a group to learn from.
I agree wholeheartedly with the points Frank made in his piece Requesting Medical Attention After a Defensive Shooting, with Massad Ayoob’s point about never lying to the police, AND with John’s points above. What all three of these experts are telling us is that in the horrific event that you are called upon to use deadly force to defend your life or that of another innocent person, you will in all likelihood be in need of a trained medical professional to look you over and determine whether you are ok or whether medical intervention is needed.
Not only is it foolish and dangerous to lie to the police by making up some story, it is totally unnecessary. As both Frank and John have pointed out, at the point a civilian has been thrust into such a situation and escaped with his life, he is not the best person to make a trained, objective determination about his own medical condition.
“Officer, please get someone to check me out” is not only an extremely prudent thing to say, it also has the benefit of not being in any way untruthful.
Maybe Mr. Ayoob was speaking about some nuance that got lost in translation??
Getting checked out seems like common sense.
Where I come from, uttering the word ambulance makes one appear. Officers are not allowed to deny one when asked. Cops don’t have anything invested in it, and they love to wake up firemen, so it should be an easy thing. Don’t overthink this. Most of the adult population has some medical concern, take the ride.
There is another concern for those of us who live in Illinois. I know that it has probably be over thirty years ago now, but a man who was inside a bank in Quincy, IL when it was robbed was feeling a little “light headed” after it was all over and took the ride in the ambulance. When he was checked out, the E.R. doctor suggested that he just stay overnight for “observation”. The guy did it. Little did he know that that the stay overnight was in the psych unit an when he got home he found out that his FOID card had been revoked due to his confinement in a mental institution. Oh, he got it back but not until he had spent some money and sleepless nights.