NPR Guns and America

So, I catch a bit of Guns and America on my commute listening to NPR radio.  This one was about what it's like to actually have to defend yourself.

It was extremely fair considering the source. 

They interviewed Dave Grossman and he sounded reasonable.  I know!  He doesn't always.  They interviewed a guy that had to kill a killer that found him in his hiding spot in the bathroom and they were sympathetic to his textbook case of justifiable homicide.  And they interviewed combat veterans on what it feels like to have to shoot.  The adrenaline dump is unlike anything you have experienced.  Well, unless you have already shot a person trying to kill YOU before. 

The overt message, self-defense can be extremely hard, the way a human reacts when he may have to kill and isn't used to killing. 

The underlying message, and this is my bias, prolly, was: "it's hard to defend yourself, you aren't ready, people that train all the time aren't really ready, might as well not have a gun to defend yourself, better to die in that bathroom."  But that wasn't too bad, if intentionally there.

No, you have no idea how you might react when the balloon goes up.  If you train a lot and muscle-memoried everything you still might react poorly.  Keep training tho.  Drills are important.  Try to be ready but pray you never have to.