Sheepdog Tip of the Day, During Combat tip 58
Consider a paint bullet scenario that was given to sworn, veteran police officers in Nebraska. In the scenario, they were told that they had received an "officer needs help call," with shots fired. When they got to the scene, they would find the officer down with the suspect pointing a gun at the officer's head. "I'm going to kill him," the suspect says. "I'm going to kill him." The tricky part of this scenario was that the suspect had his back turned to the officer. When the officers were faced with this situation (one in which they were fully authorized to shoot the man), the majority would not fire, and would do so only after the suspect shot the officer in the head. A significant minority of officers would not even fire then, but would wait until the suspect pointed the weapon toward them. Of course then it would be an action/reaction situation, and the officers would probably lose. Waiting for the suspect to shoot the officer or point his weapon at you is not an action that saves lives. Warriors need to decide in advance, to the best of their ability, that they can do the right thing when the time comes.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
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