If You Carry a Gun, Are You Prepared to Die or Kill Your Attacker Lawfully?
Should You Be Carrying a Gun in the Public Domain?
It’s completely reasonable to prepare to use deadly force to save your life from an unlawful deadly force attack. But as you educate and train to have the mental and physical ability to competently bring your gun to bear during a deadly force encounter, you will fail if you have not trained properly.
Proper training begins with considering the reality that you could fail to prevent your death, or suffer a serious life-changing injury, when forced to draw your gun in a moment of extreme jeopardy. There is always a greater risk than zero when you have to go to the gun to save your life.
If you are prepared to engage in a gun battle in lawful self-defense, it is because you have practiced a lawful, tactical, strategy and plan, repeatedly. And you then already know the best you can hope to achieve is to greatly increase your odds of surviving the physical conflict and the subsequent legal scrutiny that follows. I say “Hope” because the “Unexpected Elements”, more often than not, introduce themselves in ways no one sees coming resulting in a failure on all counts—death or life in prison.
Therefore, your training and planning must be structured on, expecting the unexpected. And once you think you’ve covered all possible surprises which could occur, know this, you don’t have the ability to plan for all of them. Trust me when I tell you, I’ve tried and found that there’s always someone during training which comes up with some variation of jeopardy which no one else in the class, nor I, thought of.
You’ve heard the expression, “There’s a thousand way to leave your lover”, well when it comes to murder, there’s a million ways to kill in cold blood.
I have several questions a lawful conceal carrying person should be able to understand, and answer in the affirmative.
Can you actually fire a gun at an attacker? What if there happens to be some time before you must decide? Will you avoid if possible? In what way will you attempt to avoid? If you don’t know it’s about to happen and there’s no time to decide, can you think lawfully under extreme duress and still operate your gun effectively?
The following thirteen questions present you with the key determinations you must consider before you conceal carry your gun.
1. Can you actually mentally determine to shoot someone if you need to?
2. Can you run your gun effectively enough to prevail in a gun battle with someone who is skilled at running their gun?
3. Do you know the Use-of-Force Deadly-Force laws of your state and how your jurisdiction has interpreted and enforced them?
4. Have you ordered every legal aspect of Florida’s deadly-force self-defense laws into your thought process to the point you believe you can implement them in a moment of jeopardy?
5. Have you had enough advanced training to produce accurate shots on a moving target while in the moment of extreme jeopardy, and while your adrenalin was jacked up to the extreme?
6. If asked to prove your ability, can you produce the evidence that you can operate the firearm tactically and lawfully in various realistic deadly violence situations?
7. Are you prepared to lose the legal battle via a ‘travesty of justice’ and suffer imprisonment for the crime of murder, even though you actually did everything in accordance with the law?
8. Do you have $30-50K available to retain a competent attorney and also have the many hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay them to effectively represent you in a court? Many lawful shooters go to prison due to not having the funds to obtain a competent use-of-force lawyer, who is experienced in winning battles waged in the unpredictable legal system.
9. Do you have in mind a plan to avoid using your gun, even though you legally do not have to according to the Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine laws of Florida?
10. Do you have enough situational awareness as a constant state of mind to know when and where serious jeopardy occurs within your regular daily routines and situations?
11. Have you realistically considered how your life will change should you lawfully use deadly self-defense which results in the attacker’s death?
12. Are you healthy enough to experience the stress level the body experiences in such extreme deadly force cases?
13. Do you know where your weaknesses are both physically and mentally and where you’re likely to make a mistake, and can you live with that reality?
There are three levels of personal commitment a concealed gun carrier must master to actually prevent a murderer from killing you.
1. Commit to learning which firearm is the best one for you. Do you know how to determine which pistol is the right one for you? If not, you must learn this knowledge before you select a gun. It’s best to have a gun which works with your natural physical abilities, which serves to naturally facilitate building a tactical ability.
2. Commit to learning what it takes to physically run your gun successfully in all the various potential jeopardy situations which could occur in your daily life. For instance, in your home, or on your property, and in all the daily situations when in the public domain.
3. Commit to regularly engaging in Use-of-Force Self-Defense Law education, so that it becomes an automatic mindset in every aspect of your life, especially when surprised by sudden threats of violence.
There are many ways a law-abiding concealed carrier makes mistakes which result in a felony conviction.
1. You fire a warning shot to scare the attacker away.
2. Or you warn the perceived attacker that you are armed and ready to use it.
3. You mistakenly apply Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law and use the threat of force or deadly force as your first and only reaction because you believe it is your legal right.
4. Not calling law enforcement after you just threaten to use or used deadly force.
5. Handling the evidence at the scene or not guarding and/or securing the evidence at the scene.
6. Not knowing or not remembering all of Florida’s five law requirements for lawfully using deadly force in self-defense.
7. Using deadly force in situations other than in absolute deadly force situations.
8. Saying nothing when responding officers arrive and instead assert your right to remain silent.
9. Saying too much to responding officers and also speaking with investigative officers before your lawyer arrives.
10. Believe law enforcement are your friends because you’re a law-abiding person with no record and therefore you have nothing to hide nor fear because you are innocent.
11. Going into a threatening situation, which is not directed at you personally, because you’re carrying a gun and believe you could help others which are under a deadly threat.
These are just ten mistakes or many mistakes which are reasons innocent, law-abiding, gun carrying people become felons. When you lawfully carry a concealed gun, you greatly increase the odds of becoming a felon, unless you learn the applicable laws and implement them into your tactical mindset. And practice using this mindset until it is automatic when under extreme duress.
Fact is, unless you work hard to learn the law and develop what it takes to be able to physically prevent your murder by using lawful deadly force, you will likely go to prison or be killed.
So today I ask, can you lawfully and effectively use your concealed gun? If you have any doubt whatsoever, contact me for a free consultation. I’ll work with you and your budget to greatly improve your odds of remaining alive and lawful.
A true law-abiding gun carrying Floridian always looks to avoid places and situations of jeopardy and seldom places themselves where the criminal element of society crosses their path. And when faced with situations beyond their control, they purpose to prevent deadly force; using only the level of force that is essential to achieve that objective.
Choosing to lawfully conceal carry an instrument of death is the most serious responsibility one can ever engage in. Act accordingly. Get educated. Work hard at mental and physical training. Be able to run a lawful gun when prevention is necessary because there’s no way to remain alive otherwise.
And By the Way – It will be lawful to “Open Carry” a firearm in public beginning September 26, 2025, in all 67 counties of Florida—true Constitutional Carry. Currently there are several counties which will not arrest you if you open carry a firearm before Friday the 26th. Highlands Count is NOT one of those counties. My suggestion is to just wait until 9/26/2025 before you open carry. Better legal than being not legal in all 67 counties.
The same laws for Concealed Carry and for Unlicensed ‘Qualified Persons’ Carry apply to the new Open Carry law. To learn the similarities and differences go here