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McKown stupidly let a fear of legal consequence for brandishing override he thoughts to have the gun out and ready to use in a dynamic shooting situation. I will never understand why people are more fearful of potential/possible future minor legal problems than they are in fear for their own lives.
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DNS ~
I absolutely agree with your main point, which is that in order to end up in court, you first have to survive the encounter. First things first!
That's one reason, perhaps the major reason, why I think it is so important to become as informaed as possible about legal issues
before you get involved in a deadly force encounter. If McKown had known Washington state law very well, he would have known that while brandishing is illegal, he would not have been guilty of "brandishing" in that situation simply because it is expressly legal to display your firearm in defense of yourself or another person -- whether you shoot or not. The worry about "brandishing" in a mall might have occurred to him, but with just a little better grasp of the law, he'd have discounted the thought and gone on with doing the job.
If he'd had more training, he would not only have had a better grasp of tactics, but during the course of his training he would have been exposed to a lot of different scenarios, which would give him lots of ethical and legal food for thought which he could think through at his leisure. For instance, he might have had opportunity to consider various angles of fire suitable for crowded situations -- or to consider whether he would fire or flee in such a situation. He might have had an opportunity to bat around the idea of firing at someone who
wasn't a stereotypical "bad guy," such as a female or someone who looked like "just a kid."
As you say, the time to worry about such stuff
isn't in the heat of battle. And yet, if you don't arm yourself with knowledge beforehand, in the heat of battle is exactly when you will be worrying about it.
But if you wait to think about such things until you are in the heat of battle, "what are the lawyers are going to say?" might be the last thing you ever worry about.
pax
Forewarned is forearmed.