A self-defense scenario for you; tell me what your course of action would be.
You live in a fully developed suburb of a major east coast city. You take your dogs out in your own backyard in the middle of the day. A raccoon runs out from underneath the porch and attacks your dogs. While you try to separate the animals, the coon takes a nip at you. Assuming that you are carrying your pistol, do you draw and fire? Why or why not?
Think it's far-fetched? Think again. As improbable as it seems, it happened to one of my co-workers this weekend. Here are more facts-- He slipped and fell as he tried to get the dogs away from the raccoon and dislocated his elbow. He also did not have his gun, even though he owns one and told me that he wished he'd had it on him. He got nipped on the foot, and ended up stomping the raccoon to death, but the whole event lasted several unpleasant minutes. One of his neighbors just watched, apparently more worried about the raccoon than the human. By the time another neighbor figured out what was going on and summoned help, the animal was dead. So he was pretty much on his own for the whole thing. Now he has to wait for the results of the rabies test, and faces surgery on his arm. (Oh, and he lives in a very blue county of a red state, where gun use is rather frowned on.)
Again, is this a shoot or no-shoot situation? Why or why not? Reality-- it's not always cut and dried.
