Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Tactical Anatomy: The Stark Realities Of Armed-Self Defense

From a 2012 post by John Williams at Tactical Anatomy: "Primer: The Stark Realities of Armed Self-Defense." He has a list of good points to take to heart, including this one:

4.   If you shoot somebody, even if you did so in what you think was self-defense, have realistic expectations about what is likely to happen.  

a. EXPECT to be arrested and charged.
b. Expect to be handcuffed and taken to jail.
c. Expect a very nasty series of interrogations.
d. Expect to have to hire a good lawyer, and expect to spend the next 1-2 years defending yourself.
e. Expect to have to mortgage your house and liquidate all your assets to pay your legal costs.
f. Expect to lose your guns.

Start with these expectations, because they are far more likely than the chances you are going to be allowed to go home and sleep in your own bed for a while. (But if you’ve taken appropriate deadly force training, your chances of making it through this horror relatively unscathed is much better than if you follow all the advice you’ve been reading on the internet.) 

The only change to his points that I would make is to #8. Williams writes:

8. The prosecutors are not going to be your friends if you shoot somebody. It’s their job to put you in prison for the rest of your life, whether you deserve to be there or not. They don’t care if you think you’re a good guy. 

 It should end: "They don't care if you are the good guy."  

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