View Full Version : responsibility to assist in a shooting
:patriot: Thanks for taking the time to answer my question ….. Here is the situation: say you are at a home depot shopping and all of a sudden you hear gun fire and you have a ccw and are packing do you as a ccw holder approach and investigate to see if you can help whether it be someone shooting random or an employee on the rampage?. Now I understand if there is LEO on the site stay away and let them take care of it but what if there isn’t ? do we /are we in some way obligated to assist as a ccw holder. Is there some unwritten law that says we as ccw holder have a responsibility to assist . I see a lot of people asking “WHAT IF “ and I understand that every situation is different but this seems to be a question that can fill a lot of WHAT IF’S. would you assist or get out of there for fear of legal implications and would there be any if you did assist in a Citizen’s arrest
The private citizen has a right to engage, but no legal duty to do so.
The individual will have to take into account the possibility of a mistaken identity shooting involving other legal CCW holders and off duty cops, or unarmed good guys who might have disarmed the bad guy and be holding his gun when they reach "ground zero" of the gunfire they've heard.
Gonna be like a poker game, bro: none of us knows the outcome until the game has played out...you'll have to analyze the cards you're dealt, when they're dealt...and all you can do is assess the odds before you sit down at the table.
in response to your answer: In my CHL class we where taught to identify your self as a ccw holder when approaching this type of situation so that other would not take you as the bad guy …..is this correct ?? Is there a better way to do it?
That strategy is fungible, bro. If you're identified as the Good Guy before you identify the Bad Guy, the latter might shoot you first. How do you ID? Shout "I HAVE A CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT"? You might not even be heard over the pandemonium in a mass shooting.
The armed (and unarmed) citizens who've stopped these things have simply stepped in and STOPPED them. There are many variables, and whomever is involved is gonna have to sort out their particular situation. I wish there was a simple formula for dealing with complicated, infinitely branching situations, but I honestly don't think there is.
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