[MarineHawk]

Originally Posted by PhilD

The purpose of drawing a firearm for self defense is to "stop" the would be assailant, by stop I mean stop with deadly force. Once you have made the decision to use deadly force, then the best of course of action is to follow through with that. In fact many states don't allow you to threaten the use of deadly force, only to use it.

In the home, intimidation factor may be of value, but the sound of 12 gauge pump racking will likely be way more effective. Besides which, you are clearly showing them where you are and what your intentions are. While you intimidate them, they'll most probably shoot you.

In the unfortunate event that you need to use deadly force, then that is what you need to use, not the threat of it, in my view.

Exactly. Additionally, at close quarters, it's hard to distinguish when a threatening criminal who has broken into your home is being "scared off" or whether he is drawing a weapon and moving to cover, from behind which he will shoot you in the head. It all happens in a split second. If you have any doubts about terminating someone who has broken into your home and is, by definition, putting the lives of you and your family at risk, you shouldn't have the gun. Your hesitation will possibly lead to being disarmed and killed by your own weapon. The only instance when I might possibly (though not likely) withhold fire in such a situation would be if I could see he had no weapon in his hands for certain, and he immediately raised them in the air. Even then, he would be terminated immediately if he made a fleeing maneuver, because it might just as easily be a tactically offensive maneuver. It doesn’t take long to draw a weapon. The only way, in the unlikely event that I withheld lethal force, that he would survive is if he followed my instructions, maintained elevated hands, got on his knees, put his hands on the floor, and spread eagle laid face down, etc. If he’s turning and running through my house (i.e., getting “scared away”), I don’t know if he’s getting a friend, trying to get upstairs or downstairs where my wife and kids are, etc. He does that, he dies. He probably dies anyway. If he didn’t want to die, he should not have unlawfully broken into my residence, inherently threatening my family with unknown levels of violence and horror.