The outcome of a gunfight depends on attitude:
While talking with the people that I have interviewed, I could not help but notice that the people who performed the best (and could also remember the best) were the ones who were able to keep control of him or her self. Many remember getting control of their breathing and using this to fuel their inner drive. Those who could get control and overcome the startle response were able to handle the situation. Many of these folks reported that they were not surprised, but were angered by the audacity of the person trying to attack them. It appears that those who became angered were able to channel the chemicals flowing into their system into fight instead of flight or freeze. Many advised that they had taken the time to think about what they would do in the event they were attacked and had even played out scenarios in their head. It is clear that this role-playing or visualization prepared them to take action with little lag time.
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Finally, how did these people feel after the incident was over and they were the victor? Again, a wide variety of responses are reported. There are those who survived only by sheer luck and actually had little input into their own survival. These people were “horrified” by what happened and what they had to do and will never be the same person that they were prior to the incident. These folks all seem to share one common trait–they thought that nothing could ever happen to them. They are life’s sheep and felt that criminal attacks happened to others or to society’s underbelly. It should be noted that some “gun shop commandos” or “gun bullies,” regardless of their outward bravado, fall into this category.The other extreme, those who are totally comfortable with what they did, have no doubt in their justification to do so and have suffered no side effects whatsoever. These people tend to be those who are confident and well adjusted in their everyday life. They took the time to think about what may be, without dwelling on it, and made proper mental and physical preparations. The majority fall somewhere in the middle, what I call the compassionate survivor.
These folks regret having to take action against another human (it is not normal in the animal kingdom to prey on one’s own species. Mankind seem to have the patent on this), but they realize that if they had not, they would have been seriously hurt or killed. Some have a period of physical and mental distress, but it passes and they go on to live productive lives.