Did you miss the first part of our story about self defense against a mugger?
Then read the conclusion below and share your thoughts in the comments.
Where did the dog walker go wrong in his self-defense situation? Well, before we get to the answer, I need to tell you that you should be familiar with your home state's gun laws before you are ever placed in an incident where you may need to use a gun to defend yourself. You need to know when you can and cannot use a weapon in self-defense. Furthermore, anything I say should never be taken as law. And, if you haven't read the first part yet, do so now.
Let's continue:
The answer could be as simple as: he let it go too far before he pulled his weapon. Personally, if I was a 90 year old WWII vet with an old decrepit dog who could barely walk, I would have at least made my intentions known the second I saw the knife.
He could have said something like:
“I'm an old man and don't want any problems. But if you proceed with your deadly weapon with intent to hurt me, I will shoot you.”
Now, I'm not familiar with the gun laws where our character is from, but in a lot of states you don't even have the option to defend yourself until an attack is imminent. In other words, the attack is about to happen. At this point in our story, the knife was seen, but an attack was not imminent.
Once the crackhead took out the growling dog, who was the old man's first line of defense, my weapon would have been in my hand, fixed on the attacker. It was at this point that the attacker made his intentions known. He was willing to harm the man's dog to get what he wanted.
So, my revolver would've been out at this point.
After all, most people will flee at the very sight of a gun. But, then again, the attacker was a junky looking for a fix. So, he wasn't most people. He was desperate. At this point, he needed drugs in order to function, and was willing to get the drugs by any means necessary.
Unfortunately, the dog walker didn't pull his firearm until after he was forcefully knocked down to the ground.
And, to make matters worse, he discharged a round into the guy's leg. Was this done on purpose? We don't know for sure. I come from the frame of mind that says you never shoot in the leg. Ever.
When your life is in danger, the last thing you could ever want to do is piss off a junky who doesn't feel pain.
Unless the bullet hits a joint or an artery, it won't even slow down someone who is willing to do whatever they can to get what they want. Instead, center mass (and thus, death) is always best. There are organs all over the place, and a few shots from a .38 special should do the trick to at least make them think twice about messing with you.
Now, our dude already unloaded one round into his attacker's leg, which, at best, leaves him 4 or 5 shots, depending on the type of .38 he has. A few well placed shots should be sufficient to take this bad guy out, if he's willing to take someone's life to save his own.