No Duty to Retreat

One of my students asked me to apply the "No Duty to Retreat" doctrine to a scenario involving a convenience store.  First, let's be absolutely clear what is meant by "No Duty to Retreat."  The State of Indiana is a Castle Doctrine state (see the previous commentary I sent out on March 25th).  As a Castle Doctrine state, Indiana also abides by the "No Duty to Retreat" standard.  No duty to retreat is also known as "Stand your ground" and this pretty much explains what it means.  If you find yourself being accosted by a group of individuals, the first thing you should do is run away according to some states.  Obviously, this is not possible for those that are lame or older, but when you get right down to it, why should you have to run away?

Indiana believes that if you are accosted by a group of thugs and you are in no way encouraging the attack, you have a right to stand your ground and not retreat.  If this ends up causing you to use deadly force because you feared for your life, then so be it.  Now do not take this wrong, I value human life and I do not want to take a human life, but I am more than willing to take a human life if I am left with no other recourse.  For those of you that have trained with me in the past, you have heard me say, "I will not start the fight, but I will finish the fight."  Unfortunately, in the world we live in, this has to be your mind set and if it is not, you are making a terrible mistake that may cost you your life one day.

So here is a scenario for you.  It is Friday night and you and your lovely wife have had a wonderful evening out on the town (no alcohol involved in this evening).  As you are heading home at one o'clock in the morning you decide to stop by a 24 hour convenience store and pick up a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread.  You pull your car up in front of the store and you notice that there are no other cars on the lot.  Your wife waits in the car while you go inside to get the milk and bread.  The clerk looks frazzled, but manages to say hello in a meek manner when you come in and you reply, "How are you?"  You make your way to the back of the store to get the milk when you suddenly hear a very low voice of a man.  You wonder where that voice came from because the clerk is a young lady and you saw no other people in the store.

After you get the milk you walk over to where the bread is and you look around and you do not see anyone else in the store. "Curious." you think to yourself, and your instincts start to tell you something is wrong with this situation, so you take a little better look around and still you do not see anyone else in the store.  Suddenly, when your eyes make contact with the clerk's eyes it all becomes crystal clear to you.  Almost as if she was sending a telepathic message, you can now see the primordial fear in her eyes and you see what looks like her blouse being pulled downward from under the counter.  You immediately put it all together and you become convinced that there is a robbery in progress going on, but you did not see the man hiding behind her counter after he stooped down and now he is holding onto her blouse with his hand.  You figure he must have some kind of weapon.  And then you hear your instructor's voice in your head saying, "Where there is one, there is two, remember the plus one rule."  You scan the store over and over, but you do not see anyone else.

Now you start to visualize what you will do before you do it.  You remember being taught that visualization is a dress rehearsal for the dirty deed that is about to occur.  You have decisions to make.  You can put the milk and bread down and just walk out an leave, but somehow, that is not something that you can do because of the Sheepdog in you.  You have this overpowering need to protect the lamb, the clerk, but you also have your wife sitting outside in the car and she has no idea what is going on.  "Thank God." you say to yourself because you and your wife have talked about this very thing happening at a convenience store and you have a secret signal for calling 911.  As you approach the checkout counter you look at your wife sitting in the car and thankfully, she is looking at you and you give her the secret signal to call 911.  She immediately sees that you have given her the secret sign and she immediately puts it together that a robbery must be going on.  She makes the call from her cell phone in the car and she immediately retrieves her handgun from her purse and she starts scanning the area for any additional suspects on the lot.  She knows that she should stay outside because she does not want to cause you more concern than what you have to handle already,

As you walk up to the counter you put your hand on your gun and you get a perfect, very tight grip and pull it out when your are close to the counter.  You put the milk and bread on the counter and prepare for the worst.  Suddenly the robber cannot stand the tension anymore and he bolts up with a knife in his right hand while his left hand is still holding onto the clerk.  He has a wild, crazed look in his eyes, and you make an immediate decision to end this situation now.  All you can see is the face of the crazed man.  Nothing else in world exists but his face.  Everything but his face is black.  He blurts out something, but you cannot hear the words clearly.  

You take one step away from the counter as you bring your handgun up to eye level and point the muzzle at his face and fire immediately.  The bullet strikes home and the attacker goes down like a load of bricks.  The gunshot was not loud, but it sounded more like a pop to you.  The young lady screams when your gun goes off and she is splattered with the blood of the robber.  Her screams are muffled because you are so stressed that you are experiencing auditory exclusion. She runs out from behind the counter and runs out onto the parking lot crying hysterically.  You have been taught what to do when you suffer auditory exclusion and tunnel vision so you immediately put your training to work.  You quickly scan the area and then check to see if the robber is down and out and thankfully, he is.  His days of robbing people are over for good.

You continue to scan the area for the other suspect that you know is there and then you retreat outside and you ask the clerk if she saw anyone else and she says, "No."  Now, you, your wife, and the frightened clerk wait on the parking lot for the police to arrive.  You keep your guard up.  Your wife kept the 911 dispatcher on the line the entire time so she has been able to relay that you shot the lone robber and an ambulance is needed.  When the police arrive, you know that you should not have the gun in your hand so you and your wife lay your guns on the top of the car in plain view and you face the officers with your hands up over your head and your open palms facing the officers.

The officer's response surprises you because he does not prone you out and handcuff you as Guy Minnis had told you he would.  More officers arrive on scene and they make a quick evaluation that you and your wife are not a threat.  The rest of what happens from this point in time is another story, but hopefully this story has given you some sort of an idea as to what "Stand your Ground" means.

You, as the shooter, made a conscious decision to help the fearful clerk.  You made a decision that if you saw a weapon you were going to react immediately to it without giving a warning.  You realized that because he was so close to the clerk, had a hand holding onto her, and in the other hand he had a deadly weapon (the knife) that your decision was to shoot without warning and to end this encounter as quickly as possible, thereby explaining why you shot one round to his face.  His face was only about four feet from the muzzle of your gun and his face was completely exposed.  The clerk was not in the line of fire and you felt confident you could make this shot.  You demonstrated this fact by actually making the shot and ending the encounter with one well placed round.  You tell the police officer that your feared for the life of the clerk and you shot the robber to save the clerk.

You chose not to retreat, you chose to protect rather than run away from the aid of the young female clerk, and you chose to end the fight as quickly as possible because this situation could only go downhill fast if you did not.  In short, you made a decision.  A decision you can live with.  You made a decision that was the right decision for US Sheepdog types.  You faced the DEMON and defeated him!

Thank God for Sheepdogs.  The wolf loses again! One less wolf in the world.