Originally posted by Halo
Especially from you law enforcement and military veterans -- What can unarmed victims do to save themselves before help arrives?
Find cover and stay put. If you are behind a door, lock it. Most of all do not try to be a hero.
As for tactics..Un-armed vs. armed. I would find cover and try to get a good veiw of the attacker. If I can move with out the bad guy seeing me and place myself closer to him/her, I would. Then I would wait, watch and listen. I am looking for the bad guy to reload. Catching them on the reload levels the playing feild somewhat.
Now that stated above has a ton of "IF's" that have to happen to make that work. Truth is, if it is your time to go..it is your time to go. I have a friend of mine who is a police officer. He has been in two shoot outs. The first one, after re-turning fire his weapon jammed and could no be cleared. While he is behind cover trying to clear his weapon and return to action the bad guy is walking up on him shooting. He would have been dead. Except the bad guy ran out of ammo right as he came around on my buddy. My friend was able to tackle the guy and subdue him.
Second time around was at a birthday party in the park. A group of kids started fighting and one of them pulled a gun. He saw this and drew his off-duty weapon. He commanded the guy to drop his weapon. Insted the guy aimed it at him. My friend opened up. In the end my buddy shot eight times hitting the bad guy six. Why so much? Because the guy stayed on his feet and kept shooting while he was being hit with 165gr JHP .40S&Ws. The bottom line is when your ticket is up it will be punched. Luck of the draw. Skill only plays a small part in it.
-Sp0t