A few points to ponder:
1]
“Before you confide with your spiritual advisor, physician, etc., find out from your attorney and your advisor whether communications to these people are privileged - and under what circumstances”
[student]
This is a real danger that can spell your doom, and it is difficult to keep your mouth shut, as there is a compulsion to tell and rationalize!
Another vexing problem is the posting of your experience on these forums BEFORE the matter is actually concluded from potential criminal or civil exposures.
Similarly, it is recommended by very sharp counsel, that we refrain from posting in a “macho” style so as not to create a “Rambo” web personality both a potential prosecutor and plaintiff’s attorney would latch on gleefully in quest of character assassination before a jury of your peers!
Further, should you have the “right” liability coverage that might provide legal defense and damages indemnity for the “justified” killing of your attacker in self defense, and you place your insurance company on notice soon after the event, as you are required to in anticipation of a claim or of being sued by the estate of the decedent, you will have to be very careful how you dispense details of the event to the insurance company’s investigators.
If criminal charges are pending and you give a recorded, signed or verbal statement to the insurance company’s claims people, that information is discoverable both by the criminal prosecutor and the plaintiff’s attorney, and it will be dissected and used against you in many inventive ways!
Refer the insurance company’s investigators to your criminal defense counsel for any information and keep your mouth shut!
Also, chances are that the insurance company may reserve its rights to deny you coverage if the investigation should show that you were the aggressor instead of a victim acting in self-defense! If they then appoint a tort defense attorney on your behalf, a technical conflict of interest will arise , and you have the right, in most jurisdictions, to choose your own civil defense lawyer at the insurance company’s expense!
This is not legal advice. Always consult an attorney practicing in your own jurisdiction before you take any action one way or the other. I am not an attorney.
One way to beat the reaction time problem is to carry an S&W .38 caliber Centennial [hammerless] in jacket pocket, your hand on the gun in your pocket. You then fire the gun through your pocket. That is your fastest “draw” that beats a knife or shank thrust hands down and it carries lots more stopping power!
And killing by gunfire carries less social stigma than “ shanking” your assailant!
And there would not be any panic stimulus in your “aspiring cadaver,” because he will never see the gun, only a burning hole in your pocket after the shot numbs him!
And less than serious weapons have a way to let you down under the “ klutz factor ” of the adrenaline dump, mostly antagonizing your rapist and mugger into tearing you apart and beating you half to death.
“, Using hand loads or firing a warning shot will without a doubt get you into trouble. Carrying special devices made with the intent of mayhem (even teabags full of pepper) will be construed the same.” [Rose-sensei]
Very true!
The “ mindset” for any confrontation is always “ situational dominance”…which is cultivated along the force continuum concept of “ avoidance first, guile and wit second, less than lethal weapons next, unarmed technique and lethal force in descending order” [Jim Grover]