excerpts from EJournal by John Farnam

These are terrible decisions to make and we would like to avoid them at all costs. However, if you do not make the decisions in advance, I guarantee you that you will hesitate to make them later and that hesitation may make the difference between you living and dying.

Understand that no one can ever be 100 percent certain. We all exist in a state of uncertainty, even those who have been there before do not know for sure whether they can do a good job the next time. But to the utmost of your ability, you must resolve now, in your heart and mind, that you can kill.
In 2002 I received the following e-mail from a law enforcement officer. These are terrible decisions to make and we would like to avoid them at all costs. However, if you do not make the decisions in advance, I guarantee you that you will hesitate to make them later and that hesitation may make the difference between you living and dying.

Understand that no one can ever be 100 percent certain. We all exist in a state of uncertainty, even those who have been there before do not know for sure whether they can do a good job the next time. But to the utmost of your ability, you must resolve now, in your heart and mind, that you can kill.
In 2002 I received the following e-mail from a law enforcement officer.

A young man set fire to his X-wife's house... and ran on foot. The officers arriving in the area heard gunshots and reported them on the radio. As I arrived on the scene, the suspect ran out in front of my car, no more than three feet away, shooting at the other officers. For some reason he ignored me, though I was the closest to him. He charged the officers, shooting multiple times; I received two rounds of friendly fire through my front windshield, missing my head by less than a foot.
I drew my weapon and fired four rounds through my windshield, evidently hitting him at least two times, because he fell to the ground 25 feet from me. He realized I was the one hitting him and he turned and fired approximately eight rounds into my car. Still sitting, I fired eight more rounds at him until he stopped firing at me. He was hit nine times.
After the shooting, I found out that he had shot [a deputy who had been pursuing him] eight times, killing him. He had also entered a residence and killed an 85-year-old man by shooting him 12 times.
There was absolutely no hesitation in my firing, though I had difficulty drawing my weapon as it was tangled in the seatbelt. But once out and on target, I did my job well. Your lecture "The Bullet Proof Mind" and your book On Killing had assisted me in removing all doubt from my mind that I could take a life in defense of myself and others. My lack of hesitation and no second thoughts proved that to me. I have served as a police officer 27 years and although I have come close many times this was my first shooting.
In considering your lecture and book, I had already dealt with the religious aspects of taking a life, and I knew what emotions to expect after the shooting. Your insight into these areas was most helpful to me.
As I attended the deputy’s funeral, I found it difficult to grieve for him because I was so glad the funeral was not for me. Because I had considered all this prior to the shooting and because I knew to expect it ... it was much easier to deal with.
There is a growing trend in this country of "active shooters" attempting to take multiple lives quickly. It is important that we train our officers to understand and be prepared for these people, because the only way to survive these incidents is to act without hesitation. They have to be prepared in advance to accomplish this.

It is truly an honor to be of service to warriors such as this, and the greatest service I can provide is to help them prepare ahead of time to kill, if need be.
Every human on earth is insecure. Those who can admit it are a little more secure than those who cannot. The finest baseball pitcher in the world and the greatest football quarterback on the planet wake up in the morning, and are not sure if they are going to play a good game. They are determined to do their very best, but they know from experience that they will have good days and bad days. They learn from the bad days and rejoice in the good days, but always they know that they can never be sure. This is simply being human, and it is why we have superstitions. It is why there are baseball players who insist on wearing their lucky socks, actors who never whistle backstage, and why in Vietnam our soldiers would leave the death card on their fallen foes, a symbol feared by the superstitious North Vietnamese. To the utmost of your ability, you must face your insecurity and resolve the issue of using deadly force in your mind. Look deep into your self and ask, “Can I do what my society calls upon me to do?”
Who decides how much force the warrior has to use? Who ultimately makes the decision that deadly force is needed? The suspect does. The enemy does. The threat does. He fights, you fight. When he uses deadly force, you use deadly force. He makes that decision for you. He has the option to surrender, and your job is to respond with what society says is your right and responsibility to do. This is why it is paramount that you resolve in your mind whether you can do it ahead of time. Only when you know you can respond will you have the ability to truly deter people. That is the great paradox of combat: If you are truly prepared to kill someone, you are less likely to have to do it. That person will look into your eyes and see the steely determination to kill him, and be less eager to attack and more likely to surrender. Having that steely determination in your eyes is not about practicing your “evil eye” in the mirror--although there is nothing wrong with that--it is about having made the decision in your heart ahead of time.
There is a statue of a Texas Ranger in the main lobby of the airport in Houston, Texas. He wears a hat, boots, a gun on each hip, and a little tin star. The statue commemorates the Texas Rangers, and it commemorates the warrior spirit.
The story began when the mayor notified the Rangers of a riot in his city and that he desperately needed their help. A couple of hours later, one lonely ranger stepped off the train, the man whose image is now depicted in the airport. Shocked, the mayor asked, “They only sent one ranger?”
The ranger shrugged and replied, “You only got one riot.”
The big Texas Ranger walked into the middle of the mob wearing his hat, boots, little tin star, the hog legs strapped on each hip, and carrying a shotgun. All it took was one look at this man, and every one of those rioters went home. They left because they had looked into the eyes of a man who was playing the game for real. His posture, his bearing, his demeanor, his voice, his reputation, and his organization all said one thing: He was fully prepared to kill them if that’s what the job called for. The rioters knew that the stakes were too high, and they took their marbles and went home.
Engraved at the base of that statue in Houston’s Hobby Airport are these words: “One riot, one ranger.”
Someday I would like to make a statue to the American law enforcement officer, and at its base it would read: “One crime, one cop.” Now, an officer, or any warrior, doesn’t want to be the lone ranger; he wants all the backup he can get. However, if the situation is one in which there is only one lone warrior at the scene, then that can be enough if that warrior is armed mentally, emotionally and spiritually. If he has prepared himself and invested himself as a warrior, he will be ready. Here again is the great paradox of combat: When you are truly prepared to kill someone, you are less likely to have to do it.