No matter what anyone thinks, terrorists (both domestic and international), will continue to try and kill innocent people.  Thugs will continue to be thugs.  Criminals cannot go back in time and change what they did to make their life easier.  They will continue to break laws and harm others.  More and more civilians will get their authorization to carry defensive weapons.  We need to address what occurs in a situation when a Legally Armed Citizen and Law Enforcement Officers, come in contact with each other at a deadly shooting, or any situation where both have guns drawn.

There are Law Enforcement Officers who will say that citizens just don't have the knowledge to know what to do in any situation where guns are present.  This is correct for some people.  However, there are a number of Legally Armed Citizens with military and law enforcement backgrounds, who are now retired citizens and carry weapons.  There are other citizens who have had as much tactical training as the average commissiond officer.  I am not trying to defend either the officers who feel this way, or the citizen.  It is a fact that at some time, both parties will emerge at the same time in a very dangerous situation.  What should both parties do?

Some officers will continue to say, they citizen needs to remain neutral and stay out of the encounter.  This is easy to say but, the natural urge to stay alive is strong.  After all, they are now in a situation that had the majority of State Legislators pass this type of law...self-preservation.  Most Legally Armed Citizens in a situation like this, will not try and engage the attacker.  They will only use their weapon if needed to protect themselves or in many cases, others.  It is the Law Enforcement Officer who must try and neutralise the attacker.  However, when the Law Enforcement Officer sees the Legally Armed Citizen, how is he or she able to identify that they are not the attacker?  We look back at what most officers use when they want to be identified immediately by others as police.  The use of highly reflective material so others can see them.  Because most incidents occur at night, this makes sense.  Now, the Legally Armed Citizen has a Reflector I.D that contains their Carry License or Permit and it is visable so anyone can see it.  Is this a better idea than having nothing to identify them?  Most believe it is.