Two Seconds
Two seconds doesn't sound like much.
Two seconds is the time many claim it takes to remove a trigger lock, open a lock box or
deactivate a disabling device, and allow a gun to be fired.
Under ideal conditions. That means in the light. In a laboratory. Under no stress.
It does not mean in the dark, roused from sleep by the sounds of an intruder, fumbling frantically while your hands shake, your heart pounds and an unknown someone draws…closer. Mess up and guess what? Add another two (or more) seconds. And, with some electronic disablers, you'd better get the combination right this time, because if you mis-key again it will lock you out for good.
Unfortunately, some say, there are no laws compelling the use of these devices.
It would be unfortunate if there were. Because the intruder doesn't have to wait two seconds. He
doesn't obey ill-conceived gun control mandates. He can cross the room, or pull a knife, or empty a magazine in the two or more seconds it takes for you to tremble and flounder and fail.
Should the law really give him the advantage of a two-second head start?
One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two…
People have died in less time.
"Dennis Henigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence drops the ball in front of a roomful of reporters, while trying to prove the efficacy of Saf-T-Lok, a purportedly easy-to-use combination lock in the gun's grip. Henigan fumbles and fails to unlock the gun in a well-lit room with no intruder at the door... Finally disengaging the safety, he apologizes, 'Most people aren't as klutzy as I am.'"
-From "Lawyers, Guns and Money" by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard, Feb. 1, 1999
"Again, I learned from Massad Ayoob what has become known throughout the self-defense industry as the Tueller Drill. To our amazement, everyone in our class demonstrated that any person, no matter his age or physical condition, can cover twenty-one feet from a standing start and plunge a knife into a target in an average of 1.5 seconds..."
-From Armed & Female by Paxton Quigley
Originally published on GunTruths.com (1999)
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