Some good answers here, question was worded a little bit differently, but did include a question regarding when someone would get involved.

For those who carry firearms, do you feel any obligation to use them if there is a need?

I’m anti-gun period, aside from law enforcement and military use.
IF I were to carry a CWP you bet. If you’re going to draw you better be prepared to aim for the kill Marshall Dillon style.
Neutralizing the threat just creates more threat. Unless I was a trained sharp shooter, no.

Joe Blow and his heroic attempt to intervene will most likely just kill and injure more innocent bystanders.
90% of all privately owned firearms are in the wrong hands.

I don’t have a gun and do not know how to use one, but for the burglary part, I would use whatever is at hand that seems dependable for such situations. It happened once in my life and I confronted the person with a knife. Didn’t hurt them, I wasn’t even planning on hurting them at all, and I denno know what I would have done if they hadn’t been scared of my knife, but they were, and so it worked out. I suppose a gun would do the same job, if not better, but seeing as my knife an intimidation worked, I’m glad, and hope I don’t have to go through that crap again.

In a public shooting, if I had a gun, I just hope that if I did decide to intervene, I’d have enough skill with the firearm, and be cool headed enough to use it right, and not shoot innocent people in the process. Which I doubt I would.
@Coloma has an excellent point in this case. Even if you have a license and you practice target shooting once a month, you’re nowhere near good enough to deal with real life shit like the police or military are. (sometimes, THEY’RE not even ready for it) Not to say I wouldn’t want to help, but I sure wouldn’t want to make things worse.

It is fun to play the hero in your head saving all the kids at Sandy Hook but the reality probably wouldn’t work out that way.

If anything when the cops get there they would think you are the shooter and blast you. I doubt many questions were asked.

Yes or why else get a C&C permit? You don’t need a C&C permit to defend yourself in your own home and I did not get mine to save the world just my own ass.

You generally get a permit to keep from getting harrassed or to be able to identify as someone who is legally allowed to ow n firearms. Most people with permits don’t carry much or at all. One thing that people don’t realize is that the police and even military to some extent don’t have near as much range time or even training in some cases as your common garden variety gun nut unless they are one themselves. That said many are, but their position does not make them more skilled or trained by default.

This elderly man was prepared. Everyone else moved like sheep.

(He is the guy sitting way in the back near the top right of the image.)

Below is my answer to a similar question about 6 months ago. I cut and pasted it.

I have a CCW permit, I own and am expert using several firearms and I have combat experience. But I only carry if I am riding my bike alone, or out in the boonies in pursuit of the Great American Photograph. In that case, it would just be me defending me, and not me defending the public. When I do, I carry an M9 in a little case on my bike, or under the seat in my car.
But I thought about your very question when that crazy guy shot up the movie theatre in Colorado. I decided to give it some real thought and establish rules for myself just in case it ever came up that I was armed and somebody started shooting.
And I realized that my own rules about it would probably prevent me from doing much in most public places. I would have to be in position and close enough that I could get off at least three rounds to disable or kill (I would hate to miss, or piss off, a lunatic with an automatic rifle). As a civilian who has sort of lost the edge, that would have to be pretty close with my M9 and I think that would be a stretch anyway considering he would not be standing still, my heart rate would be about 300 etc. Plus, I would have to be metaphysically certain that I would not hit somebody else. In a public place, I am not sure I could make that guarantee to myself. And my M9 is really too big to carry in public, so it would wind up being a compact .45 or a small .380 (I own these) so I would have to be even closer and if it was a .380 I am not sure it would knock down a crazy man at any distance unless I could hold it against his head . Finally, I would have to have some reason to think that the cops were nowhere close. I don’t want them thinking the good guy with a gun is a bad guy, and if the cops are close I figure they will be in a better position to do the right thing anyway so why not wait?
So the truth is, as much as I might want to be helpful to others, if I had been armed with a pistol in the movie theatre in Colorado or something similar, I might just have gotten the hell out of there or if I couldn’t get out, I would have gotten out my gun and hunkered until he was right on top of me.
In school full of little kids, I would probably be a little more aggressive, but even then, I would worry about shooting a little kid or a teacher by accident. No good.
And if it was some moron stealing an old lady’s purse or something, I would just beat the shit out him.
So we can talk all we want to, but if you think about, concealed carry should be for the most extreme circumstance of personal defense. Everything else is a little risky in my opinion.

I have nowhere near @josie‘s experience, training (or youth), but I share his mindset.

I don’t have a gun, though I have experience shooting handguns and low-caliber rifles. I enjoy shooting, and I’m casually competent (you shouldn’t read from those words that I treat weapons casually!). I may get a shotgun someday as I get older or if the neighborhood deteriorates around me before I move out (as long as I’m competent to use it, can still see well, have the strength to manage and aim it, etc.), but that’s a ways off, I think.

On the other hand, I have given thought to “how would I defend myself?” if the need arose today or tonight. (Here in Connecticut, obtaining a CCW permit is very difficult, and obtaining a handgun permit just to legally keep a gun in the house and transport it to a range to practice is not simple or automatic. The laughable part of “gun control laws”, of course, is that there is no lack of illegal weapons, for those – unlike me – who don’t much care about the law or legal consequence. More laws make that mix worse over time, but no one seems to get that, because we keep passing more laws, and things are not getting less violent because of that.)

So I think sometimes, just as an exercise in “what if” of how to weaponize things that are not generally regarded as weapons. I have cans of wasp spray near my bed, on my desk at work, and in the car, even though I don’t have any significant problems with wasps. The cans will shoot a concentrated stream over 25’, and when that hits an attacker in the face it will temporarily blind him. I have a nice little wrecking bar right under the front seat of my car, which I can use at close quarters if necessary. I have a short, lightweight baseball bat at my bedroom door, which I pick up when Willow alerts in the night. And of course I have Willow. She’s a peaceful little dorg, but she’s always alert.

I like the idea of non-lethal response when that is possible and when that would drive off or stop (completely stop, not just delay) an attack. But I’d have no problem killing someone who obviously intended me or mine great harm directly and immediately, and I’ve also given thought to how I would recognize that. I try to be alert. We need more lerts.

I don’t carry a gun, but if someone was coming at me and I feared for my life, if I could get my hands on a gun I think I could shoot.

From what I understand during the shooting in AZ where the Senator Gabby Giffords was shot, along with several others, there was someone in the crowd carrying who chose not to use his gun, because it would have been too risky. Does anyone remember that from the news coverage?

@JLeslie Yes, I do. Thing is reacting from a moment of panic is never a good thing. You can’t take a bullet back once you pull the trigger. This is not a Hollywood scenario, I don;t care how well trained someone is, reacting in the moment of unforseen chaos is high risk. How many cops have killed kids with toy guns and other assumed weapons that turned out to not be weapons at all.

@Coloma I agree. I likely would be more trigger happy than a man standing next to me who is trained to carry a gun. I think primarily because I would be more afraid. But, I think it is a legimate fear. Women are more vulnerable.

I thought we just had this question a few weeks ago. I have a concealed weapons permit and I would use it as a last resort. Our instructor taught us not to draw our guns unless we intend to use it, which means if I take that step, someone is going to die, so I wouldn’t take that step lightly. I have never been in a situation even remotely close to ever warranting taking out my gun, so I have no idea if I would become a trigger-happy maniac or if I would freeze and not be capable of doing anything. Hopefully I will never find out.

@Skaggfacemutt We did. When I asked it last night I didn’t see that other question and fluther didn’t tell me that one had been asked recently.

To avoid confusion, or to be helpful, this is the question that I was referring to. There may be others…

http://www.fluther.com/167236/for-those-who-carry-firearms-do-you-feel-any-obligation-to/

I have a CCW and like @josie have a bit of training on use of all kinds of ordinance. What a lot of folks don’t realize is the rules of engagement in public for CCW is pretty tight, and it differs from state to state. I find myself carrying less and less as the cost of ammunition goes up I feel less sharp for lack of range time. At home, I keep an old 870 in the bedroom, more often than not, the sound of a racking shotgun is plenty to cause home invaders to evacuate the premises rather than get the business. In public, at least in my state, a licensee can engage if he can prove that he was, or someone in his care was in imminent peril of death by overwhelming disparity of force or another deadly weapon. If the Police are already there, no shootin’. Even if you are perfectly OK, you can count on still being arrested. Then, if they are satisfied, they will let you go.

I have a CCW and I am not afraid to use it in my home IF I or my family is under attack. In public, if someone else started to shoot at others and I witnessed and confident 100% there was no reason, yes I will pull my gun out and diffuse the threat without killing (meaning, I’m not aiming at any part of the threat that will kill, I will be aiming at hands, arm, legs etc) If police were to arrive, then it is not my place.

I have no idea why any anti-gun jellies would respond to a question in general about being ready and willing to discharge their firearm.

I would definitely be willing to use my gun in my home if I feared for imminent danger to my person. I would not use it if there was no threat to my life.

I would not be comfortable or confident pulling out my gun in public, loading it, and discharging it in a threatening situation. I would hand it over gladly to a couple of my shooting buddies, though. And I’d keep theirs loaded for them.

I target shoot. Not people shoot. If my life were in imminent danger I would do my best to protect myself. If someone is determined to harm me it becomes kill or be killed. I am very willing to fight for my life.

@GloPro Even the jellies on here who don’t carry a gun did not lecture anyone, they actually could see situations where they would use the gun. I would think the gun people would be happy with those responses. This Q didn’t turn into a debate about guns, guns laws, NRA and antigun people(thanks goodness). I’m surprised you have a problem with it.

Isn’t it interesting that they would use a gun after all. I don’t have a problem with it. All responses are welcome, however the OP was directly asking for responses from licensed carriers. And thank goodness is right.

I don’t mind that others responded, it gave me more perspective. I just worded it the way I did because well, who’s most likely to have a gun in the first place :P

I think it shows neither side of the gun debate is necessarily full of irrational people. Many people want to think it is an all or none type of topic, or they perceive the other side that way, and it is typically not the case. People need to listen to each other and not make assumptions about “the other side.”

I suspect the laser dot of my weapon is enough ample warning to someone that a hole is in their future if they fail to comply with my commands. Similar to the 870 racking sound. Nobody likes to be perforated so even the smallest of firearms is enough to affect the smallest of brains. Also, if you don’t discharge your gun, they don’t arrest you.