I mentioned to a friend that I was taking a Stop-The-Bleed class and had purchased a couple tourniquets to keep in my vehicles and bag. I asked if he’d ever taken a class like that and he quipped, “I’m not a medical professional, I just carry the gun.” That caught me off-guard. He continued that if someone had a medical emergency, he didn’t feel qualified to help and would call 911 and ask for a doctor in the area.
The goal of carrying a weapon for self defense is for the preservation of life, in defense, not offense. Even the 2nd Amendment refers to a “militia” and the primary definition implies that they’re only called upon in an emergency, to quell a riot or to defend against tyranny or invasion. Our Constitutional right is based in the idea that we are armed for defense.
When you’re acting in defense, there is also a moral obligation to stop using force when the threat is over, either because the threat has retreated or been incapacitated. We would never chase an assailant to give him some more “medicine”. The same moral obligation applies to providing emergency first aid.
Back to the question of a tourniquet and Stop-The-Bleed. The most likely use for that training IS NOT when I have to use force in self defense. It’s much more likely that I’ll be nearby when someone is injured by a power tool or in a car accident or a bad fall. It might even be that I am injured or a loved one is injured and providing first aid in those critical couple of minutes can make the difference in surviving until professional help can arrive, which nationally takes over 15 minutes on average. More than enough time for a victim to succumb to a badly bleeding injury. Don’t I want to be capable in that situation to aid myself or a loved one?
In the self defense scenario, let’s say I am attacked and am forced to use my firearm in self defense and I severely injure the assailant. Once it is clear that the threat is over and that the environment is safe and weapons are cleared away, I still believe I have a moral obligation to give aid. This is a human, created by God. I don’t want to take a life. Legally, it may even help my case that I render aid and may even be beneficial to my own mental and emotional healing after the fact.
So much of the training and preparation we do comes with prayers that none of this is ever necessary. All the more reason to learn.
If you don’t know how to use a tourniquet or give aid to a bleeding injury, join us for our monthly Stop-The-Bleed FREE course at FirstLine.
www.firstline.life/stopthebleed
