Thoughts On Maximum Effective Range

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

Recently, I noted a question on social media as to the “maximum effective range” of a particular type of defense handgun. Commentators quickly fragmented the issue into all kinds of fantasies about the distance at which the legal concept of self-defense was no longer available, various definitions of “practical range,” and the imagined effectiveness of various caliber-cartridge-bullet type combinations at these varied distances. We were also treated to the old sheep dip, oft-spouted, about “all self-defense cases happen closer than (fill-in-the-blank distance). “

It was gun shop nonsense writ large across the social-media-verse, everything you expect to hear at the weekend gun show held at the National Guard armory.

Dealing with the litigation/prosecution concerns first, read your state’s statutes. As to whether someone at a particular distance can present an imminent deadly threat, that’s a matter for the trier(s) of the fact (the jury, unless a bench trial.) As to “it all happens close,” consider that the opposition has a vote; it’s the offender who determines when the situation will turn deadly. There are cases, thankfully few, where those distances are long. Anyone who tells you that “if you shoot beyond (whatever) distance, you’ll have a lot to explain,” forgets to add, “if you ever use deadly force to stop an immediate deadly threat, you’ll still have a lot to explain.”

That’s life.

To address the actual issue requires definition of terms and, frankly, some guess work. Definitions are easily found, so let’s start there.

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