Some recent examples include an Ohio man who mistakenly killed his son and this man who plead guilty to manslaughter after killing a bystander with an errant round while recklessly shooting at someone who was stealing his vehicle.
This morning, while heading out to run some errands with Wife and Toddler, a foot pursuit broke out right next to our car in our “low crime” neighborhood. A rush of emotions and impulses ran through my head. There have been periods of my life where I looked forward to a good foot pursuit. While the thought of jumping out of the car and joining was quickly dismissed, the thought of driving around to the other side of the block wasn’t so easily passed up. Take the family out of the equation and, regardless of the reserve commission from another In-State jurisdiction, the gun I’m carrying and any experience/training I have, getting out of the car in any way was a non-starter unless I saw a cop that immediately needed physical help. There were already at least three officers involved that I saw at the outset (we had been passed by the third arriving patrol car about a block from the incident).

Think about these types of things Ahead of Time so that you might avoid emotional responses! Visualization can be a huge help in this kind of preparation. Just imagine that you see something happening or are experiencing an event that could cause to you to react foolishly out of curiosity, anger, ego or any other negative emotion… and work through the most thoughtful and appropriate response that you would chose outside of the emotional moment.
-RJP
Hence the importance of personal defense. It does not only help the emotions, but to calm down and make the most correct decisions in these and other cases. Also on a personal and self-esteem level, it has helped me a lot. I recommend this book, (en amazon.de) "Meine ganz persönliche Erfahrung", It is a somewhat personal story, but it is very interesting.