Taught by Massad Ayoob, who for 19 years was chairman of the Firearms Committee and Deadly Force Committee for the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers, served for two years as co-vice chair for the Forensic Evidence Committee for the National Association of Trial Defense Lawyers, has worked in law enforcement as a sworn officer for 36 years, and has provided expert witness testimony at trial in countless use of force cases.

In this program, Ayoob explains how altered perceptions may occur, influence the armed citizen or police officer’s performance, and literally affect their survival of the encounter itself. Post incident legal survival is endangered when the survivor is ill-prepared to explain how physiological changes to the body in a near-death incident influence–

  • Hearing
  • Visual perception
  • Distance and perspective
  • Distortions in time
  • Details like the number of shots fired.

Additional psychological concerns include–

  • Psychological splitting
  • Memory distortion
  • Other effects that can taint a truthful judgment of the event by police investigators, district attorneys and prosecutors, and juries. Ayoob details how to explain these phenomena.

Educated about altered perceptions common to life-and-death situations, the member is better able to provide accurate statements to police investigators, when advised by counsel to do so, and concurrently, understand when to avoid attesting to specific details, by realize that their perceptions in all likelihood are not accurate. Designed not only to educate and prepare the member, this important lecture is intended for use in educating attorneys as well as those who may sit in judgement on a member after a self-defense situation.

Beyond educating and preparing the member, this important lecture is intended for use in educating attorneys as well as those who may sit in judgement on a member after a self-defense situation. For previews of the other member education lectures, click here.