Your heart is doing its level best to burst from your chest.
Your ears are ringing dully.
You start to notice the smell of the burnt powder and more noises start coming back to you from your surroundings.
In front of you lies a crumpled body. You begin approaching or go to check on your family and…
They weren’t quite as down as you thought.
But now you are.
Deadpool may be a dramatic example however as a fight is beginning to settle down you MUST continue to cover threats you’ve engaged.
Unless you have closed the distance and secured said threat in some manner to immobilize or confirm how permanently they are incapacitated that threat still demands your attention, most of it if you have no other threats.
Gun shot wounds, except to the CNS, are not immediately incapacitating and threat stop through exsanguination, even arterial, takes time.
Any time the threat can still act on their own their stop is voluntary only and you must continue to protect yourself. Any action you take during this period must always account for the engaged threat.
So cover down. Expect them to start fighting again.
Be ready to shoot again. Move to a more advantageous position.
The fight is not over until it is over and you are the only combatant capable of imposing your will on the fighting space.
