A Missouri woman is in critical condition and fighting for her life right now because she pulled a gun to use it as a warning.

It didn’t go so well.

A Florissant man was charged Tuesday with grabbing a pistol from a woman Monday as she was trying to prevent him from attacking her friend in University City, then beating her and her friend with the gun and shooting one of the women.

Mario Pearson, who turned 31 on Saturday, of the 2600 block of Northridge Place, was charged Tuesday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He was being held on a $150,000 bail.

The 23-year-old victim pulled out a handgun Monday at a home in the 1200 block of Meyer Street at about 9:20 p.m. when Pearson “began to get rough with the victim’s friend,” court records say.

Pearson then took the gun and beat the women with it. He shot the woman who had originally pulled the gun, police say. She was struck twice in the chest.

The incident happened after the man hired the 23-year-old prostitute and her 21-year-old friend for sex, and the man became “aggressive” with the younger woman.

The woman pulled her concealed gun in an effort to scare the man, but clearly wasn’t committed to using it… perhaps knowing she wasn’t legally justified in pulling the gun at the time. Enraged by her escalation, the man took the gun from her, pistol-whipped both women, and then shot the woman who originally pulled the weapon.

He is now in jail facing multiple felony charges, and the gun-toting prostitute who was shot is now in critical condition.

Sadly, we’ve all heard apocryphal stories of people who have pulled guns in self-defense, but who were not actually prepared to use them, and had them taken away to be used against them. Such take-away scenarios are common in popular entertainment culture because these incidents do sometimes happen in real life, as they did here.

Far too many people don’t seem to understand that merely owning a gun isn’t going to protect you. It isn’t a magic talisman or amulet other magical item. A gun is a tool, and it only functions properly if you have the mindset and skills to use it.

There are people out there who seriously state that they will not own a gun because they fear that if they ever pulled it in an emergency, that the bad guy would take it away from them and use it against them.

You know what? They are absolutely correct.

Anyone who pulls any sort of weapon on someone else, but who doesn’t have the mindset to use it, is assuring themselves of failure.

Don’t be that person. Get the training and acquire a proper mindset.

Know when you are justified in using deadly force, and when you are not. Do not introduce a firearm into a situation where it isn’t justified, and don’t introduce a firearm into a situation if you aren’t prepared to use it.