I know there are countless variables in a firefight, including luck. But I’m writing a story of sorts in which the protagonist gets in a firefight, and I’d like some feedback on the realism of this situation anyway, even just a rough guess on whether it’s realistic or not. I’m particularly interested in the opinions of self-defense experts, cops, or anyone else with knowledge and expertise on close-range urban firefights.

Okay, here’s the scenario:

There’s an alleyway, which leads into the back entrance of a strip club. Three bikers are in the narrow alleyway, maybe a dozen are inside the strip club. They have handguns, but they’re concealed (not drawn – except for one biker in the alley, who has a Colt Python held CASUALLY at his side), and they’re not all that organised or prepared.

The protagonist exits the strip club into the alleyway with his Glock 17 drawn. One biker is next to the entrance and tries to knock the protagonist out with a punch; protagonist (who is well-trained) sees it coming in his peripheral vision, steps back, and within a couple of seconds shoots all three bikers with rapid fire.

The protagonist then spins around, runs a couple of metres into the strip club; a biker and a patron are fighting (the patron is unarmed and the biker has a glass bottle which he is swinging); the patron kicks a chair at the biker, and so the biker is distracted, allowing the protagonist to squeeze off four more shots. At least one of the shot hits the biker in the back of the head.

The protagonist uses up the rest of his magazine laying down suppressive fire while he and the patron escape, forcing the remaining bikers behind ‘cover’ – a stage, a bar, and a few chairs, which the 9mm bullets are capable of penetrating with no problem.

Realistic, or no? Would the protagonist and patron have a good chance of survival?
Yahoo! automatically chose this category for me, sorry.

I recently adopted a year-old kitty from a shelter. We already had a 7-year old cat, who is very friendly, docile and well-behaved. He has been with other cats before and is extremely tolerant.

The new kitty is boisterous and playful, which is accepted at his age. However, I am having trouble controlling him. He also hits the older cat in his playfulness. Some of these are severe scratches. The older guy only paws back in self-defense and mostly walks away from the little one’s assaults.

The little one also pays no heed to me or my husband – when we got him he was scared and insecure and we let him be for the first couple of weeks, so he could find his bearings before we imposed rules.

I really need to train the little one. We love his playfulness, but his bashing our older kitty is troubling us. We would also like to draw some limits (like he can’t sit on some of the furniture, or climb on kitchen counter tops and knock off food).

Any advice?