"Don't blame me, it's just the Rabies talking."

We train to create a reflex.  Reflexes by definition are triggered by perception that the spine and not the conscious mind responds to.  We don't choose to flinch.  We might need to train poor reflexes out of ourselves:  it's not always helpful to fall into an infant startle reflex or fall into the fetal position.  Relaxing into good posture and awareness, full body connection - this is a good reflex to develop.

The USA decision to have people register their hands as lethal weapons is a little contorted in my opinion.  The idea that a reflex has been so engrained that I slash someone 30x with a folding knife in my pocket before I consciously think - this is the public image of this claim, and I think it insults us all. 

I met a security guard once who laughed and bragged that when he was playing a friendly game of water volley ball with his family, a relative of his jumped up for the ball and "our hero" responded to the person falling towards him with a palm strike that shattered the man's nose.  I think I remember other listeners saying, "oh, good Mushin!"

Musashi was able to cut without conscious effort to raise and lower his sword, but he was a brilliant tactician.  He wasn't a slave.  He was a genius and a top level manipulator, not a brain-dead robot.  Chinese arts take about Wu Wei, and in Aikido we talk about Takemuso Aiki - the spontaneous creation of martial technique.  This requires a free mind, a mind that embraces all possibilities.  Mushin is often defined as "No Mind," but this is not something to confuse with "Brainless."

A good reflex to draw a weapon.  A small step further to pull a trigger.  Hands up, making a fist (if part of your system), making space- but hitting someone in the face a dozen times?  Breaking a neck?  A stray punch can crush a throat I suppose, and kids in hockey do end up dying from a hard slap shot puck to the chest so why not a hard single punch.  An accident can happen; this is different from not taking responsibility for your actions because of "your superior training."  

Who you are shouldn't change.  If you want everyone safe, but see the need to make a choice, your response will likely be proportional.  Soldiers cannot hesitate on the battlefield, and they need to shoot to kill.  But, if a hypothetical soldier pulls a trigger and takes out a school full of children?  We don't credit his training.  We'd court martial him, maybe give the death penalty.  At our most compassionate, we call him sick and confine him.  We don't hold this soldier up as the ideal we should strive for.  We expect a proportional, reasonable and planned response.

I work in health care along side some great martial artists.  Their general health, determination and ability to override their stress and function well and remain calm makes them great caregivers.  I know MDs, PTs, OTs, CNAs, EMTs and many others with martial arts backgrounds.  One of the nicest RNs I ever met left us for a year to be a combat medic a few years ago.  Their emotions don't override their intelligence.  "We forge our minds and bodies in the fires of our will!"  Who wouldn't want someone like that backing them up in any profession?

If a weakened patient started yelling and flailing, and the nurse responded by breaking the patient's nose, the nurse would be fired.  We would not brag about Mushin, we would call it poor emotional control and a lack of impulse control.  We would not call this nurse a higher level martial artist.  We would call him a rabid dog.

The thing about rabid dogs - we don't say, "this is a good dog, just the rabies is responsible.  I want the dog to be rabid, because there's a good time and place for the rabies."  (However rare that time and place might be.)  

We shoot the dog.

Don't brag, "It wasn't me, my training took over and it just happened!"  If you are a slave to your training, then retrain yourself and be the one in charge.