1. Home
2. Idioms
3. Shoot first, ask questions later

Shoot first, ask questions later

---

---

Shoot first, ask questions later.

Prov. Assume that everyone you encounter is hostile to you.; Take action, even though you do not know enough to be sure if it is the right action. If the foreman saw that one of the workers was working slowly, he didn't stop to find out if the worker was sick or unhappy; he just fired him. He believed in shooting first and asking questions later.

See also: ask, later, question, shoot