I’m a panicked position maybe you should not fire a gun.

If you cannot even chamber a round who’s to say you can hit what you want to hit?

You're right, you should wait for the police, because when seconds matter, the police are minutes away.

In what situation do you imagine a civilian legally using a gun for self-defense is not “panicked”?

Well, at a range, sometimes can't properly rack the slide and still hit everything I wanted to hit. I got used to doing lock/release instead due to that skill issue.

I probably spoke imprecisely. I meant rushed, which has a similar but different meaning than panicked.