Road rage - course of action?

I'd have to see a clear threat to my life. That said, he's in a Mecury Cougar and you're in a Vette? Why should he see anything but tail lights?

Please see my thread "What Are These People Thinking"

Think about it this way, say you pull your weapon, point it...he calls 911, says some crazy guy in a slow-[blank] vette just pointed a gun at me! BHAM, time to lawyer up. IMO, only if you were clearly in danger of death or serious bodily injury. My CHL instructor said in a situation like that, whoever dials 911 first wins

pardon the vette-slam, i'm a mustang owner and just ribbin' ya

How about pulling out your trusty cell phone.

If he would of followed me home,

if he would of followed me home,

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Rule number one, never go home in a situation like that

So, question is: At what point would you consider having to pull your weapon?

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A) When I see him pull one
B) When he tries to hit me or run me off the road with his car.

Otherwise, keep it holstered and drive away. If he follows you, drive to the police station.

Sounds like you happened to be in the same space as a nut...at the same time.

While there are many things we'd all like to do in situations similar to this...everyone has road nut job story.....the best thing to do, even though it chews at your gut, is ignore it and go on!
Display of a firearm is a bad bet, as the laws are written, unless the nut is really in the process of initiating action against you which would result in serious injury or worse.

Two things that come to mind 1) in every law enforcement organization, in which I have worked, it was against policy to display or fire a weapon from a moving vehicle (so why would it be different for civilians ?)
and 2) could I slow down, turn or stop and let the nut go on? ( letting him deal with someone else.)

could I slow down, turn or stop and let the nut go on?

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Incredibly baaad Ju-Ju. In 1992 I was driving home late one night on I-5 in Tacoma guy behind me decided I cut him off, pulled up next to me and let me know about it. I pulled a way from him (‘85 Dodge Aspen vs. ’91 Geo Storm) and he took exception to that. At that point I decided to give him the road, slowed waaaay down and let him go. Once ahead of me he started slamming his brakes in front of me and weaving all over the road so I couldn’t get away from him.

Long story short I went to a gas station and called the cops he took off and left his passenger to take the rap.

Lessons learned, I had the lead and a much faster car I should have just drove away and
Never let the Road Raging Nut Job get in front of you

It's called road rage, you do a 911 and give the dispatcher the (you were behind him) license number, make color, and general description of the vehicle, most police agency's take it seriously.
If and only if he displayed a gun, or approached your vehicle, or followed you into your drive or property... until then the gun stays in it's parking spot.

Never heard of an '85 Aspen...

Never heard of an '85 Aspen...

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I don't know why it sticks in my head that it was an Aspen, but it does. Maybe because the roof was the color of an aspen leaf.

I know It was a two door dodge I remember looking over and seeing the emblem right infront of the door, it was that pentagon looking thing I always thought that was Dodge.

Anyway, my abysmal lack of car knowledge doesn't really change anything in the story.

I throw my hand out as to say "***?!!"

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Don't do that either. If the driver of the other car is in a highly frenzied state of mind, considers the world against him, well, you just confirmed his delusion, and notched his agitation up a notch.

Keep your hands in the car. Leave nut cases alone.

I throw my hand out as to say "***?!!"

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as to say "what the frack" to him?

You added fuel to a fire. Your ego so big you couldn't just smile politely and ignore the situation?

I had a similar experience about a year and a half ago. About 20 miles from home, I noticed I'd attracted the attention of a particularly upset man in a red Ford F-250. At the time, I didn't think much of it. My route home from work is a pretty popular one in the commuter crowd.

Mind you, this is all "rural" road driving, one lane in each direction, no shoulder, no lights, no stop signs, etc.

About 2 miles from the house, I decided something wasn't right. I made an abrupt turn onto another road and still had the F-250 in tow, still inches from my bumper. At this point, I guess he realized I was onto him, since he started with the fists, honking the horn and flashing his lights.

I made another couple of evasive maneuvers, just to give the bozo the benefit of the doubt. He's persistent, and really bent outta shape about something. Mind you, I'm 30 miles from the nearest police department, so I started heading "towards town" and called 911 on my phone. I used by Bluetooth headset discreetly, so Mr. Panties in a Wad wouldn't notice.

First, I get the Sheriff's Office. They decide it's a Highway Patrol issue, so they route me to HP. Highway Patrol isn't interested. I hang up, call 911 again and tell them, under no uncertain terms, that I am being followed by a lunatic and need them to find the closest unit. There aren't any officers in the area, and I don't have enough gas to even meet the officer "half way". I asked the Sheriff's Office to connect me with a somewhat nearby town police department and started heading that way, with my new friend in tow.

I told the town police operator what was going on. I informed him that my new friend has been following me for about 25 miles, several of which were loop-backs on different roads and that I was running low on gas. I informed the operator that I was carrying my sidearm and had absolutely no intent of stopping and allowing this situation to escalate. I asked him to direct me to the area of the closest officer. Unfortunately, part of the route into their jurisdiction involved driving on a heavily traveled road with many lights. I managed to go that route without ever coming to a stop. This involved cutting across several lanes of traffic at a time, making a U-turn or two in order to keep moving, and driving on the shoulder at one point. At no time did the psychopath in the Ford let up. I'm sure quite a few people were a little upset with me, but they'll get over it.

Mind you, I can hear the operator relaying all of this information over the radio to the responding unit.

The operator directed me down a particular street and had a unit heading towards us. The police car passed us, then whipped a U-Turn. The operator asked me to make a few random turns, and I happily obliged. The Ford was still in tow, followed by a marked police car. At this point, I guess the officer had seen enough. He lit up the lights and siren and the Ford ceased following me and pulled over. I went another 500 feet and watched the policeman approach the truck with his pistol drawn. After a couple of minutes, the operator told me that the officer would call me and that I should head out. I scampered up to the gas station, filled up and went home.

I got a call from the officer a couple of hours later. He said the driver had no reasons for his actions and only expressed regret when the officer told him that I was carrying a gun and was prepared to use it if necessary.. "The guy you were chasing was carrying his gun and knew how to use it. Is this worth dying over?" The officer thanked me for speeding up when I saw him -- I guess he wrote him for speeding. I don't know if he was charged with anything else.

I've always been told to drive to a police department if followed. Around here, police departments are few and far between. There are quite a few rural fire departments, although none of them are staffed regularly. Watch your 6 and always have a "plan B".

There are four mistakes as I count 'em.

One: The *** gesture as he cut around you.
Two: Going around him ( I know you have a vette and dusting him was going to show him)
Three: not calling the cops. (two things, he's reported as an aggressive driver and it gives you something else to bring up if it escalates further and ends up in court.
Four: going to your house as others have said.

Now don't get me wrong I too give the open hand gesture more often than I should and some day it may get me in trouble. But I don't make mistakes 2-4 anymore. (still give myself a near stroke fighting the urges sometimes though)

So, question is: At what point would you consider having to pull your weapon? This guy would more or less need to have gotten out of his car and charged me with a piece of rebar or something before I would even consider drawing my weapon. His car was pretty beat up and wondered if he was thinking about going in reverse to ram me. Wouldn't that be considered a deadly weapon as well?

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At which point I would have just run him down and not worried about the handgun.

When you're really into hammers pretty soon all your problems begin to look like nails. As the old saying goes "There's more than one way to skin a cat"

This is so off base. I went around him because the light was green and I didn't want him to decide to back up and smash into mine. I do NOT show off.

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Come on.....What did you honestly expect would be the result after some already road ragy guy zooms around you and cuts you off and then you pass him? And as for not showing off...you have a Corvette. Was it the great gas mileage that made you buy it or the fact that they are sweet cars and will sit you back in the seat when you step on the pedal? I believe that you don't drive like some teenager but at least part of you knew he couldn't catch you even if he wanted to.

I throw my hand out as to say "***?!!"

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If caught off guard, I probably would have done the same thing--it may be a mistake, but it's understandable to me.

The weirdest one I remember was an early morning run to the airport to pick up a relative, puts me on a 3 lane highway at maybe 6AM on Sunday. Ghost town, no one around.

I get past a toll booth (yes, we have toll booths), and out of nowhere this guy in a large pick-up (I had a hatchback wagon at the time) puts his grill in my rearview. I was in the left lane at the time--I think the left toll booth was the only one manned, and I didn't have change (don't know why else I would have been in the left lane on an empty road). I was doing a decent rate, maybe 5-10 over the limit.

Of course, I put on the blinker and move over. Not leisurely, either--I seriously wanted to get out of this guy's way. So, he follows me into the lane, grill filling up rearview again. I thought *** (no hand gesture), and moved over again. Now I'm in the right-most lane--there's no shoulder at all. He moves behind me again.

Well, there's no exits for a while, I can't outrun him (nor do I want to), and I have no cell phone (my so-called brain in a 6 AM haze when I left). So I throw on the hazards, and start to slow, gradually. I get down to 45, he starts to lean on the horn.

35. 25. 10. Stop. Stopped on the highway. He's still behind me, leaning on the horn. I made a big show of shutting the engine, taking out the keys, and folding my arms. I ain't going nowhere.

Guy stays behind me a full minute, blaring the horn. Couple of cars had to change lanes in a hurry, blaring their horns, to miss us. Finally, he's had enough, goes around me (shouting you can guess what) and disappears. As soon as he gets a reasonable piece down the road, I start up again. Kept an eye out, but never saw him again.

To this day, I have no idea what that was about. I have decided that on any given day, someone may be a little low on his meds. So be careful.