Rebirth: Happened to me carry stories

[KodiakBeer]

Two stories.

1. Driving from Denver to San Diego to a new duty station many years ago in a loaded down Mazda GLC, with wife and daughter. As we entered the San Diego area late at night, lost, I pulled off on one of the first exits and stopped on the shoulder at the top to check the map and decide left, right or across and back onto the freeway.
A pimped out PU truck came screaming off the freeway and stopped behind us, some tattooed gangsta jackass jumped out screaming in Spanglish about something - I hadn't cut anybody off or anything, so he must have just been out of his head on drugs. He was ten or twenty yards behind us. I retrieved a S&W 3913 (the only handgun owned then - and a POS...) from under the seat, stepped out of the car and just held it in front of me, pointed at the ground. He shut up immediately, got back in his truck and drove past us, crossed the road and got back on the freeway.
Yeah, I know you can't carry a loaded gun in your car in CA, but I always did and the statute of limitations is long past.

2. A couple of years ago with my new wife (young, pretty, blond - this becomes relevant in a moment), we're in Anchorage. We're walking back to our hotel after dinner, and a group of natives are drinking in a space between buildings ahead of us and we don't see them until we're right on top of them. Immediately, they start hooting and calling stuff like "Hey Blondy, come here and ....." and the usual. That's bad enough, but two of them jump up and stand on the sidewalk (well, sort of sway on the sidewalk since they're drunk), blocking our path.
I'm carrying a Kimber Compact Aluminum under a light zippered jacket which is just loosely zipped a few inches at the bottom. I just stop, stare at the two ahead of me and unzip my jacket so it falls open - they still can't see the gun, but they know what it means and immediately walk back into the lot and sit down.
They didn't say another word and we continued back to the hotel.

 

[LeonCarr]

Mr. Rainbow Bob,

I never looked in the trunk, he walked over to me with the camera while I was pumping gas. I never got to look and see what he had in his "store". If it would have been a Nikon, I would have still said no thank you sir.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[CTGunner]

As I paid at the pump and started to pump gas, a thuglife gangsta looking individual gets out of a beat up 1980s Lincoln Continental and offers to sell me a 35mm camera. The 35mm camera was your basic no name POS made in china type camera, so I said no thank you sir. He continued his sales pitch, and said, "You are gonna buy this camera".

I was 24 years old and just out of school and started my first real job in a new city when a low life POS tried to run this exact same game on me. I'm coming home late from work, maybe around 8pm, so I stop for gas just outside of downtown. The tank was low and I had no choice. I'm paying at the pump when he approaches me holding a plastic bag with what he says was Armor All that he wanted to sell me. When I refused to buy (I didn't have any money but was wearing a nice suite and driving a new car) he said well then 'just give me some money'. I'm thinking man I know where this is going. I talked the guy in circles while I tried to figure out how to get out of there. I never saw a weapon....and it was a good thing because this was before I carried. Needless to say it was an eye opening experience. I could have easily been robbed or stabbed, or beat, or shot, and had no real means of self defense.

A few years later I was leaving a nice restaurant with my wife (now I am a gun owner)...we parked a few blocks away (against my will) on a not so nice street. I knew the area was questionable but my wife really wanted to go to this restaurant. She always says that I'm too cautious. Of course by the time we left it was dark out. On our walk back, as we approached our car, we were approached by a very very large man who as far as I could tell was on drugs. When I first saw him he was probably 25 feet away but we were only 10 feet from our car. We stepped up our pace wanting to avoid this guy and make it to our car before him. We got to our car before he did and I quickly stuffed my wife in her side and had her lock her door. At this point the guy was on me. I went around the front of the car, as fast as I could, towards my door and as I did he tried to follow me. My only intention at this point was to create distance and get away. My heart was beating so fast at this point that I could barely speak (I was trying to tell him to leave us alone but the words barely came out). The whole time he's acting crazy, talking super loud and 90% of it is just totally incomprehensible rambling. I got to my door, pulled it open with my left hand and simultaneously drew my S&W 442 from my right pocket. I never pointed it at him. Amazingly, the moment that revolver cleared my pants pocket the man became silent, turned around and started to walk away. I quickly jumped in my car dropped the 442 in the cup holder and took off. A few observations 1. I should have listened to my gut about the area and skipped the dinner. 2. At that moment I genuinely felt 'under gunned' with 5 rounds of .38 special +P. The guy was so big and so out of it that I don't know that it would have stopped him had he decided to hurt me.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Usually, these threads will get locked after random posters start nitpicking the fine points of a story. The nitpicking evolves into a pi$$ing match, the level of discourse drops to unacceptably low levels, and the thread is locked as a result.

Remember, these stories are past tense unless their authors are advocating something stupid or unsafe there is no reason to armchair quarterback the decisions that they made at the time. Whatever they happened to do they succeeded. Whether they sailed through by pure tactical genius, or muddled through by pure luck, there are still useful items that we can all glean from these experiences.

This.

These thread degrade when people can't just pull the good out of the stories and leave it be. There always has to be someone who disagrees with one tactic or another, and instead of just holding their peace, they have to make their disagreement known, and usually in a snarky and cocky manner. There is always some variation of "Only a fool would rack the slide", "Only a fool would carry unchambered", "Only a fool would think about using a firearm to save a stranger", "Only a fool would draw in that kind of situation", and on and on and on.

If you disagree with a tactic used by a story teller: Don't post anything. They were in the situation, you weren't. And they made it through just fine. Unless the poster is asking for critique, keep the armchair quaterbacking to yourself.

I for one, love these kinds of threads. When they stick to story telling that is.

 

[ozarkgunner]

I had a guy pull out in front of me while going thru a large neighborhood. in his infinite wisdom eh thought I should have slowed to allow him more room to pull out. He starts waving his hands and flipping me off. I could hear him yelling stuff from my car. We came to one stop sign, and proceded to the next. All the while he's still evaing his arms and stuff. While coming to the next stop sign I see him leaning over like he's looking for something under his seat. My CC piece was already out and in my hand, sitting on my lap. This is in Los Angeles mind you, and I'd rather sit in a jail cell then in a morgue. When we get to the next stop sign, he puts it in park, and starts to get out. He's still yelling and has something in his hand. Looked like a small bat or stick of some sort. Before he got to the back of his car, I raised my 9mm and set it on my stearing wheel. He stopped dead in his tracks, dropped what was in his hand, got back in his car, and then made a quick right turn. Hauling a** down the street.
I continued on to my moms house with my piece still out, took a few extra turns just incase he decided to double back and try something else, and made it the rest of the way with out incident.

 

[eagleno49]

I'll briefly post my reason for getting a ccp.
During a family vacation to the southwest, my family (including teenage son's girlfriend) was heading north out of N.M. back into Colo. As we were leaving the remnants of a pretty fair sized town the girlfriend needed to use a restroom. We passed one or two convenience stores due to their clientelle hanging around outside (Sat nite drunks). What appeared to be the last chance in town didn't look too bad, and we decided it would do. Not needing gas, I pulled alongside a chain link fence at the edge of the parking lot while son and g.f. went to the restroom. The kids had barely gotten inside when about a dozen teens and early twentyish drunk/high delinquent looking punks came through a slash in the fence and nearly surrounded our car. There were two of them in front of our car yelling in spanish and showing what I thought to be gang signs (I'm a country boy...never seen that before or since). My car was still running, the two in front were looking at me, so I put my hand on the gear selector and had a stare-down with gang-sign-flasher guy. I think he got the idea that the first thing that I would do would be to flatten him. They soon wandered off after spouting some more Spanish at me. I drove up close to the convenience store door, got the kids, and got out of town.

I had brought my .357 on the trip, but had left it at the cabin near Durango.
I should be getting my ccp soon, and won't be unarmed next time. However, everything turned out ok....so no regrets on my part

Not "armchair quarterbacking" or anything of the sort, simply giving some information that can help all of us. When stopping for a bathroom break, try to go to a hotel. The restrooms are cleaner, the area is usually well lit, and hotels are generally quieter. A friend of mine who is a traveling sales rep gave me this tip. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[chieftain]

Well this "bathroom" story happened almost 40 years ago on old 17A that bypassed Charleston S.C. Went through the Francis Marion National Forrest/ IIRC. Before Interstate 95.

And as all good war stories begin, "This ain't no s**t".......

I was stationed up in Lejune and going home on leave with my new wife from Los Angeles California, to my home town Melbourne, Florida. She was always nervous out in the boondocks down south in those days, no interstates or freeways (She was a City girl). I am driving a 1970 Ford Mach I 351 Cleveland, 4 bolt main etc....... yellow with the black stripes louvers, hood pins scoops and all are functional. (That's how I wound up married, damned chick magnet).

Pull into this little gas station in the middle of no where, about 2AM in the morning. Right out of the last horror flick you have seen. Needed gas, had not seen one for a while, and didn't expect to see another one in the middle of the night. One guy, looks like he was a reject from the Movie Deliverance. But acts okay, we chat. So I paid him for my gas and am waiting inside for my wife and it is cold outside. This is the end of Nov in 1971.

Two good ole' boy's walk in. One carrying what looked like a 22 rifle. They had been out hunting, and were drunk as skunks. They seemed to be friends with the guy running the Cash register. They start yelling at me about my "fancy" car. See my high and tight and start calling me a soldier boy, and other less abusive insults. (in this era, many folks actively did not like us service folks. Many guys had been attacked, even in the south.)

I decide that I had better get out and wait for my Wife outside in the cold. Just as I start heading for the door, my wife blows in yelling her head off about how filthy the bathroom was.

I yell at her to shut up. Like any self respecting newly wed, she went off on me for telling her to shut up. I am now trying to corral her out the door, she is fighting me, because I yelled at her, AND she still wanted to vent on the guy at the gas station for the dirty bathroom.

The guys behind me are starting to get really worked up. I get her out the door, give her the keys and tell her to get her ass in the car and for Gods sake shut up, I asked her if she had seen the drunk with the rifle? Of course she had not, but I at least now had her attention. She had been to pissed off, and determined to blow up on the gas station guy to see anything but her rage.

One guy with out a rifle came out of the station's little office. By then I had reached my side of the car, and reached under my seat and grabbed my brand new Ruger Security Six (paid $105 for it 3 months earlier. Blue of course) and just stood there with it laying on the roof of the car, in my hand. Just staring at the guy.

The boy just looked at me, nodded, and went back inside. Had to listen to the wife for pretty near the next 3 hours bitching about the "filthy bathroom". After that incident I never went inside a gas station, rest station, or restaurant on the road again, without a handgun on me somewhere. And in the 18 years I was married to that woman she didn't remember seeing any rifle that night.

Go figure.

Fred

 

[Seattleimport]

You know, these stories of cranks grabbing bats, or clubs, or whatnot out of their cars and approaching THR members--only to rethink their position once they see THR members' weapons (or evidence of concealed weapons)--make me actually glad that there's a bit of a process required in order to acquire a gun.

I mean, look at cpallenjr's story. What if that drunk had pulled not a bat, but a rifle out of his car? Or, forget the car: how about a concealed handgun from his waistband? The drunk would be dead, and cpallenjr would have had to take a life.

Call me crazy, but I'm glad that the laziness of these lowlifes and idiots keep them from jumping through the hoops to acquire a firearm. I'm glad that one has to have enough intelligence to fill out a form--and have a clean record--before Washington will allow one to carry a pistol.

Sure, there're always illegal guns available, but again: laziness and lack of initiative, at least, have kept even those out of the hands of the antagonists in these stories.

Let's face it: getting a permit, and a pistol, is a huge pain in the ass. And I'm willing to put up with a bit of hassle if it prevents Bob Lowlife from ever getting around to carrying.

Huh. Never thought I'd be in favor of a bit of bureaucracy.

 

[chieftain]

Huh. Never thought I'd be in favor of a bit of bureaucracy.

It seems folks are always for some more Bureaucracy, when it's what they want for their reasons. that is called justification and/or rationalization. That's exactly how we got to where we are now, RE: the Government.

When do we stop?

Go figure.

Fred

 

[A and O]

I had an attempted home invasion about 10 yrs back. My neighbor called me at about 6am and said when he got home from work (5:30am, Mid June the Sun was coming up) he saw a black guy waxing his beater Cadillac in front of my house. Odd enough by itself, but the guy was looking at my windows and front door for movement. Anyhow, I thanked the neighbor and grabbed my Kimber Custom ll and went downstairs and made coffee like any other day. Several hours went by and it is trash day so I took out the cans and while outside (armed) I wrote down the license of the Caddy. Went inside and had the wifey call the Police. They came out fairly quick and arrested the guy for outstanding warrants for DWI and again for an open container and drunk in public. The Police asked if it's ok to leave his car in front of my house until one of his relatives came to pick it up. Of course I said NO, they left it anyways, mumbling something about the street being a public right of way.

About an hour goes by and I'm out front with my neighbor when a car ($400.00) shows up with four black guys in it. The driver who looks and is built like Jim Brown gets out and asks me where the driver of the caddy is. I asked him if he was here to pick up the car, he said no. Mind you I still have my Kimber in my right hand at this point, but behind my back (round chambered, safety off). I told him the Police came out and arrested him. He did not like that much and started talking about how his hands are registered weapons and that he was going to use them on somebody. At this point I think he could sense that he was not scaring me and it probably confused him as to why not ( he has not yet seen the gun).

He got back into his car and left. At this point I opened my gun safe and pulled out a Mini 30 with a 10 round mag of HP's and set it into the bed of my pickup truck with the tailgate down. My truck was backed into my driveway, so nobody could see the Rifle sitting there at the ready.

Not more than 5 min. later while my wifey and I were still at the back of the truck the $400 car with 4 black guys came back. They did 4 or 5 doughnuts in front of my driveway all the while yelling things such as "That's the house we were going to hit", Lets kill the white boy", and a bunch of other sweet things. Anyhow, they stopped and all 4 hopped out and starting towards me yelling how they were going to kill a white boy with their hands. The BG's were coming at me two on each side of my truck At this point my wife asks if I'm scared to which I replied scared of what? as I lifted up the Mini 30 and pointed between the eyes of the leader and told him (them) one more step and I'll kill all four of you.

As one other poster had mentioned, time went into slow motion at this point. These guys had momentum and somehow did not put the next foot on the ground in front of them but rather pivoted and made a quick exit. If any of them had done anything differently they would all be dead now.

Funny thing is that I met the Detective who would have filled out the paperwork through my Business. I install Irrigation Systems for a living and he called me out of the Yellow Pages about a month or two after this happened. I explained what had happened and he asked if I was in great fear for my life to which I said no. Strangely enough at no time was I afraid. The only thought that was going through my mind was how I could place the shots so I could kill all four of them with only two bullets. He said he would have worded the report with a strong slant to my side including the counsel of being in great fear for my life. Turns out this group has been doing some very violent home invasions. By that I mean beating people to within one breath of death.

Over the years I can still hear that detectives words "I wish you had shot them, you would have been performing a public service" In hind sight I have to agree with his logic, however at the time they obeyed my commands.

Whenever I encounter an antigun nut I have the satisfaction of putting them in place by saying that if not for my having guns at the ready I would be dead and how dare them try to put me into the above situation without a gun.

 

[Dan M.]

Whenever I encounter an antigun nut I have the satisfaction of putting them in place by saying that if not for my having guns at the ready I would be dead and how dare them try to put me into the above situation without a gun.

That could be the motto for this whole thread.

 

[Seattleimport]

Amen to that.

 

[shockwave]

Just as a side-notation to the above, I notice that these stories are fairly consistent in that the presence of the firearm defused the situation without recourse to actually firing it. This dovetails with the statistic that shows that 99.9% of the time, successful firearm defense does not require firing the weapon.

There is a sort of... well, I'd call it an urban myth, that your potential assailant will try to walk through a wall of bullets to get at you, and that not even a dozen rounds of .45ACP will stop him, but the reality is that people do seem to have a strong aversion to being shot at and will try to avoid being at the business end of a barrel. Of course you must be ready and willing to fire, but the experience of most owners seems to show that you rarely have to go that far.

 

[chieftain]

Having a gun pointed at you and your belief that the guy pointing it at you intends to shoot you or will shoot you, is as they say an attention grabber. In fact it over powers most drug induced periods of stupidity, but unfortunately not all. The same for psychotic behavior, most folks who are flipping out still understand the gun pointed at them with intent, not all. The same is even more emphatic for Criminals with nothing else but larceny and such on their minds. (although most often there are other substances helping them along)

There is the rub. Just like the racking of a pump shotgun. If the Bad guy ain't to far gone, it works, if he is over the edge, nothing short of shooting the bastard will work.

That is why from harsh language, racking your pump to brandishing your weapon, don't count on it to work. Think of it as continuum hoping the Bad Guy is still with it enough to not want to go to the hospital or morgue, before you must actively engage him.

Never forget that any time you HAVE to pull that trigger, no matter how right both legally, morally, or tactically you are, you have already lost a part of the encounter. The only real win, is getting away without firing a shot with no one hurt.

My point is getting in a gun fight as a civilian is a defeat of sorts. Of course once engaged fight to finish the fight as quickly as possible with as much power and aggression as you can muster and apply to win the fight. Once your in it go "Crazy on their Ass".

If you have a strong need to protect others, or have a need to rationalize why you must get involved no matter the situation, I strongly recommend your local Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard Recruiters. Or Local, State, or Federal law enforcement. These folks will allow you to protect all the folks you can, and do it with Honor and very kool toys and sometimes even free fire zones. Just remember in the real world the bad guys shoot back, and just don't want to die when you want them to, the enemy always has a vote and a veto.

The good news, most often just showing or brandishing your weapon will work. Know the laws in your jurisdiction or even the jurisdiction the incident is taking place in. (Remember even in different towns, cities, and counties the laws can change drastically in some areas, that is your job to learn and know these things.)

The Bad news, is sometimes brandishing your weapon will only enrage a bad guy already bent on sending you from here to eternity. Then it's time for you to get nasty. Don't depend on a brandished weapon to work, hope it will, and then fall back on your training.

If you don't have training, get it.

On this Memorial Day Weekend, Welcome home to all my fellow Veterans, and to those still on the Wall or in the field, God Speed.

Good luck.

Fred

 

[JellyJar]

Mods..

I have read lots of SD type incidents here on the Highroad under many different threads. How about creating a permanent thread about that here?

 

[Fred Fuller]

Jelly,

Such sites as http://www.thearmedcitizen.com/ catalog a number of current self defense stories gathered from news sources all over the country. There's no real need for us to try and duplicate that here.

The stories that appear in threads like this one, which appear in S&T from time to time, are not the sort of stories that make news as a rule. How many stories on this thread, for instance, involve shots fired?

And threads regarding incidents that do get a bit more analysis here in S&T are best confined to single incidents, or similar situations that members have direct personal experience with. Attempting to conduct any sort of useful analysis on multiple different incidents in the same thread would be confusing at best.

hth,

lpl