I was wondering if anyone would share these experiences with me as I was relatively recently forced to do so.

My story. At half past 2 in the morning, I'm awakened by crashing coming from the other side of the house at the carport door area. I thought it must have been some big branches falling into the roof (not uncommon) but because there were at least two such crashes I pick up my pistol to investigate (sorry, not a S&W but a CZ P-07 9mm). I go to where I can look through the utility room at the garage door and am confronted by a young Hispanic man, late teens/early 20's. Having just woken up and him making no aggressive moves I asked him what the F he was doing in my house. He POINTS BEHIND ME and says, 'I'm with him.' I turn and there's a black kid collapsed in my computer nook. I show the Hispanic kid my pistol and he immediately starts saying,'Please don't shoot us! God, please don't shoot us! and more in that vein. I had stupidly turned my body sort of sideways with most of me facing the Hispanic kid as the black kid had looked in no shape to go anywhere. Well, next thing you know the black kid is rushing past me - within 2 feet of me! - towards his friend and they both run out the door. I came within a millimeter of shooting that black kid when I noticed him charging. Anyway, I call the police and while doing that walk out to the street to see where they went. They are in the middle of the street with the black boy laid out and the Hisp boy trying to get him on his feet. So I go back in to dress - I only had a t-shirt and boxers on - and when I get back out they've vanished. I hop in the car and drive slowly, looking for them. I get the a major road and turn back and a few houses down my neighbor comes running down the street in his skivvies waving a baseball bat. I talk to him and find out they'd gone to his house and tried to kick the door in. Probably just the black boy. The black kid was collapsed in some bushes and the hisp boy is trying to get him moving. We go over and order the boys to lay flat. The black kid is out of his head high on God knows what so CAN'T obey and the Hisp kid tries to explain. We just keep shouting LAY DOWN but the dumb, scared kid keeps moving towards us with explanations. Finally, I show him the pistol again and (unnecessarily) work the slide for the salutary compliance oriented sound. So the Hisp kid lays spread eagled, crying and begging not to be shot. The black kid hasn't moved - he's on a different planet. Cops come and take over. The cops call and tell me the kids - who lived in my neighborhood, had taken some drug for the first time and it made black boy go nuts. Hisp kid was just trying to restrain his friend. The police tell me they are inclined not to press charges but needed to know if I wanted them. After making sure the black kid was going to be charged, I agreed that the Hisp kid could walk for all I cared. Being an optimist, I expected an apology from at least the Hisp kid. Of course, no such thing happened. I see him around and he avoids me like the plague - won't even make eye contact.

Similar stories?

In Michigan the definition of "brandish" means to "point, wave about or display a firearm in a threatening manner with the intent to induce fear in another person. If your state's law allows the use of firearms to protect property and your life or the life of others, what you did does not meet the legal definition of brandish.

Don't expect too many answers to your question. Most of the participants in these forums do not care to talk about real self defense situations that they have been involved in.

Thanks for the detailed account of your experience. I'm glad no one was fatally injured.

In what state do you live? I'm assuming you have a CCW license, yes?

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Colt 45 M1911/S&W M&P Shield 9

Send a condensed version to Combat Handguns and they might
send you a hundred bucks. I did once.

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In Omnia Paratus

Anyone who has been in law enforcement any length of time has had to pull his weapon. Good for you for your restraint and for how it turned out. If that kid had been armed with anything, you'd have been in for a bad day.

Other than being a very personal (and possibly life-changing) event in someone's life, I've always wondered if any CCW insurance that a CCW permit holder may have restrict the publishing of such events after everything has been settled and completed? Or maybe the court has restricted them from speaking about it?

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Colt 45 M1911/S&W M&P Shield 9

I would do like you did at the beginning of your story, but I wouldn't have gone out into the street looking for them or tried to capture them.

As soon as they left the house, I'd call the police and wait in my house for the police to come and take over.

You are lucky to be alive. You just never know. The way the world is now, I believe it is better to shoot first and ask questions later. That is my honest opinion. Been a CWP carrier for about two years. Things are going downhill.

Yup.

December 1976. I was a young deputy sheriff in East Alabama. My dad and his boss/best friend were going to drive my car down from the DC area and meet me in Atlanta where they were attending a Army Corps of Engineers meeting. A buddy of mine drove over to Atlanta with me. We go up to dad's motel room and drop our sidearms on the bed. My buddy Frank wasn't law enforcement at the time, but did have a Alabama CCW. Dad's friend wants to know why were packing and I explained that, "We are in Atlanta". My dad understands.

We all go out to eat in Underground Atlanta. Back then, Underground was a tourist draw. When the Yankees burned Atlanta, the city was rebuilt above the old part of town. It is a Monday night, misty rain and Underground is mostly empty. We eat at a Greek restaurant and then head back to the car. We were walking in a diamond pattern; my buddy Frank was in the lead, dad and his boss side by side behind Frank and I was bringing up the rear. As we approach a store front, two men step out in front of Frank and start walking ahead of him. As I pass the store front, a third man steps out behind me. So, there we are, seven men walking on a empty street.

I had on a heavy coat and was carrying a 1911, Mexican style, underneath. I reached under my coat and grabbed my .45. Frank had reached under his coat and grabbed his Walther PP .380, carried cross draw. I looked over my shoulder and saw the guy behind me waving his arms over his head. The two guys in front looked back, then they drifted across the street and disappeared.

When we got to the car, my dad said something to the effect that that was a close call. Frank and I agreed. Dad's boss asked, "What are you talking about?" He had no clue about what had just happened and he had been in the Army Air Corps during WW II.

Some folks need to pay attention to their surroundings.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I have been a lawman for 23 years. I have drawn my gun so many times I honestly can't remember the totality of it. I have fired my pistol on one occasion and my rifle on a separate occasion and I remember both vividly. You live and you learn. Sounds like you are striving to do both well.....I am glad for you.

Since I retired from the Corps in Sep 1989 I never needed to even consider using my EDC until two days before Thanksgiving 2016. That was a day I thought I might actually have to shoot someone. Turns out I did not have too. He got lucky.

I went to a local shopping center to check out sales at Target. As I approached the front entrance I saw two men standing in front is a woman and little girl. From the head scarves they were wearing and darker complexion I assumed they were Muslims. The men were screaming insults and curses at the two females. I won't ever attempt to disguise the language here. It was just vulgar as can be ans laced with calling the two terrorist bitches.

The little girl was crying loud and clinging to her mom's legs. The woman was ready eyes and pleading to allied to pass. The two dimwits had her back up against a wall and were standing about five feet away from her.

I did what any self respecting Marine would do. I got in front of the two females and asked the two men to cool it. Of course that got me a special dose of invectives and threats. After why was I standing up for "their kind" was followed by a demand I move aside, I just said I was not moving but they ought to do so, so no one got hurt. Well that produced a whole new diatribe of threats, but it got serious when one guy pulled out an unopened folding knife and suggested he would give me a tonsillectomy if I did not move.

Well that did it. I asked the woman behind me if she heard that, and she said yes. With that I drew my Lc9s into the close quarter combat position (Center Axis Relock method) and said: If you think you can open that knife and cut me before I can shoot you or that you can take my gun away, sayn:a short prayer before you do it because it will be your last contact with god.

About then the sound of sirens could be heard approaching the shopping center. Seems that a bystander was witness to it all and had called 911. Where I live we have no local police so the PA state police respond to 911 calls. The two goons decide it was time to leave, get into a pick up truck, and take off. About a minute later the first state trooper arrives followed by four more in a couple of minutes.

Seeing that I am armed, they take control of the weapon, and begin sizing up what happened. The witness was the first to be questioned, and within two minutes they have a BOLO on the police radio. They take brief statements from all but the child as two cars go off to see if they can spot the bad guys truck on the road.

Afte maybe ten minutes they return my gun to me and suggest that I could have been killed, and it might have been better to just call the police. Then he saw the pin I always wear on my shirt. It is a US flag crossed with a Marine Corps flag. He asked if I was in combat, and I said yes, four tours in NAM. He said so cyou would have actually shot him? I replied, If he had opened that knife his dead body would now be laying on the sidewalk.

Nothing came of it. The Troopers were professional and courteous. They never apprehended the two goons. They explained to us that we would be called by a detective to come in and give statements, which happened the day after Thanksgiving. They wished all a good holiday and left.

The woman's husband arrived as they were leaving. We met, and he thanked me. We exchanged contact info, and he asked me what my family and I were doing for Thanksgiving. I explained my wife had died in June and the kids had families of their own on CAnwher they grew up during my 30 year carreer. We parted with a warm goodbye.

That night the fellow calls me and invites me to Thankgiving dinner at their house. I accepted. It was just like any Americans Thankgiving dinner except the complimented the Turkey with a Morocann stuffing andmside dishes. No wine, because they do not drink alcoholic beverages. It was a feast of really fine food.

So I made new friends. Since then I have met some of their Muslim friends at social gatherings. They have all been lovely people who I really like. Except I gotta figure out how to get a beer there .... just kidding.

I was a bit disappointed by one thing. I had hoped the two creeps would see me some day and stop memsomI might get to finish the matter. No such luck.

You are a Very Lucky Man. The black burglar charging you and you did nothing but stand there,,makes you a very lucky person and very lucky to not of been injured or killed outright.
My training and experience dictates automatically that I would of instantly
shot that burglar charging towards me.
That black burglar would of been shot immediately the instance he attempted to move.
And the "color" of skin has absolutely nothing to do with it. Period.
A burglar in any retired officer's house that attempts to move quickly towards you will be shot 100% of the time.
Maybe this story will be in the next NRA's magazine.

I commend you for standing up for folks who needed your help in a nasty situation.

You got a great outcome!!

I've been blessed. Forty-six years on this planet and good luck, smart decisions, and a little situational awareness has kept me from finding myself in any sort of situation where a firearm was called for.