Have you ever had to draw your weapon for self defense?

Possibly a little controversial I know..
How many of you guys have had to pull your weapon for self defense? (Is this question ok? Or am I missing the rules?)
Just curious. I don’t mean bears or dangerous wildlife.
I commented on a thread where someone was asking about getting a SW bodyguard as a better defense tool.
I figure you only need one and whatever you have will be plenty, and chance are you’ll never have to use it.
Get it because you want it, not because you think you’ll need it.
Military combat not withstanding..
I like revolvers for what they are. Not what they’re really for, but I love the beautifully machined and finished workmanship of the old stuff.
I won’t be carrying. I’ll be collecting, polishing, perhaps refinishing a project..
That is what sells me on these things, and how I explain this new hobby to my friends who are not “gun guys”.

I have whipped it out twice for humans. Did NOT have to drop the hammer either time. At the time "it" was a Dirty Harry special. Nice thing about that, people tend to believe you are serious about things when you do that.

I threw down on a cow at work one night.

An old wino threatened me with an ax one morning. I started shaking up my OC spray and he dropped that ax like it was hot.

Two guys tried to rob me on my way to work one night. I didn't actually draw but I had my hand on it. They decided not to rob me.

I was on my work one night and somebody started shooting in my parking lot. I took cover and drew. The shooter(?) took off and I called the cops. I almost got fired over that.

I had to clear a couple of buildings at work. I had my gun out because of policy but there wasn't anyone there.

And I got bit by a coyote in the grave yard one morning. I didn't draw but I sprayed the little B*****d with my OC.

https://youtu.be/06rQ-xLjFd0?si=8OfMurjNr7kzkABp

Yep riding my bike to work on Graveyard. I was confronted by a car with 4 young punks who rode alongside me and smashed a bottle over my head.
I was wearing a helmet which saved my noggin.

There was a confrontation and I fired a shot into the ground before firing on the 4 of them.

You couldn't believe how fast 4 punks got into the car and departed.

Many times as a police officer, but only once since I retired. It was a homeless guy with a knife. He was smart enough to drop it when I told him to.

Yes

Walking in federal forest in Michigan.

Came across a couple of "campers" had pitched a tent on the edge of a marsh.

Had that bad feeling, said hi and kept moving.

They started walking towards me rapidly, one had that look in his eyes, you know it when you see it.

Drew my SigP226.

Talk about putting on the brakes.

I backed out of there, got to a road and got cell signal. Called the sheriff, don't know if they sent someone out or not.

Didn't get the shakes until later

First, as an NRA certified instructor, I was always taught that we the innocent civilian good guys don't carry 'weapons'. Use any other term that pleases you. Pistol, handgun, firearm, whatever. If you're ever questioned, you never want to say you had to draw your 'weapon'! That's an item used by the non-civilian to go on the offense.
Second, I've had to draw twice, plus a couple instances where I never had to draw, but I had my hand on my firearm. Body language was enough. I never had to point my firearm at someone else. One instance, low ready stance was enough. The other was an inlaw that gave me no choice but to mechanically calibrate him. He was insane and later took his own life.

When I was living in the Stadium District in Tacoma I used to ride my mountain bike down to the Ruston waterfront. One day as I was short-cutting through Garfield Park a dog, that was previously laying in the grass relaxing, jumped up and came after me, barking and snarling.

The dog came up on my right side so I jinked left, at which point the dog pivoted around behind me and bit me on my left leg just below the knee.

I locked up the brakes, kicked out of the pedals, and drew my P239 from the open carry holster on my right hip. As I was lining up the sights and taking up the first-shot-is-double-action slack in the trigger, the dog relaxed and walked off.

I reholstered and rode home to treat the bite wound, had a trickle of blood running down my leg. In the background I heard the police dispatcher on my scanner report a "man with a gun at Garfield Park" so once the wound was treated I hopped back on the bike and rode down there.

The police never came. The dog owner saw me and walked over telling me I couldn't sue her because she was on some welfare program and didn't have any money.

From the initiation of the incident until almost a minute into the conversation she had no idea I was armed- she hadn't seen me draw and point it at her dog, and did not see the gun plainly visible on my right hip. Until she did.

I tried to explain to her that I did not want to shoot her dog, that it needed to be on a leash for its own protection, and that yes, I could sue if I wanted because I had a bleeding wound. She insisted her dog had never bitten anyone before, which was the second time a dog that had never bitten anyone before broke its streak just to bite me. Perhaps I'm delicious.

Had I shot the dog, which by the way was an absolutely beautiful collie, the thing the kids swinging on the swingsets behind me would remember is the mean man who shot the very nice dog. In hindsight I think the dog's herding instinct kicked in by the movement of my legs up and down, and it was doing what instinct told it to do, herd me.

The next day I was riding along Ruston and saw an Animal Control Officer out making sure the dog-walkers picked up their ****, so I rode up (still open carry BTW) and told her the story. She said, "It would have been a good shoot".

But the thing is, I don't want to shoot some idiot's dog because she is so irresponsible she'd let it run free in a city park. I promptly ordered a pepper-spray with holster that attached to the handlebar stem, to give me a better option than the P239 for those sorts of incidents.

Hey Mainsail:
I wonder if Tacoma is dangerous.
My incident was going to work at the Paper and Pulp mill out on East 11th.

It was before 2000.

Down in Texas trying to find the Deer hunt location in the dark,
I did draw on those goats.
They were sneaking me!

About 30 years ago our son was away at college. One morning my wife work me up around 2:30 am saying someone was in the house downstairs.
I listened and sure enough I could hear noise.
Without turning a light on I groped around and found what I thought was my bathrobe. Turned out it was my wife’s pink one. My wife is 5’3” and weighs 135. I’m 5’ 11” and weigh 260+. You get the picture.
Put it on anyway, grabbed a 6 1/2” Model 29.
Quietly tiptoed down the stairs and the 29 and I peaked around the half wall on the stairwell. Found a young lady standing in our dining room with an extremely surprised look on her face. She softly hollered our son’s name and he came in from the kitchen.
Turns out it was a young lady he was dating at college. The had a couple of days off school and he wanted us to meet her. My son had been fixing something for them to eat.
We did brief introductions and I went back to bed.
My son said as the were eating she asked if that was a real gun and does your father always wear a pink bathrobe that’s way too small for him?

Yes twice.

Bad dog! Bad!

Thankfully they understood that the odds were in my favor.

Twice. Thankfully, I did not have to pull the trigger in either event. In one instance the perp ran away. In the second instance, the local Police showed up just in the nick of time. Two close calls......

No, and....

...I hope and pray FERVENTLY that I never have to. But I'm prepared, anyway. I try to live by, "Do not draw a gun unless you are in fear of your life and can do nothing but use it."

Nope, never off duty or as a retiree.

Twice.

First time was a case of mistaken identity. Probably would have been justified, but luckily it worked out for both of us.

Second time was a misunderstanding over exactly who had the rights to the money in my wallet. I won, with some persuasion. By the time he knew there was a gun pointed at him, the actual physical threat was over, and I was probably treading in some murky water.

Both occasions happened in a two year span, same pistol for both. I retired that Colt soon after. Bad luck, it was!

Well I’m probably in the minority here. But I’ve been in the opposite situation. I’ve had a Beretta 92 pointed at me from about 8’. Long story short , road rage idiot in a jacked up 80s blazer. He decided it was time to fight and pulled diagonally in front of me. I got out intent on beating the daylights out of him. Apparently they knew it because a big fat guy bailed out of passenger side pointing a gun at me.

Twice on dogs charging.Discharged weapon but did not have shoot either one. Once on a woodchuck that removed 3 yards of fill from under my shops slab. It did not survive.

I've drawn a concealed handgun twice since retiring from law enforcement in 2011.

I had two shootings in my 21 year career.

Shot stream of pepper spray at a growling dog, circling me on the sidewalk in Florida. Missed him and the stream went right over his head. He still got a whiff of the pepper he started sneezing I just walked away.