My brother is the owner of a pawn shop. He related this story to me today. The sequence of events was put together after the fact.

Three men came in the pawn shop. One came to the counter. One came about halfway between the door and the counter. One stayed just inside the door. About that time, a customer handed a pump shotgun he wanted to trade to the "gun guy" behind the counter at the gun section in the back of the store. The gun salesman racked the slide on the pump to check to make sure it was empty. The three men gathered at the door, hesitated a few seconds, and quickly left. The phone rang. "This is 9-1-1, is your store being robbed? We have a report of an armed robbery in progress." The gun salesman had answered the phone, said "No, I don't think so." The 911 operator told him to hold on, that police were on the way. Almost immediately, they heard the sirens and a couple of cars pulled up, officers ran in the store with guns drawn. The thugs, of course, were gone. They were picked up later in the area and were held on some outstanding warrants.

What had happened was that a clerk in a convenience store across the street had overheard the thugs discussing their intent to rob the pawn shop. When he/she saw them cross the street to the shop, he/she called 911. It was, according to the gun salesman, just pure dumb luck that he racked the slide on the pump just as they were setting up for the robbery. Apparently, they heard the action work, looked up and saw the salesperson with the shotgun in his hands, and decided to hunt an easier target. No one who worked in the store had any suspicions about what was happening until they got the call from the police. The gun salesman said he saw the men hurriedly leave the store, but didn't think anything about it until the police explained what had happened.

Incidentally, the convenience store across the street was the scene of an attempted armed robbery about a year ago. An armed customer shot one of the robbers who turned toward him with a handgun he had been pointing at the cashier. Even though the customer didn't have a carry permit, he wasn't charged. Police were quoted in the paper as saying it was definitely a good shoot, and chose not to bring any charges.

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Georgia On My Mind

How crazy is that? Pretty awesome though.

Sounds like someone is living right.

This gust goes to prove the old theory "I rather be lucky than good" has some truth to it. Glad that no one was hurt.

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Always Stay Strong!

Ah yes, the sound of a pump action "gauge".

That will ruin a crack or heroin buzz.

That was pure luck. It's also an example of pretty darned poor situational awareness on the part of the pawn shop staff, they should have spotted the "setup" a mile off. Hopefully the responding police had a bit of a talk with them about that.

The suspense is killing me, did the guy get a good trade on the shotgun? Sorry.

Years back, my dad had a friend who owned a liquor store and he gave him a baton and police hat to leave on the counter. When sketchy guys would come in and regard the hat and baton, his friend would say, "hey, even cops use the bathroom." He never got robbed...

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Hope he went out and bought a lottery ticket after that...

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

I would guess the sight of the shotgun had as much effect as the sound. Badguys can be pretty stupid at times but at some point self preservation is gonna kick in.

Unless the new health care plan allows workman's comp for bad guys they generally want no part of anything resembling a fair fight.

Unless you're in a ring, fighting someone in your weight class, with a referee present making sure that both you and your opponent are obeying the Marquess of Queensberry rules - You are NOT in a fair fight.
Since you aren't --- Well......

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In dog years I'm dead.

If you're in a fair fight your tactics ....ummm... "need a little fine tuning."

On a related note, a friend of mine would always drape his expensive riding jacket over the handlebars of his Electra Glide when going inside . . .

I just shook my head in disbelief and said; "What in the world makes you think that your jacket is going to still be there when we leave?"

He just grinned and said: "Look at the seat."

He always placed a .45acp round on the seat, too!

To my knowledge, he never had a jacket or helmet stolen.

I doubt the elapsed time from the time the miscreants entered the store until they left was 15 seconds. Yes, they should have spotted it, but when you are dealing with customers, it isn't easy to be as vigilant as one should be.

My brother and I discussed the fact that somebody would have to be an idiot to try to rob the store. Probably three or four male employees are armed, and there are multiple loaded shotguns available to the the employees behind the counters in the gun section and archery section of the shop. The employees are instructed to cooperate with armed robbers and to give them what they want as long as they aren't acting too aggressively or showing signs of instability or craziness. If one were to begin firing, he would probably feel the Wrath of God come down on him in a hurry. It isn't unusual for multiple LEOs to be in the store. The same is true of most pawn shops and gun shops Down South. Although they don't do it in my brother's store, it isn't unusual to see the employees open-carrying. There is a shop a mile or so from my brother's shop where all the employees carry visible semi-automatics. I also know of a liquor store in MaConGA (pronounced Muh-CON-Ga) where the proprieter and his wife open carry. There are signs on the door warning customers not to come in with a hoodie or ski-mask. I don't go to a package store over 5 or 6 times a year, but when I do I try to use that one. I feel safer.

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Georgia On My Mind

Y'all in Memphis will probably remember my LGS - East Park Hardware.
The hardware store was in the front and the gun store in the back.
A nice old couple ran the gun store and their son ran the hardware section.
To get from the gun store part to the outside you had to go through a maze in the hardware store - No straight shot. Kind like a gauntlet - I always thought that it was a GREAT idea!

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In dog years I'm dead.

Is it a Wingmaster? I've been searching for a good deal on a Wingmaster.

My wife and I were married in August of 1979. By 8-10 we were in New Orleans so that I could enroll in seminary. That first year was a hoot. We lived in a ground floor apartment in a high crime area. In the first year there were two attempts to break into our apartment through the bedroom window. In each instance, my wife stepped aside while I loaded the pump shotgun and used it to run the intruders off. In the second year, someone stole my 66 Mustang. Only 30 days later, I found it outside a bar on St. Roch Street. A friend and I went back to retrieve it. I had the 870 with me. Some folks from inside the bar came out to object to my getting the car. Amazing what a 12 ga. pump shotgun can do to calm a bunch of people down when the action is worked loudly. Car is long gone. Still have the shotgun.

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<><

I don't know about the chambering a pump shotgun but can tell you that leveling a SXS shotgun on three thugs armed with a tire iron and chunk of chain will stop them in their tracks. I watched my buddy do that when we were only 16 and about to get our young butts kicked had he not been planning on pheasant hunting.
They climbed back into their truck and drove off.

It definately works on one of my dogs. She has never been abused, but she is deathly afraid of guns. If I go out side with a shotgun and rack the slide, she takes off fast for an old chicken house that I keep aluminum cans in. We call it Cansas. Same thing when you chamber a round in an automatic pistol...gone to Cansas. Same if you cock a revolver, and if you do happen to shoot she's gone to Can. for a long time. So I would say it would be a deterrent to a bad guy, maybe.
Peace,
Gordon.

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better have that checked

I'm sure that the sound of shucking a shotgun has caused many a sphincter to fail.

yashua

Some folks are happy with a side by side shotgun for home defense. I wouldn't care to test their ability to use it.

One night I got a call from my mom. She said some one was out back of the house and braking into her shed. At that time I only live 2 miles away so off I go. Told her to stand near the front door and let me in when I got there. I went straight through the house to my dads gun cabinet. Grabbed the 870 and stuffed her full. By the time I got to the back of the house, the guy had broken the storm door open and was trying to pry open the back door. All I had to do was "Rack the 870" and he slammed the storm door and was heading across the corn field out back as fast as a rabbit.

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Not so Free in the Free State

First person that develops an app for the iphone that makes that sound on command is gonna get rich.

Ed

I LOVE the smell of Naplam in the morning, regards Ernie

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Rimfires Makes me "Insane"

As Al Capone is reputed to have said, "You get far more accomplished with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone."

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Never thunk of that..but that may be a great idea

I'm very happy with a "side-by-each."

For one thing, I'm not hung up on magazine capacity.
A sxs has been considered a very viable weapon for
"repelling boarders" for 150+ years, and there is no
good reason it isn't viable now.

I grew up shooting quail and doves with a Parker 20
gauge. I can dump the empties and reload while marking downed
birds, watching the dogs, spotting where the singles land,
all the while trotting up to the next dog on point, in a
couple of seconds.

I'm as comfortable with a sxs shotgun as I am with a S&W
revolver, a lever action rifle, or a 1911 pistol.

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Georgia On My Mind

There already is. Go to the app store on your cell phone and
type in Shotgun Sounds. There are several apps there.

Stu

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NRA Benefactor/Cert Instructor

My Dad once told me, there is no such thing as a fair fight, do whatever it takes to win. Of course this does not apply to school yard fights but good advice for the real world. You gotta love those WW II vets!

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Stay safe people!

Just don't use it for a ring tone!

Has to be one of the most recognizable sounds in the world. Even non shooters recognize it.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I always had mixed feelings on racking a slide to scare away someone, maybe because of the fact that I don't want someone to know where I am etc. but I have seen it work in person although not with a shotgun, but a .45 1911. I remember when I was younger and still living at home I worked inside an armored car company with a higher up job that had me carrying but no on the road issues since I was in the main plant. I had come home that night and one of the rules my parents had was that the gun had to be kept unloaded if I wanted to stay there.
About 9pm or so my mother came in and got me because she could see something in the hedgerow on the lawn, I could make out a guy squatting down looking towards the house. I went and got my 1911 and put in the mag and as I walked out of the front door and down the steps I pulled back the slide and chambered a round. That guy took off so fast I think I could see smoke on the ground.

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Vaya con Dios

1989-1991 I worked in a family owned, small liquor store, 1 block away from the Interstate on a major throughway. One night, a clean cut black kid came to the register where my co-worker [the owners son] and I worked to pay for a 12 pack of beer.

I didn't have a customer, but something didn't feel right. I felt danger and went into condition 1. I eyed the "customer" who was nervous, in his early 20's and with his right hand in the pocket of his jacket as opposed to most customers reaching for their wallets.

His eyes betrayed him, nervously glancing between Dave and I. To me that wasn't right and my Spydy primordial senses went +10. I casually reached down under the counter and grabbed my 70 year old, WWI M-1911 and clicked the safety off and drew it to my side, yet hidden to the perp. The dude definitely heard the click and froze. His eyes rapidly went back and forth between Dave and myself and got really obviously nervous

My buddy Dave went on with the sale normally and the perp exited very quickly.

When he was out of the store, I told Dave he damn near got shot, even though to this day I believe I would have dropped the perp before he would have gotten the gun clear. I was in slow motion mode. Dave didn't believe me and thought I way over estimated the situation, until a week later, the TV showed the same guy's mugshot as the bad guy who was blown away by another local liquor store employee.

I was ready to drop the guy if he pulled his right hand out of his pocket with anything but cash in his hand.

The next day I told my Dad, who was ex-FBI what happened and he said "I'm proud of you. You now know what I told you about, you realized and picked up on the threat and took the necessary steps to to react." That kid didn't know how close he was to dying.

Had a beagle years ago that acted the same way. She came from a long line
Of hunting dogs. I got her as a pup and know she had never been around or scared by guns. I didn't have to load or point the weapon she would take off as soon as she saw it. She was a very smart and good dog, I still miss her.

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Semper Fi until I die

The racking of a shotgun has halted many potential crimes.

It works 100% of the time in the movies.

If someone is going to be making a lot of racket with their gun, how about having the courtesy of adding a weapon-mounted light also? That way, the "bad guy" can both hear and see where the gun is.

I've weighed in on this theme before. I am in the school that I never want to give away anything that is to my advantage in a possible lethal confrontation like my position or how I'm armed. By racking the slide on my pump shotgun I have just given away my position and how I'm armed to my opponent(s) IF they are listening and able to hear. Adding to that is the science of "Fight or Flight" entering in the equation of a possible lethal incident. What is commonly called Fight or Flight is the mammalian reaction that is innately within all mammals. Scientists have proven that there are several reactions; heart rate goes up, blood retreats from the skin areas, eyesight is narrowed in focus, breathing rate increases, fine motor muscular control decreases AND the ability to hear goes way down and for some hearing stops completely.

What if your opponent(s) are in this so called "Tachy Psyche" effect and they can't hear much if anything? The racking of your pump shot gun would be wasted as a warning device. While you are racking your shotgun you are slightly out of position to be totally ready to fire. Fraction of seconds count in self defense and that loss right there could have been a huge mistake. And if they can hear as stated, you just gave away your position and how your are armed. I for one would want to be able to enter a potentially lethal encounter with a fully charged shotgun with the safety off and the proper type of ammo in the chamber, i.e. slug, buckshot, birdshot or flashbang. By racking the slide while anticipating the further moves of bad guys I am automatically down one potential loaded round. The short barrel shotgun IS my choice in a self defense weapon for inside and around buildings. It can be a true weapons system with the proper load. ...........

^^^ That right there. Keep your advantage of surprise whenever possible. There is no legal requirement t provide a warning anywhere, ASAIK.

Assuming the story is true, I don't buy the theory. There are enough stoned people out there committing crimes that I wouldn't count on a SOUND to stop them.

It's like those barking dog machines that were available a few years ago. Burglars broke in and stole the machines along with anything else they could find.

If I had to rack a round into my shotgun because I thought someone was going to attack me, I'd be ready to fire it as well.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

It is interesting to think about this. There are some cases for sure where the sound of racking a gun probably does prevent a crime before it even occurs. Then again in this day and age perhaps the only sound that will stop a criminal from doing evil is that supersonic crack.

Would the click of the safety coming off have the same effect? Cause that's all they'd hear from my end.

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Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

It's not a debate for me. I keep my 8-round Mossberg 590SP in the same manner as I did the 870 in my patrol rig: empty chamber, safety on. It's a matter of habit and personal choice. For backup, I've got a wife who knows how to use her +P loaded G19. Bad guys are not gonna like what happens if they stick around.