OK, here is a story. Spoiler alert: anti-climactic.
1980s, I was off duty and my wife and I were playing tourist in San Francisco. Around 2300-2400 hrs we were having coffee on the outside patio at Enrico Banducci's Coffee House on Broadway, enjoying watching the passing pedestrian parade of eccentric to bizarre. At one point a group of young women walked by. By their appearance and demeanor we got the impression they were entertainers from the numerous topless/bottomless joints there at the time. As they passed by a small (emphasis on small) black male was following them, loudly and obscenely yelling at them. The girls were doing their best to ignore him, but he would not quit.
About this time a Mercedes convertible with the top down drove up quickly, stopped in the roadway and the solo male driver got out. I got the impression that he had some connection to the girls, such as a club manager or bouncer. He reached behind the seat and retrieved a motorcycle chain and wrapped the end of it around his wrist. He was a pretty good sized guy, around my size and weight, so a far overmatch for the annoying little man, even without the deadly weapon. He started walking towards this male, with the m/c chain plainly visible. The girls screamed and ran off. I could see what was going to happen if I did not intervene. I told my bride I did not want to get into this but that I had no choice.
The annoying little male was backing into a box canyon parking lot, with the to-be assailant walking (not running) after him. I walked into the same parking lot towards the two, who were not aware of my presence. I flanked the individual with the m/c chain slightly to the rear so that I could close with him. My plan was to wait until the last possible moment to announce myself and draw. Just as that moment was almost upon me, SFPD rolled up with two doubled units. That stopped the assault before it could even start. It also meant I was no longer needed. I had neither announced myself nor drawn my revolver, so all I did was turn around and walk away. That was the end of it, at least as far as my potential role.
My approach was as I had intended. I was fully prepared to use my firearm to stop what would have been a felonious assault, but I did not want to be premature.
In an adult lifetime of going armed, before and since, this was the closest I had ever come, off duty, to having to draw and to use deadly force. This action would have been, had SFPD not arrived, to protect a third person, totally unknown to me. We usually think of off-duty or CCW carry to protect ourselves, and/or our loved ones. But this obnoxious little stranger had literally talked himself into a situation that would have ended at least in great bodily harm and perhaps death.
I could not ignore that.
