Have you ever had to draw your weapon for self defense?
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eight years military and 45 years LEO - YES !
max503
Member
Twice grasped gun in pocket but didn't draw either time. Both times, if I didn't have the gun I would have been assaulted.
One time was while pumping gas late at night at a remote location. The other time was out on a pier in the gulf.
One time was while pumping gas late at night at a remote location. The other time was out on a pier in the gulf.
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Let me back up post #7. LE and the military are issued firearms for the sole purpose of defending life/engaging enemies of our country. They are, by definition, "weapons". Private citizens have firearms/guns.
OP, you might want to reconceptualize what you carry, if/when you carry. There's a bit of street theater in self defense, to (semi) quote a character from an otherwise forgettable movie (Cotton Comes to Harlem): "When I takes it out, I wants to be sure they sees it." Also, there's the more important question: is it capable of stopping a determined aggressor who didn't get the memo about their need to flee.
Finally: yes, multiple times as a private citizen and it wasn't because I was hanging out in low places. Ditto at work, but some low places may have been involved.
OP, you might want to reconceptualize what you carry, if/when you carry. There's a bit of street theater in self defense, to (semi) quote a character from an otherwise forgettable movie (Cotton Comes to Harlem): "When I takes it out, I wants to be sure they sees it." Also, there's the more important question: is it capable of stopping a determined aggressor who didn't get the memo about their need to flee.
Finally: yes, multiple times as a private citizen and it wasn't because I was hanging out in low places. Ditto at work, but some low places may have been involved.
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When I was in high school we had a crazy neighbor who would ride dirt bike through our yard, make all kinds of crazy threats. One day he had a confrontation with my dad and threatened to go get his Uzi(BS)and kill him. So my brother and I armed ourselves with a couple shotguns and took the commanding views from the windows. Soon seeing that he decided he had something else more important to do right then. A couple year later he threatened our 8 year old sister (she’s 10yr young than me) so my brother and I convinced him to move late one night. These all seemed like good ideas 40 years go, now I’d just let the cops and mental heath take care of it. No need to escalate the situation if you can.
I was at an AA meeting in Pinellas Park Florida in the mid 80s. The meeting was held at the A.A. Central Office on Sunday afternoons when the facility was closed.
Apparently somebody's kid had tried to open a door between the conference room and the rest of the central office and set off a silent alarm.
So we're all sitting in the meeting when all of a sudden the back door opens and a cop jumps in with his 38 pointed at all 40 of us and yells FREEZE!!!!
It didn't take him very long to realize that something wasn't adding up.
He's the one that told us that they were responding to a silent alarm call and that it was self-evident to him that we were supposed to be where we were at.
He went about his business and we finished our meeting
Apparently somebody's kid had tried to open a door between the conference room and the rest of the central office and set off a silent alarm.
So we're all sitting in the meeting when all of a sudden the back door opens and a cop jumps in with his 38 pointed at all 40 of us and yells FREEZE!!!!
It didn't take him very long to realize that something wasn't adding up.
He's the one that told us that they were responding to a silent alarm call and that it was self-evident to him that we were supposed to be where we were at.
He went about his business and we finished our meeting
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I am not a lawyer.
I was intrigued by your comment.
I cannot confirm it anywhere.
"Dangerous weapon" has a legal definition in every state.
Are you coming from a legal standpoint? It occurred to me that you may be referring to a kind of language etiquette, No?
We have had some difficulty with Mas Ayoob in this area. He has said similar things, like you must never wear a funny gun t-shirt. It will be used against you. No gun bumper stickers. No funnies on Facebook. What Mas does not understand is that attorneys will say anything in court, but the jury will dismiss all that in deliberations.
There was a night watchman who killed someone. It was a justified shoot ultimately, but in doubt through a long and expensive trial because he had been wearing a shirt that said, "Killing is my business, and business is good!" I cannot remember if Mas commented on that case, but I seem to recall that he hinted that the prosecutor only pressed the case because of the T-shirt.
You know blue city prosecutors well enough to know that suggestion is ridiculous. His wife gave him that t-shirt that very day, his birthday, because he loved the funny movie "Major Payne". In fact, the defense bringing up the birthday party and that movie helped to acquit him and helped show the malice of the prosecution. Furthermore, the ADA possibly deliberately overcharged and deliberately used this t-shirt argument at trial, to look good to his liberal superiors, while at the same time giving the defense an easy way to get him off!
I do not use the t-shirts or bumper stickers or any such. Don't need to. I also post comments here that can be read at my trial to illustrate my actual mindset. A man's gun was stolen from his glove compartment because, according to the investigating officer, he had an NRA sticker on his window. I don't do that either, but still had a gun stolen out of my truck anyway.
If you see where I am coming from, I would like to hear more of your thinking in this area.
Thanks for your contribution here WR!
BrianD
Mainsail
Member
So then you know all the geographic references in my post.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.
When I lived in Stadium, Tacoma was considered the most dangerous city in the Pacific Northwest.
Riding a bike was a bold move, glad you survived.
I used to ride my mountain bike out of Stadium, over the Theo Foss, and then ride the top of the levy all the way into Puyallup. My biggest fear on that route was the narrowness of Levee Rd at the Puyallup side - no shoulder and a steep drop down into the blackberry mess. Someone hit you on that road and drive away, they'd never find you until the buzzards were circling.
Sistema1927
US Veteran
Yes, twice. Fortunately on neither occasion did I need to pull the trigger, since the presentation of the weapon was enough to result in a satisfactory conclusion.
However, I was 21 and 22 years old at the time, and in the ensuing 46 years I have not had to draw even once again. Could it be that with age comes wisdom, and that I am now doing much better in avoiding the "Four Stupids*)?
*Four Stupids:
Stupid places
Stupid times
Stupid people
Stupid things
However, I was 21 and 22 years old at the time, and in the ensuing 46 years I have not had to draw even once again. Could it be that with age comes wisdom, and that I am now doing much better in avoiding the "Four Stupids*)?
*Four Stupids:
Stupid places
Stupid times
Stupid people
Stupid things
Road Rage
Doin' 25mph through the Centreville, GA school zone, havin' already learned the hard way that those people are SERIOUS about their speed limit signs, a man come up hard on my bumper honkin' and wavin' his fists at me. He couldn't get around 'cause of oncomin' cars. I was unconcerned. I figured that when we got over the rise and around the bend, he'd see the police station and the speed trap, and maybe even be grateful that I'd saved him some money.
Sure enough, there was the cop in his usual spot, and we went past him and out of the zone without incident. At the 40 mile an hour sign, I sped up... just as that fellow behind me decided it was time to pass. He must've thought I was tryin' to prevent him from goin' around. He stomped the gas, passin' and mouthin' somethin' about my mother, and zoomed ahead until he stopped in the middle of that narrow bridge right there at Brantley Road, (I really miss old Johnny Brantley... sigh...) where he got out, and angrily walked back towards me. I reckon he was gonna ask me to dance.
I stopped my car and without makin' any faces at him, or sayin' anything at all about his mother, I leaned over, opened up the glove compartment and stuck my hand in. He froze, eyes wide as saucers. He whirled around and double-timed back to his car and got outta there.
It's a good thing, because I was ready to slap him with a map of the Eastern United States!
Doin' 25mph through the Centreville, GA school zone, havin' already learned the hard way that those people are SERIOUS about their speed limit signs, a man come up hard on my bumper honkin' and wavin' his fists at me. He couldn't get around 'cause of oncomin' cars. I was unconcerned. I figured that when we got over the rise and around the bend, he'd see the police station and the speed trap, and maybe even be grateful that I'd saved him some money.
Sure enough, there was the cop in his usual spot, and we went past him and out of the zone without incident. At the 40 mile an hour sign, I sped up... just as that fellow behind me decided it was time to pass. He must've thought I was tryin' to prevent him from goin' around. He stomped the gas, passin' and mouthin' somethin' about my mother, and zoomed ahead until he stopped in the middle of that narrow bridge right there at Brantley Road, (I really miss old Johnny Brantley... sigh...) where he got out, and angrily walked back towards me. I reckon he was gonna ask me to dance.
I stopped my car and without makin' any faces at him, or sayin' anything at all about his mother, I leaned over, opened up the glove compartment and stuck my hand in. He froze, eyes wide as saucers. He whirled around and double-timed back to his car and got outta there.
It's a good thing, because I was ready to slap him with a map of the Eastern United States!
Mainsail
Member
Shortly after I cross-trained to a flying position, I PCS'd to Charleston AFB in SC, so back around '86 I think.
I drove over to some mall and was walking around killing time, when some weird little guy started passing me several times too often, and always saying something inaudible under his breath. After the 5th or 6th time I decided I was done, and walked back to the parking lot, keeping my eye out to make sure he wasn't following.
The car was a Triumph TR4 that rode with my belongings inside a U-Haul box truck all the way from Travis AFB in CA. I had the top down and just as I closed the door I see the little weirdo moving towards me between the cars.
My hand went under the seat and I started pulling out one of only three handguns I owned at the time, the AMT Longslide Harballer. Everything from here happens almost simultaneously. He comes abeam the drivers door, announces his manhood was generous, I say, so is mine as the Hardballer comes level with his face.
Admittedly there was some momentum as I really had no idea what this weirdo's intent was, only that he'd been whispering in the mall, and now was making a beeline for my drivers door, where I'm at a disadvantage because I'm sitting low to the earth.
In hindsight my life was not in danger, he was just a pervert looking for a perversion partner, so I suppose I really didn't need to point the .45 inch tube of fire right at his face, but the span of time between feeling endangered and realization was somewhat less than a second, and ...momentum.
In many-year hindsight I'm disappointed I left the Hardballer under the seat of a convertible unsecured in the parking lot, but I was young and that's the only lame excuse I have for that.
Having a sidearm in hand is a standard procedure on felony traffic tops, felony warrant service, 'man with a gun' calls, any many other serious first responses, so yes - a lot in police service, but never ever in 20+ years since.
Never since retiring from the US Army have I felt the need to point a firearm at another human.
I have, however, had brief conversations with strangers while maintaining a firing grip on the revolver in my front pocket. These concluded without incident.
I have, however, had brief conversations with strangers while maintaining a firing grip on the revolver in my front pocket. These concluded without incident.
.455_Hunter
Member
I stopped an aggressive dog attack with my sidearm at age 13. My father used my .357 Ruger Service-Six to prevent a mountain lion attack with a warning shot. We used a warning shot from a 20 ga single shot to stop us from taking incoming 7.62x39 fire at our hunting camp. I have had sidearm in hand multiple times with nearby cats and bears. The three most recent potential DGU incidents with two-legged perps have not resulted in a drawn weapon, but the last one would have absolutely been justifiable for draw and fire.
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My wife and I stopped to get groceries about 10 pm. As we exited the store I opened the rear hatch and was concentrating on which sack to put in car first. The parking lot backed up to a state highway and past the edge of the parking lot was dark. A person suddenly appeared coming out of the dark making so sounds I could not understand. I put the cart between us and drew my gun. He saw it a quickly ran back into dark.
I think it was a homeless looking for food or money.
Thank god I had tactical grocery cart between the person and me!
I think it was a homeless looking for food or money.
Thank god I had tactical grocery cart between the person and me!
Before I tell my story, what’s the legality of brandishing a weapon? I was initially not concealed carrying that day (but I have a permit to do so), and then I was, but before having it on me, I gestured that I did, and it made my life a whole lot easier. The son of a b**** made a very wise decision to lay off. If he came after me, he was going to get some lead poisoning, but it didn’t go that far.
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“Brandishing” may not even be statutory language depending on your state of residence.
So then you know all the geographic references in my post.
When I lived in Stadium, Tacoma was considered the most dangerous city in the Pacific Northwest.
Riding a bike was a bold move, glad you survived.
I used to ride my mountain bike out of Stadium, over the Theo Foss, and then ride the top of the levy all the way into Puyallup. My biggest fear on that route was the narrowness of Levee Rd at the Puyallup side - no shoulder and a steep drop down into the blackberry mess. Someone hit you on that road and drive away, they'd never find you until the buzzards were circling.
These days, all of western Washington is a crime zone.
Baltimoreed11754
Member
Only for moccasins that were suddenly too close.
I thought a long time about brandishing it. Hoped just tapping on my chest like I had it on me would work. It did. When I first gestured I had it concealed carry, I didn’t. I had to go get it and then I was properly concealed carrying.
It was over a slimy useless drunk who hangs out at a place we do. We go there occasionally, and he’s there every time, which means that when he’s not at work, he’s either sleeping or sitting there drinking. Every time we walked in he would get up to go to the bathroom and squeeze my wife’s shoulder. She didn’t want me to make a scene, but after 3 or 4 times, I got tired of it and did. He was going to go after me but wisely elected not to.
Probably small potatoes compared to others, but slimy people disgust me.
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