Ever been in a situation where you needed your gun?

[Friar Whently]

I don't carry like I used to, but I still do on occasions when I feel the need may arise at my destination.

Then why go there?

[5whiskey]

Then why go there?

Mostly when I don't have a choice... but good question though.

IE, instances when I don't have a choice.

Going there for training, Wife demands it... then puts her foot down... and she hasn't put foot down in awhile, Must conduct business there that I cannot conduct anywhere else, number of other reasons I suppose.

[OuTcAsT]

While I typically and purposefully try to avoid places where trouble may exist, I have had trouble find me in odd places. My habit of carrying has saved my life, and those of others on at least 3 occasions that I am aware of. Who knows how many times my appearing as a "hard target" have caused trouble to look elsewhere.

[bikerbill]

Always have it, have never needed it ... knock on wood ... ~taps head a few times~

[pax]

I have never drawn my gun "for keeps."

Having it with me has saved me from trouble at least twice that I know of. Perhaps more than that, but at least twice.

And given me a measure of peace in dicey circumstances countless times over the past dozen years.

pax

[wun_8_seven]

I've posted this one before:

i was on a cell tower site at 2am in the boondocks of se oklahoma. i had left the farm gate open as there were no livestock in this pasture and it was open when i got there ,i saw truck lights come through the gate and head for the cell site. i walked toward the compound gate thinking it was probably the land owner seeing what i was doing.

the pickup pulled up behind my work truck and four very large very intoxicated men got out. i asked can i help you and one replied we're just gonna take what ever you have ,it was then i realized i had taken my pistol off and layed it in the floorboard to be more comfortable on the long drive.

suddenly i felt like i was in slow motion , my heart raced and i kept hearing in my head "think,think". i had waited way to late to react. i knew i couldn't let them get between me and the truck, i wanted to run for the door but thought they would know i was unarmed if i did that.

i had a flash light in my hand that has a laser pointer on it so i flip on the laser and put it in the middle of the closest guys chest and said bad idea fella's stopping them in thier tracks while i made my way to the door of my truck opened it grabbed my pistol and stepped back to the front of my truck for cover.they went back to thier truck and high tailed out of there. after they were gone it hit me i got week and threw up a couple times.now i never take my gun off til i go to bed

[wayneinFL]

I've been contemplating taking a CCW course and getting a permit, but I can't help but wonder if I would ever need it. In my 27 years of life I've never been in a situation where I wished I had a gun on me. Maybe I've just been lucky?

Considering only one out of three people are ever violently attacked in their lifetimes, you stand a pretty good chance of never needing it. But if you need it you're REALLY going to need it.

I don't expect crime to happen to me, but I always prepare for it.

As for anecdotes, I have a few where I wished I had a gun, but made it out okay despite having one. I interrupted an attempted carjacking/abduction one time. That was one of the times I'd have liked to have been armed.

Had a couple where I had one and was relieved to have it. Can't say definitively that carrying has saved me, but I still carry in case it happens.

[wayneinFL]

i was on a cell tower site at 2am in the boondocks of se oklahoma.

Remote sites have always made me a little nervous. People know you have money, or you have tools to pawn, and you're far from witnesses or help. That's one of the reasons I started carrying.

[Sgt.Fathead]

I now live in TX where carry is an option but grew up on the east coast, in NJ, and there is no carry there, no matter what any site might list as the virtues of May Issue. I had two incidents back east involving the need for a gun.

In 1994, not long after I'd gotten out of The Corps, I visited some friends at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY, for an autumn afternoon. We were heading back to their apartment from dinner and a couple beers, at dusk, and were accosted by two black kids in hoodies demanding cigarettes. My defenses went up but so did my hands, and those of my friends, when they produced what appeared to be a .38 snubby, visibly loaded.

It was myself, my pal Dan and his housemate. The thieves were calm and cavalier as they worked, one with the gun on us as his friend casually went through our coat and pant pockets. All the while, the gunman exhorted us to be cool. They took the cash from our wallets and threw the billfolds in the bushes, took our watches, which were uniformly cheap, my Camels and my Zippo! and Dan's friend's ring. Then they demanded we remove our shoes, which they threw down the storm grate, and called us chumps and sauntered away around a corner.

It was very cold with no one out on the streets. They were cool and obviously well versed in robbery. I dug in the hedge and retrieved our wallets and we went to a bar on the next block in out stocking feet and called the police who were blase and less than helpful. I drove home in my wool socks, fuming! But, I considered myself lucky. I hadn't been shot, lost my ATM or credit cards or ID and was shaken but unhurt. Fresh from service overseas and a combat vet, I never once thought about taking them on barehanded.

That same year, I was driving down the Garden State Parkway around three in the morning, heading south to my home coming from north Jersey where I'd done some shooting with friends. In NJ ammo and guns must be stored separately during travel so my ammo can was in the trunk of my car and my S&W 686 and Rem 870 were on the back seat in their cases with my range bag. It was a clear spring morning, few cars on the road and I was wide awake and stone sober, listening to the radio and considering a diner stop for coffee and pie.

A Ford Taurus appeared on my passenger side, driven by a guy with his hat pulled low and several other people in the car. He was beeping and making obscene gestures so I sped up a little. Again they paced me, gunning the motor and beeping. Now the window was down and they were waving a baseball bat and what appeared to be a kitchen knife of some kind. I had no cellphone, there was no one else around, I saw no police, we were pretty far between exits. I sped way up, as fast as my little VW Golf could go, and reached back and fished the 686 case into my lap. As they got close to me again I raised it up, so they could see the stainless gun in profile and then extended my arm straight out, pointed the empty revolver at them.

The driver slammed on the brakes and I drove on, setting the 686 back in it's case. I got off at the Cranford exit and went straight to a diner and asked them to call the police. I had the car's plate #, the make, model and color. I was informed in a few minutes that the car had been stolen from a nearby town and went on my way. I did not mention the guns in my car, nor what I had done.

So, there's twice when a firearm MIGHT have helped. In the first, I was not being situationally aware so maybe I'd never have drawn. Or, maybe I'd have had to, given that we were frisked and robbed. In the second, I wasn't in any real danger but had they attempted to run me off the road, the rounds in my hatchback were far away in a locked ammo can and would I have time to get it open, get the gun loaded? Doubtful.

I carry every day, everywhere I can. I am grateful to finally be able to exercise my right to do so. I avoid trouble, dark places, lonely streets, etc. when I can. I am more aware, older, wiser. In the end, Be Prepared and Keep/Bear are part of my daily life. It is better to need my gun and have it then need it and not.

[kilimanjaro]

I've never felt like a hammer looking for a nail, I'm a pretty easy-going fellow and don't pick fights, go out of my way to avoid them, that sort of thing. The pistol in the pocket hasn't changed my basic nature. If you find yourself thinking you are now invincible and in fear of no man, will suffer no insult or rudeness, no matter how slight, it's time to reconsider your habits, company, and personality.

[bird_dog]

Twice. Four-legged threats, though, not two.

Fishing with my young daughters (this was several years ago...) and a rabid, very sick raccoon had taken up residence at the end of the fishing dock on a fairly remote lake. I sent him for a swim with the blessing of a park ranger.

Bowhunting in Maine for bear, I came out the trail at pre-dark and out near my truck was a sow with three cubs. I nearly ran into them as they came around the end of my truck. I was less than 20 feet from the sow. Had my S&W 629 out of the holster so quickly that I don't even remember doing it. I talked to the sow for a moment, and all 4 bears suddenly ran off into the brush. The encounter lasted no more than 20 seconds, but I clearly remember thinking "I'm going to be mauled...". A minute later, I was shaking so badly, I couldn't have hit the broadside of a battleship.

Both times I was glad to have a handgun handy. With the bears, though, had she wanted to attack me, I wouldn't have had time to shoot. Too close.

[trex1310]

I have been unfortunate enough to have been involved in two
separate shootings, both robbery attempts. I don't ever want
to be involved in another.

[Rifleman 173]

Around the house, I carry a .40 Glock 22-C and a knife of some sort. If I expect trouble, I break out the shotgun or a rifle and use the handgun for a back-up. Both guns are then backed up by a good knife of some sort. I learned a long time ago to layer my defenses. A shoulder-mounted firearm for primary, a pistol for back-up and a knife or tomahawk/hammer for melee fighting. 19 months of combat in Viet Nam with the paratroopers taught me a LOT, like how to fight smart. The local cops who know me have actually said that the only reason why I would contact them is "to help clean up the bodies."

[markj]

Ever been in a situation where you needed your gun?

Yes, every time I go out hunting

[9ballbilly]

I know I've posted this before, but not including my time as a LEO, there were two occassions.

1. I was forced to shoot a large dog that was on our property and within
seconds of attacking my grandmother. The dog was some type of bulldog
mix in the sixty to seventy pound range. Gram weighed in at about 120.

2. While fishing at sunset I was backed into a very cold lake by a pack of eight
feral dogs. No gun with me.

Both of these incidents were over twenty years ago. I will tell you honestly, I have never felt one second of remorse for killing that dog. I haven't gone fishing
unarmed since that night.

[markj]

Here is a gun story, we were fishing on a lake was posted. we were not supposed to be in there, we were sitting there a bunch of kids like 12 or 13 when a guy opens up over our heads with his shotgun. We scattered and I ran to the bar was on the highway called 911. They arrested that guy and he was convicted of a felony.

My cousin shot at a guy that had just shot his son 3 times on his porch the 22 round went thru a wall thru another wall in a house across the street thru a closet wall and thru all the cloths in that closet. Cousin lived, bad guys are in jail for like 200 years, insurance paid for the damage. My cousin was shot with a 357 mag, 3 times in the lower abdomen. HPs, didnt get deep enough he is still walking around to this day.

[firefyter55]

I have drawn twice. Once was while working for a security company doing high risk areas. The second was in defense of a co-worker. We were at lunch and he got there before I did. A vagrant entered the restaraunt and immediately began to chase another guy through the place. My co-worker gave chase and as I found out quickly the guy had a knife. As they left the door, the suspect turned on my co-worker with the knife. He was backed up against a wall and a fence. I kicked the door open which protected him and drew down on the suspect. After what seemed like 5 minutes (said to be only 30 seconds or less) he dropped the knife and we took him down till PD arrived. The LEO's were surprised I had not fired on him. If he would have moved an inch I would have.

I would much rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. That is why I carry everywhere it is legal to do so.

[wyohusker]

Yes...... Huge advocate of CCW.

[MLeake]

I have not. My ex, my best friend, my great uncle, my second cousin, and a co-worker all have. Two instances ended with dead carjackers; the others ended up with deterrence achieved through presence of guns and/or large dogs.

[HALL,AUSTIN]

I have always thought its better to have it and NEVER need it than not have it and need it, even once. I usually end up learning things the hard way but that is something I wouldnt want to learn the hard way. I can't CC because Im only 18 but I will apply for mine the day I am of age.

[dev_null]

Hard to tell whether I "needed" it or not, but I did once brandish in the car when another car with 2-3 guys were high on road rage (and possibly other things) and trying to run my (former) wife and I onto the shoulder. I simply held it up where they could see it, pointing upwards, and they decided they had urgent business elsewhere. Not tactically sound, but in my defense I was 20-something, hadn't educated myself on self-defense tactics, and it was the best I could think of in the few moments the altercation spanned (though it seemed like much longer). Fortunately, it worked. Had they been gangbangers things might have turned out much worse for me.

[dunerjeff]

I had to put mine in my lap and do over 110mph on an interstate to loose a couple "dudes" that were following me after I drove into a dark hotel parking lot at 3am and happened upon their drug dealings going down. My truck has the rev limiter removed,theirs didn't.

[MLeake]

Putting a gun in your lap is a good way to lose it if you get run off the road, or otherwise wreck.

Check the FBI Miami Shootout; this happened to one of the agents.

Get a holster or other accessible but secure rig.

[Brian Pfleuger]

I carry a gun almost every day but....


I have not personally nor do I know anyone who has ever needed a gun. Nor have I or anyone I've known ever been in a situation where I thought I MIGHT need my gun.

I fully expect, absent the collapse of society, to make it the rest of my life without needing my gun and to die a painful death due to heart disease, pancreatic cancer or some other such uncured disease.

But, I carry almost every day and know quite a few others who do also.

[Stevie-Ray]

Diffused situations by reaching for gun on two seperate occasions without actually having to draw. Was relieved to be carrying on many more occasions. Carrying gives me the confidence I need to still be living in a rather iffy area. Can't wait to get out of here.