Free Fire Zone

[LASur5r]

Here's one for all of us RKBA folks can mull over.

(Real Story)...I had just moved back to L.A. to take another shot at college when I started dating this girl. One night she wanted to go to Chinatown to get a late night snack.
As we left Chinatown there was a crowd letting out of one of the local theatres. There were several cars double parked with people in it. The trouble is it was a narrow street, and if I went around, I'd have to make it in a hurry and have to make a right turn on to the main street.
I am not one to mash the horn, so after a few minutes, I decided to go around the double parked cars. I made my move..of course, at the same time one of the double parked cars decides to pull out. Being committed into the opposing traffic lane, I stomped it and passed the car up.
Trouble is, a couple of blocks later on the main street, this car pulls up alongside my car on the passenger side and two guys get out.
Whoops! Gang types.
The driver jumps out of the car screaming obscenities, but his hands are clear. The front passenger steps out and has his right hand inside the jacket...shoulder rig?
The rear passenger just sits in the backseat.
The driver starts pounding on the passenger side window.
Being younger and stupider then, I decide to pull the old Beretta .22 out from under the car seat to intimidate them.
I hold the gun and do not point it at them, but I flip them off.
Driver goes berserk...he rips his front of his shirt open and pounds his chest and yells at me "to shoot him!" and if I didn't do something soon he and his friends were going to drag me out of the car and beat me to death, then they were going to take my girlfriend out to the desert to rape and kill her.
At that moment, the traffic moves in front of me and I gas it to get out of there.
I reach the next block, the freeway on ramp is jammed. The main street going both ways is bumper to bumper...I can't go straight, nor can I go right or left, or turn around...
The car is coming up fast behind me.
I see one driveway into an independent gas station. Desparation time...I drive into the gas station. There are two driveways going out on a side street. I pick the far one...a car cuts me off. I back up for the second driveway, it is blocked by a black car.
I back up trying to turn my car and I barely stop in time to avoid hitting a "kid?"
Throwing the gear shift to go forward, the engine dies.
I look at some of the cars in the lot and a bunch of guys come out of them.
I look quickly and see about 14 of them. (Later on my LEO friends tell me that gas station is one of the gang hang outs.)
I'm trying to start the car, but I believe the engine is flooded. I stomp on the gas pedal and hold it down.(Mr. Murphy just entered the scene.)
My car is surrounded and they start pounding on my car and windows. One guy has his fist wrapped in a chain and he dents the hood of my car. Some of the other guys are pulling baseball bats out of their cars.
I roll my window down halfway...real smart! I guess I thought my .22 would only crack the window. This is another stupid mistake.
I hit my point...that's it..Free Fire Zone....I pull the slide to chamber the soft copper point round and...Mr. Murphy strikes again...the copper hangs up on the barrel...being soft copper, it embeds itself to jam the gun open!
Lucky for me, everybody steps back as I rack the slide. Switching gears, I turn the ignition key and the car starts up...has a minute gone by so quickly?
I slowly increase the pressure on the gas pedal, just barely missing several guys and a gas pump...so my car jumps the curb and i make it up in a break in the main street...as I get half a block up, I see a break in the opposite lanes and I cross in front of oncoming traffic.
I found the most obscure roads to get my girlfriend home...she didn't say a word all that time.
Several times as I'm finding my way back in side roads, when we came near the main street I glimpsed several of their low riders packed with bodies and what looked suspiciously like shotgun or rifle barrels cruising up and down the main drag.

When I got my girlfriend home she was polishing my passenger side door handle and looking at me with wide owl eyes. That relationship didn't last long....oh well..!

Lessons learned?
1)Get a reliable...go bang everytime gun. I went to revolvers for a long time after this.
2)Make sure your car is in good running.
shape all the time in case you have to run.(or use it as a weapon)
3)Know your environment better (geographic and social) I had barely moved back to L.A.after some years...didn't know parts of Sunset Boulevard had gotten that bad.
4) Carry back up weapon(s)
5) Don't brandish weapon...don't make grand gestures...If you're going to pull it, better plan on using it.
6) Almost let myself get out of the car, but I didn't like the odds...Also didn't like what could have happened to the girl should I lose. It wasn't her fault, but you're dealing with a whole different animal..gang types.

Any other things that you folks could recommend or comment on?

[LiquidTension]

Yeah, don't live in Kali =)

[dragontooth73]

Yeah, i was gonna move there LOL

[chadintex]

Call as much attention to yourself as possible. Lay on the horn, flash your lights, scream like a little girl, do anything you can to get others to notice/help. Cell phones are OK, but should not be considered the answer to all of your problems.
Do not flip off gansters after showing them you only have a .22. A lot of these guys have been shot with worse and start thinking they are invincible. Getting shot is a badge of honor for some of them.

It seems you learned all of the most important lessons.