Tales of self defense...

[ATN082268]

Does anyone have any personal accounts of using a gun in self defense? Mainly any situations which involved you, family and/or close friends. I realize, given the legalities involved, they may have taken place some time ago but I was interested in the emotional, legal and financial impacts of these events.

[Wishoot]

Nope.

And I hope I never have a tale like this to tell.

American Rifleman usually publishes stories of SD/HD shootings every month. They do not comment on the emotional, legal or financial impact of the shooting however.

I'd be interested in hearing from someone that's lived it as well. But I'm guessing that most people that have been put in this situation aren't all that keen to discuss it openly.

[Don P]

Nope, and hope I never have a tale to share.

[Wyosmith]

It would be a SUPER bad idea to post such things.

Even if you are 100% correct and were cleared 100% by a court, the haters and the left look for such things to attack.

Even military men who know a lot about shooting to kill are well advised to NEVER post their stories.

The first amendment says we all have freedom of speech, but being charged or even reviewed for "hate crimes" because of what you say is common today.
Americans have not demanded retaliation against those that would seek to destroy the Bill of rights so it must be assumed that the large majority of people in the USA accept this kind of destruction of their rights.

It may not be right, and it is not lawful to seek the destruction of the Bill of Rights, but it is common at every level of government and also even in the private sector. See how censored things can be even on this site.

So please pay attention to the reality of the times. Say nothing on the net about fights you have been in and never post such a story, no matter what.

[OS11085]

What's that old saying "Loose lips sink ships" I think that can be applied to
to what Wyosmith is saying.

[Koda94]

Originally Posted by ATN082268

...but I was interested in the emotional, legal and financial impacts of these events.

Not my story but anyone wants to know the financial, legal and other impacts from a lawful self defense shooting should read Larry Hickey's story....

http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/imag...%20Booklet.pdf

[Deaf Smith]

Held a burgler at bay once. Used a Colt Cobra .38 and Berns-Martin upside-down shoulder holster (back in the 70's.)

Deputy sheriff came and took the miscreant away.

Bad guy told the deputy we had called him in and pulled a gun on him. The deputy laughed. See, the guy was well known to the cops.

Never heard back from the sheriff's office.

Financial cost.. 0.

I miss that old Cobra (gun that is.)

Deaf

[CajunBass]

I got one from the other side.

My ex-wife's cousin, a teen-ager, not long out of high school, was working as a maintenance man for a local apartment complex. He thought it would be a good idea to take up breaking and entering for fun and profit. He had a pass key, so he'd open door, call out "maintenance!" If someone answered, he'd apologize and say he had the wrong apartment. If not, he was in. Never took anything big he said, just a pack of smokes, a CD, an half empty bottle of booze...that type stuff. Stuff that wouldn't really be missed. He did it more for "something to do" he told me several years later.

One morning he went into an apartment where he was sure the occupants were at work. He called out, no answer. Good. As he casually moseyed around poking into this and that, he heard a noise at the top of the stairs. When he looked up the steps, he realized there was a very frightened woman there...and she was pointing a pump shotgun at HIM (she was home sick that day he later found out).

He said, "I very carefully lay face down on the floor, all the while begging..."Please lady...call the cops...please don't shoot me." She did. They came. He said he was never so glad to see a cop in his life. "She never said a word to me. Just called the cops, all the while keeping that shotgun on me."

He did a stretch at the local county graybar Hilton. Lost his job of course. Got a felony conviction with all that goes with that. That was 30-35 years ago I guess. Last time I saw him he still praised God that that woman hadn't shot him. Must have scared him straight. Far as I know he hasn't been in any trouble at all since then.

Don't know what happened to the lady. I suppose she just went on back to bed.

[tallball]

I fell asleep at around 9:00 (tired from work) wearing a pair of gym shorts. My 4" 357 was, as always, within arm's reach.

At some point later in the night there was a lot of screaming and cursing and crashing from next door, where a lady who was my friend lived alone. I ran outside my gun in my hand. Some guy in his 20's was trying to force his way through the door. It was partially open and my friend was desperately trying to keep him from getting in. He was screaming curses and sounded wasted on booze or drugs. He had a foot inside the door and was slowly pushing it open.

I didn't want to shoot him. I shouted at him to leave at once, but he ignored me or didn't hear. I fired a shot into the mud at the base of a large tree and shouted in no uncertain terms that the next one was for him. He immediately ran off.

LEO's showed up about 30 seconds later. I quickly explained what had happened, pointed the direction he had run, and told them that they could probably catch him if they hurried.

They spoke with my neighbor to verify my story, then spent five minutes or so berating me and telling me that they should really arrest me for discharging a firearm within the city limits. Finally they let me off with a warning. They never made any attempt to catch the perpetrator. (It wasn't a BF/GF situation. She had never seen him before in her life.)

There was a similar incident a few years previous which involved someone apparently attempting to abduct my first wife back when we were still married. He also made a quick departure when he saw the 357.

I am very glad that I didn't have to shoot anyone. I was ready to if necessary, but neither of them drew a weapon and both left the scene immediately. In both cases it was very fortunate that I was present and armed.

[adamBomb]

I have one...

A close friend was awoken in the middle of the night to a sound outside. After 10 minutes of hearing something weird he got up, went downstairs and saw a guy coming into his kitchen from their back porch. He fired a shot into his wall and the guy ran. I guess he kind of froze up and instead of yelling just fired the gun but purposely away from the guy. The guy was caught by police a few minutes later. Moral of the story - practice so you don't freeze up, have a plan, this home invasion was stopped by 1 shot, calibur/type of gun didn't matter.

[lunger]

Don,t f this qualifies . I was fly fishing alone in the middle of nowhere in north central Pa. The biggest , meanest looking dog came growling and snarling out of the woods.

By the time I pulled my 1911 he was maybe 5 feet from me. The weird part is when I raised it and click off the safety he froze in his tracks.

We look at each for a couple of seconds, then he turned and ran off in to the woods. I can only guess maybe he had been around guns before. Never saw him again.

Probably not what your looking for ,But that's as close as I've come.

[Moonglum]

The Harold Fish story might be worth a read too.

[Old Bill Dibble]

They spoke with my neighbor to verify my story, then spent five minutes or so berating me and telling me that they should really arrest me for discharging a firearm within the city limits. Finally they let me off with a warning. They never made any attempt to catch the perpetrator.

I am not sure you can know that. There may have been other units in the area looking for the guy.

I'll share an older and simple story.

I was working on a rental property I own that was vacant at the time. I had parked behind the house to unload some stuff. I had left the front door and several windows open to let the place air out.

An older pickup truck pulled up in the driveway very slowly. A man who looked very much like he was a frequent user of methamphetamines got out of the truck and walked right in the front door. I was in the back and working in the kitchen. I know all of this only because I watched the video footage later.

I hear someone walking around in the front and went to check it out. I startled the hell out of the guy who was examining the wiring at a junction box (presumably to see if was copper). Conversation went like this:

Methhead: (Stands up, turns, starts to close the distance rapidly between me and him and then stops in his tracks)... "Hey, man I didn't know anyone lived here"

Me: (adopting more of a defense posture with hand on gun in holster) "I don't live here I am renovating and getting ready to rent it"

Methhead: (Stares intently at 1911 on my hip) "Oh I didn't mean to bother you man"

Me: "What are you doing in here?"

Methead: "Uh, I just like old houses... I just wanted to see what was inside..."

Me: "I'm inside, I am camping out here until I get the place rented"

Methhead: (backpedaling towards door) "Yeah man I am really sorry, I won't bother you any more, really sorry"

Me: (waits for methhead to leave and closes and locks door, shakes head)

[Boncrayon]

I pray every day that I do not need to pull my CCW or use it on an adversary....but would if I need to save my life and those around me.

[jaytothekizzay]

Had to fire off a few rounds to scare off a nosey bear, a few years ago while camping.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Bob Wright]

I know of several men who have had to shoot in cases of an armed robbery attempt.

The one I know most about involves an older man who operates a repair shop, a one man shop. He was robbed and pistol whipped by two thugs once, and bought a revolver after that for self defense.

Again two thugs came in to rob him, but this time he was armed and shot both would-be robbers, one fatally.

He was not charged with any crime, since it was ruled self defense. Hence, no monetary outlay. And no apparent emotional scars either.

Under Tennessee law, use of a firearm in self defense brings no charges Against the shooter, and no civil lawsuits can follow.

Bob Wright

[salvadore]

Lunged, I had a similar experience in Idaho's White clouds. A dog we saw chasing a deer which turned his attention to us... Hackles and teeth with me pointing a dick spec. at his head encouraging the dog to make a move..He decided to slink away. I like dogs but this one was on his way out and he figured it out.

[lamarw]

The OP asked the question but never volunteered whether he/she had experienced the ordeal. Has me wondering why the question and whether they have a story to render.

Kind of sounds like they are dealing with the outcome of such an unpleasant experience.

[Tactical Jackalope]

Everyone saying it's a "bad idea" to post it, it's really not. If all is said and done and the case is closed, it's not a bad idea at all. People can learn from such issues.

I've only had one and I don't feel it's a bad idea to say what happened. However, I don't want to. But I did learn a lot from it and everyone learns from one another. No one knows everything. So learn a lot and listen to everyone, pick what resonates in you and to your logic.

I will say, situational awareness is probably the most important thing as is a good holster and being able to get to your firearm as quickly as possible from all position. Sitting down, standing, kneeling, ducking, etc.

[Glenn Dee]

being a total poop magnet, I have a few...

I'll start with this one..

At the time I lived in a nice section of the bronx. This particular day I was cashing my paycheck at the bank. After depositing and taking some cash, I started the walk home. About 5 blocks. I was carrying my S&W model 36 in an ankle holster on my left ankle. As I was walking I noticed a guy about 20 or so seemed to be real interested in me so I crossed the street, I noticed that he crossd as well... when I crossed back, he crossed back over. OK so now I know I'm going to get robbed.... my issue was how do I draw my gun and be ready when he rushes me or follows me into the lobby. I had to stop and put my foot up on a car bumper and get hands on my gun. The guy see's this and suddenly remembers he's got to be someplace else.

What did I learn from this? First and foremost I learned that ankle carry is a bad idea. If the guy had rushed me I may have been in trouble. I also gained confidence in my powers of observation, and situational awareness. I've never carried in an ankle holster since.

[chaim]

I have not been in a self defense shooting, but a situation going on 26 years ago taught me two things: that bad things can happen to anyone, anywhere, and that just because you are the good guy and victim in a situation doesn't mean that is how the courts will see it.


Dec 1990 I'm out with one of my best friends (he's black, and that was the motive for the attack against us) and some girls. Some guy walks into the convenience store where we are picking up a few things before going to another friends house and he starts verbally accosting my friend and accusing him of causing trouble with him at a party early that evening (we were all together all evening, and we were never at a party). As soon as we go outside, the guy is in my friend's face trying to get him to fight him. I try to get between them and talk them down, at which point 4 of the guy's friends jump me. Being jumped by 4 guys, and being an inexperienced fighter (my last, and only, fight before these guys jumped me was when I was 12, I was 20 at this time), I was down on the ground quickly. The last thing I remember before going unconscious was them (or someone) screaming "kill the (n-word), Kill the (n-word) lover." They only stop when people (potential witnesses) come out and the girls we were with start screaming at them (they were continuing to kick me while I was unconscious- luckily I only suffered a broken nose and a concussion), and my buddy got their tag number. When the police showed up, they talked to none of the neutral witnesses who were still there (most, but not all of the customers left, but the store employees were there), they took our statements (there were 4 of us including the girls we were with, but the girls only saw some but not all of it since we were out the door first), and then found our attacker's car. They took me and my friend in the back of their car to identify our attackers and then took their statements, and after about an hour finally took me to the hospital (which was only about 200 yards from where we were attacked). I guess because it was 5 v. 4 as far as witness statements, they mostly took what the 5 guys who attacked us said as fact and wrote it in the police report (which is important later as it made it a very uphill climb for us when we got to court).

Being from well educated, middle class families, we knew not to be involved in a court case (even as victims) without a lawyer, and it turns out that this was a very good decision and was the only thing that kept us out of jail. The statements given by our attackers and "enshrined" on the police report painted us as the aggressors, and from what my parents (who were in the courtroom) and our lawyer told us, we were painted as thugs, violent, and definitely the aggressors (remember, my last and only prior fight was when I as 12, I'm not exactly the violent type). These guys had extensive and often violent juvenile records, which could not be used since they were now adults (even though some of the juvenile arrests and convictions were less than a year old). All there also (our parents and our lawyer) thought the judge believed the defense's version of events with us as the instigators. Of course, we saw none of what happened in court except when we were on the stand since the judge sent us out early on (importantly, with no instructions), and our lawyer followed us out to tell us that he was surprised the judge did not tell us not to talk about the case, but to be safe we should only talk about unrelated things until after we testify. Around that time, one of the defendant's mothers came out and when we were talking (about everything but our attack and the trial since our lawyer advised us not to talk about that) she was looking at us with an odd smile. Shortly after we all testify, the mother goes in, and then we are called in with a quite serious tone one at a time.

Apparently, the mother said we were talking about the case and telling each other to "stick to the story." When called in we were questioned about what we talked about, which we answered (since what we talked about had nothing to do with the case we thought we had nothing to hide), we were lectured about how much trouble we were in, and the only decision was how long we were going to jail. When we were all called back, the judge said it didn't matter if we talked about the case and were getting our stories straight or not since we violated his order not to talk at all before sending us out (he claimed to always give this instruction) and we were going to jail for contempt. At that, I tried to interject (I was a 21 year old college student at the trial, what did I know of court decorum) and told him he didn't give us any instructions before sending us out and he called me a liar and told me I was adding to my sentence, I asked him to check the transcript and he said I was making it worse. Luckily, as I said, we had a lawyer who said the exact same thing I did and the judge listed to him (none of us went to jail).

I was told by our lawyer that the prosecutor made mistake after mistake, not presenting evidence she should have, and not challenging defense evidence she should have. The only of our attackers to get any punishment were two who plead guilty. They got a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, my friend and I almost went to jail for being the victims and not being in the room (because we were sent out) when the judge gave some key instructions (to everyone but us since he gave them to the courtroom we had just been escorted out of). I also was threatened with a lawsuit for malicious prosecution by one of our remaining attackers if we didn't drop the charges.

Incidentally, I also learned (as part of them painting us as violent thugs), the fact that I had been in the Army and was at that time going to a military college was proof that I was a violent thug and wanted to hurt people. Meanwhile, the fact that one of our attackers was in the Navy was proof that he was an upstanding citizen. Hmm, does it sound like I'm still a bit upset over this whole situation...


Anyway, I learned from the attack, that even when you are a regular citizen, who keeps out of trouble, and is minding your own business, trouble can find you. I also learned from the court proceedings that the police and courts are not your friend, the prosecution isn't there for you if you are the victim, and you better have your own lawyer you trust if you care about your freedom and want to protect your rights.

[tipoc]

This is a true story:

A co-worker of mine was in a relationship with a woman who had a violent streak and liked to argue and fight. He spent alot of time keeping her calm something I observed firsthand. He was not violent towards her. She would occasionally kick him out and then they'd make up.

He did have the issue of sometimes stepping out with other women which did not help things on the domestic front.

One night he was out with another woman and she found out. When he showed up at home at 3 am she shot him 3 times as he came up the front walk. 9mm as I recall. He was hit once in each leg and in the right shoulder. He went to the hospital she went to jail.

In jail she told the truth and asked the cops to take out a restraining order against him. They were puzzled by this as she admitted he had not tried to hurt her. She told them a restraining order would prevent her from killing the man she loved.

I called him at the hospital. He said, "At least I know she loves me". I reminded him that often love like that is hard to get over, especially if the bullets hit a bit higher or lower.

They were married 6 months or so later. I was at the wedding and the party afterward. The bride was quite happy and glowing. Also at the wedding was my friends 4 month old child and the baby's momma. She and the bride got along well.

Far as I know she never shot him again. But then I haven't seen him in a number of years.

You never quite get over being shot, physically that is. There are numb spots, and hitches in your body that remind you when you stand up or move a certain way. There is also a certain memory of it that sits in you, a caution.

tipoc

[psyfly]

Okay, my wife doesn’t read these (this is her story and she isn’t usually pleased to be reminded) so, here goes.

Many years ago, she was big (7+ months) along with our firstborn and preparing for bed on a nice fall night with the window open. It was probably 1030 pm or so and I had departed an hour earlier to work the night shift. She heard a noise and turned her head to see a man at the window who appeared to be trying to remove the screen.

She shouted at him to go away, at which point he crouched below the window sill but declined to leave.

She picked up my High-Standard Citation from its usual place on the dresser and walked to the window while shouting to him to leave and that she (was armed). He remained crouched but didn’t move.

She told me later that she became concerned that he didn’t believe that she was armed so she simply fired a round through the open window, confident that it would pass well over his crouched position (She had a clear view of the lighted empty lot between the window and the brick wall of the next-door telephone-company building and, therefore, knew what was downrange). He immediately jumped up, leaped over the fence and sped away down the alley.

She called the police, then called me. By the time I got home the police had come and gone, hopefully to search for the prowler. She dressed and returned to work with me to spend the night on the lobby couch.

When we moved out of that (rented) cottage, there was still a .22 caliber hole in the wooden slat of the venetian blind.

[Boncrayon]

The roles of concealed carry necessities are going down as more CCW's join the ranks. The most feared situation by incarcerated criminals is meeting an armed citizen in their crime actions.

For me, by the grace of God, I have never had to pull or shoot my concealed weapon!

[rodfac]

Under Tennessee law, use of a firearm in self defense brings no charges Against the shooter, and no civil lawsuits can follow.

That's a hellofa fine idea for a law. Rod