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St. Petersburg Florida, July 4th 1988. Me and a girl I was dating were driving to the Pier for the fireworks. Just west of downtown, a riot broke out when black guys pulled some white girls out of stopped pickup truck and started beating them. White guys with ax handles/bats jumped in and started beating black guys - then lots of people got out of their cars and jumped in. There was absolutely no way to drive out of that explosive situation. I had a little pistol, cocked and ready to shoot if someone tried to break into my locked car.
Fortunately, the riot disbursed enough to where I could drive away, which is exactly what I did. The Police were nowhere to be found - there would have been no way for them to get to the core of the riot unless they were already there.
Several things I learned from this:
1. I immediately felt that my little 6-shot .22 was totally inadequate.
2. It took too long for me to reach my gun - it was under my seat and hard to get to.
3. I didn't have a concealed carry permit (don't even know if they were available back then) and had I used my gun, it would have potentially been a big legal problem.
4. Keeping a cool head and driving away when I could was the smartest thing I did in retrospect.
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