I was glad I was armed when . . .

[Prof Young]

(TFL moderators, if this crosses the line, take it out.)

I was glad I was armed when my daughter took me out to dinner and theatre for my birthday. We were walking from the restaurant to the theatre and got turned around on a college campus. With no street lights and a woodsy area to one side for several blocks I was comforted by a pocket pistol. All was fine, but still glad it was there.

Life is good.
Prof Young

[tlm225]

When I stopped for gas in S/E part of Memphis TN at 3:00 AM one night.

[TXAZ]

2 burglars attempted entry.
(It was a “No Bueno” day for them)

[TJB101]

Originally Posted by TXAZ

2 burglars attempted entry.
(It was a “No Bueno” day for them)

Do tell

[Sharkbite]

I was comforted by a pocket pistol.

A defensive pistol SHOULD be comforting, not necessarily comfortable. Not my words, but ones i live by.

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by TJB101

Do tell

OK, here you go.

Midday in Mid-May during the week. I was at my parents home when teenage delinquents decided burglary was a pretty good idea. They were walking down the alley, looking into all the backyards. “It just didn’t look right” to me as I watched them from a window. Then I watched as they entered backyard. Now it was game on!

Dad called to the cops, I grabbed my grandfathers Rem. Model 11 1905 Automatic shotgun with the full-choke long goose gun barrel, and quietly went out the garage to avoid detection, circling around into the large backyard behind them.

Standing at the glass sliding door, one had a screwdriver, the other hadn't a clue. Instead of being the lookout, he was watching his friend and never saw me coming.

I later found out that in those few seconds they were close to having the door open.

Then the spoiler arrives. I stood just inside the gate blocking their exit, and popped the safety off and simultaneously announcing myself loudly. Both looked shocked seeing an adult with a shotgun blocking their only exit (6’ solid fences), about 50’ away. They walked towards me leaving the screwdriver in the doorjam. Both claimed they were looking for their friend “John", simultaneously saying multiple times "Is this where John lives?". I asked “John who?” They couldn’t agree on John’s last name.

I leveled the gun at them and released the slide to make that very clear, audible and unmistakable “I'm in deep ....” sound, telling them to STOP!!!. One stopped in his tracks with his hands up. The dumber
("genius") of the two continued to approach and just touched the muzzle. Bad move. I used a swinging circular motion to clear the muzzle from the little genius' hand, (while quickly considered bashing his head or poking him in the eye with it, or … … … … would I actually pull the trigger and get splatter on my T-shirt).
(Yea I really did think about explaining to my Mom how I got blood and guts on my T-shirt for a millisecond- that's kinda weird in retrospect)

In that literal split second, I decided and took action. Magically in that defensive / offensive sweeping motion of the gun, the muzzle ended up painfully and exactly on top of the little genius' nose, with me yelling “ON THE GROUND NOW!!!!”. The kid froze put both hands down. (I think he peed himself). I pushed the Remi a little harder into his nose, quickly looked to his friend and said “Tell your friend goodbye, he’s about to die.” The friend said “Hey (name) get down he’s serious”. And he got on the ground, spread eagle and wondering why he skipped class that day. I made them slowly crawl to the front yard so the police could more easily find us. One told the other they should run. Brilliant idea. I told them I’d shoot both if either got off their belly. In the slowest orchestrated crawl you’ve ever seen, both complied.

We waited for the Dallas police. Seemed like more than 30 minutes, but in the report it was only 25. That period that must have seemed like an eternity to those two.

As the police pull up, I lower the gun and lean it against the fence and keep my hands in clear sight. 1 undercover and 2 uniforms showed up at the same time. The one with the sore nose tells the cop “hey arrest him, he was going to shoot me”. The officer tried hard to suppress his chuckle but couldn't, then told both boys “you know he could have legally killed both of you”. They handcuffed them and put them in car.

The officer and I exchanged information, where he told me I should have waited a few more seconds and let them get in the house, then ’there were more options’. The detective later told me they had them for attempted burglary, but if they had actually opened the door and gone in, there were several felonies involved. She seemed disappointed I didn’t give them a few more seconds.

In retrospect, I really didn’t really want to chase kids through a house, and glad I didn’t have to pull the trigger. And I’m glad I didn’t give them more time to rack up charges.

Turns out they were both stupid teenagers cutting class, hoping to score some $$$’s, who I hope, had enough excrement scared out of them to clean up their act for life. I’ve often wondered. I hoped they turned out well.

Yep, that’s a true story.

Edited to rename the little dumb one to 'genius'.

[TJB101]

Originally Posted by TXAZ

OK, here you go.



Midday in Mid-May during the week. I was at my parents home when teenage delinquents decided burglary was a pretty good idea. They were walking down the alley, looking into all the backyards. “It just didn’t look right” to me as I watched them from a window. Then I watched as they entered backyard. Now it was game on!



Dad called to the cops, I grabbed my grandfathers Rem. Model 11 1905 Automatic shotgun with the full-choke long goose gun barrel, and quietly went out the garage to avoid detection, circling around into the large backyard behind them.



Standing at the glass sliding door, one had a screwdriver, the other hadn't a clue. Instead of being the lookout, he was watching his friend and never saw me coming.



I later found out that in those few seconds they were close to having the door open.



Then the spoiler arrives. I stood just inside the gate blocking their exit, and popped the safety off and simultaneously announcing myself loudly. Both looked shocked seeing an adult with a shotgun blocking their only exit (6’ solid fences), about 50’ away. They walked towards me leaving the screwdriver in the doorjam. Both claimed they were looking for their friend “John", simultaneously saying multiple times "Is this where John lives?". I asked “John who?” They couldn’t agree on John’s last name.



I leveled the gun at them and released the slide to make that very clear, audible and unmistakable “I'm in deep sh**” sound, telling them to STOP!!!. One stopped in his tracks with his hands up. The dumber of the two continued to approach and just touched the muzzle. Bad move. I used a swinging circular motion to clear the muzzle from the little sh**'s hand, (while quickly considered bashing his head or poking him in the eye with it, or … … … … would I actually pull the trigger and get splatter on my T-shirt).



In that literal split second, I decided and took action. Magically in that defensive / offensive sweeping motion of the gun, the muzzle ended up painfully and exactly on top of the little sh**'s nose, with me yelling “ON THE GROUND NOW!!!!”. The kid froze put both hands down. (I think he peed himself). I pushed the Remi a little harder into his nose, quickly looked to his friend and said “Tell your friend goodbye, he’s about to die.” The friend said “Hey (name) get down he’s serious”. And he got on the ground, spread eagle and wondering why he skipped class that day. I made them slowly crawl to the front yard so the police could more easily find us. One told the other they should run. Brilliant idea. I told them I’d shoot both if either got off their belly. In the slowest orchestrated crawl you’ve ever seen, both complied.



We waited for the Dallas police. Seemed like more than 30 minutes, but in the report it was only 25. That period that must have seemed like an eternity to those two.



As the police pull up, I lower the gun and lean it against the fence and keep my hands in clear sight. 1 undercover and 2 uniforms showed up at the same time. The one with the sore nose tells the cop “hey arrest him, he was going to shoot me”. The officer tried hard to suppress his chuckle but couldn't, then told both boys “you know he could have legally killed both of you”. They handcuffed them and put them in car.



The officer and I exchanged information, where he told me I should have waited a few more seconds and let them get in the house, then ’there were more options’. The detective later told me they had them for attempted burglary, but if they had actually opened the door and gone in, there were several felonies involved. She seemed disappointed I didn’t give them a few more seconds.



In retrospect, I really didn’t really want to chase kids through a house, and glad I didn’t have to pull the trigger. And I’m glad I didn’t give them more time to rack up charges.



Turns out they were both stupid teenagers cutting class, hoping to score some $$$’s, who I hope, had enough excrement scared out of them to clean up their act for life. I’ve often wondered. I hoped they turned out well.



Yep, that’s a true story.

Great story ... thanks for sharing.

[Aguila Blanca]

I love a story with a happy ending.

[tsillik]

sounds like you had everything in good control! good job. terry

[USNRet93]

TXAZ-

OK, here you go.

GREAT story but I'm not sure I would have let one of them get that close plus I would have left them in the back yard...YMMV and all that..hindsight is 20-20...

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by USNRet93

TXAZ-

GREAT story but I'm not sure I would have let one of them get that close plus I would have left them in the back yard...YMMV and all that..hindsight is 20-20...

USN,
The dispatcher had requested they be moved out of the backyard. (I'm assuming that's because they knew there were no street numbers in the alley, it was a very long block, and you couldn't see into the backyard from a vehicle due to the high fences and large homes.)

As to getting that close, it happened quickly and the little genius literally ran straight down the boresight / line of fire into the gun. I still don't understand that move.

I'm guessing they also skipped classes at burglar and don't be a dumb-bunny schools.

Edited to rename the type of school they must have skipped.

[USNRet93]

Originally Posted by TXAZ

USN,
The dispatcher had requested they be moved out of the backyard. (I'm assuming that's because they knew there were no street numbers in the alley, it was a very long block, and you couldn't see into the backyard from a vehicle due to the high fences and large homes.)

As to getting that close, it happened quickly and the little sh** literally ran straight down the boresight / line of fire into the gun. I still don't understand that move.

I'm guessing they also skipped classes at burglar and don't be a dumbsh** schools.

10-4 about moving them and kudos to you for not just shooting the kid that ran at you..Not sure I'd be that calm...

[stephen426]

Wow TXAZ,

Glad it worked out. Even if it was a justified shoot, I'm sure you didn't want to shoot a stupid kid. Hopefully that experience got their lives turned around.

[Eazyeach]

When TXAZ said he had a story part of me wanted to hear about him using a Barrett.50BMG for home defense.

[TXAZ]

USN,
I'm guessing the adrenaline was pumping for sometime after that. I'm not sure how calm I was, maybe I was more of a raving lunatic than they were stupid??? I don't remember anything about calmness, only issuing commands and demanding compliance. I now know how those boys felt: Years later I went into work very late in the evening and didn't know the SWAT team had just before me entered the back of the building in response to an alarm. I met a 12Ga. Shotgun as I opened an inner door and surprised the SWAT guy on the otherside.

Honest, that muzzle was about 2 feet wide when it was pointed at me from about 1 foot away. Major league pucker factor. For a couple of days afterwards.

Stephen,
I didn't want to shoot a kid being uber stupid, I expect everyone on this board has done something in their youth that qualified. I just happened to catch these guys in the act.

[spacemanspiff]

I was glad I was armed when....

My motion detector turned on the light outside my front door one night around 130am. I was even more grateful this happened as my wife and I were in the living room and able to see that light come on. both of us in our underwear grabbed pistols and headed outside.

Our basement apartment was next to a vacant, wooded lot. Whoever was in our yard and activated the motion detector was in that lot. Could hear whoever it was moving thru, stepping on branches. Neither of us wanted to go into that lot, so we positioned at the perimeter.

Whoever it was, we know they could see us, and could see we were armed. We didn't get a lot of sleep that night. And the next day, we went into that lot, as we wanted to verify if we actually heard somebody walking thru or if it was just an animal that was in our yard. We discovered only a human could have made that much noise.

I was glad to move from that neighborhood. The neighbors were all nice, but there was a lot of foot traffic, and since there was quick access in and out, thieves had fairly good success breaking in and snatching stuff, and getting out of the area before anyone knew what was happening.

Now we live in a much quieter neighborhood.

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by Eazyeach

When TXAZ said he had a story part of me wanted to hear about him using a Barrett.50BMG for home defense.

No and hope I never have to use that for defense.

I was talking to someone at a .50 shoot who shot theirs from inside a building. Apparently the concussion and pressure broke a window or two (that they were not shooting through).

And... I appreciate my aging ears much more than subjecting them to a .50 in a closed space without double hearing protection.


"Hey, Mr. Burglar, would you mind if I put on double hearing protection before I unleash Boomer on you?" Naa, that isn't going to fly, I was on a .50 firing line when someone 2 guns down fired when the range had just gone cold and hearing protection was off. Really unpleasant and painful.

[Armed_Chicagoan]

When some road raging psychopath was literally trying to ram into my Jeep, luckily I was able to keep moving into the next lane to avoid him. I was worried he was going to pin me in in traffic and come after me with a weapon, I didn't show my gun during that time but did have my hand on it in the console just in case. Thankfully he didn't take it further and when it was over I realized I was focused so hard on avoiding the nut I couldn't even recall the kind of car it was or the driver's description. That incident prompted me to get dash cameras front and back, next time I'll have a video of what went down especially in case things go even further.

[Longhorn1986]

I keep two pairs of Howard Leight electronic muffs next to my HD guns. I can grab them, flip them on to hear, tell the wife to grab hers. Of course, if there's no time for that, then there's no time to get to the 870/FN SLP/AK/AR. That's why the FNx-45 is in the nightstand.

[AzShooter]

A carload of youths tried to force me over in a bad side of town. As they approached my car I took out my loaded 1911 45 ACP and pointed it at the lead suspect with a baseball bat in his hand. When he saw the gun he turned around and the rest followed him.

I'm glad I was going home from our local pistol match. Still had my gun on and two loaded magazines. I think I would have won if they kept coming.

[Gas Bag]

I was glad that I had my piece, when I pulled over in Saint Louis at a rest area.
There were 3 slobs there, who looked like killers, and I left after a bit. It is just as well for the thugs, that I did.

[manta49]

I was glad that I had my piece, when I pulled over in Saint Louis at a rest area.
There were 3 slobs there, who looked like killers, and I left after a bit. It is just as well for the thugs, that I did.

What do killers look like. ? I don't carry a firearm, never felt the need.

[cw308]

manta49
Looked like killers is a bit over the top , I guess you never served .

[manta49]

manta49
Looked like killers is a bit over the top , I guess you never served .

Why do you guess that. ? I am sue there are times when people were glad they were armed.

[USNRet93]

Originally Posted by manta49

What do killers look like. ? I don't carry a firearm, never felt the need.

What??? Hersey!!! Kidding, of course. CCW is a personal choice. I’m glad I’m armed every time I wrangle my grand daughters...at 5 and 7, they are the most important thing to me.