Real life experience self defense stories

[jmk1138]

Here's the story of why I started carrying (this was almost 15 years ago):

Pulled my car up in a parking lot and a guy approached. Seemed normal enough and he was asking something about direction. My door was open. Before I could get out, he was in the doorway with a revolver (holding against his stomach, barrel pointed down), demanding my money.

By now, I had some firearms training (but no firearm of my own) and knife/hand-to-hand training (but nothing on me). My eyes got wide, my hands went up and I took a deep breath. I told myself that if the BG moves or the barrel moves I jump on him and I would rip out his eyes. Given the distance and my hands raised (this is actually something I had trained previously), I was close enough to do that.

He repeated his demand for money. I kept my left hand up and reached for my cash with my right hand.

Here's where it gets funny:

BG: "Is that all you got?"
Me: "Yeah."
BG: "Sh*t. That's it?"
Me: "I've got some change in the ash tray."
BG: "Give me your m'-fing change."
Me: "Ok."

With the additional few pennies, he walked away and I drove away. This was in an age before cell phones, so I drove away and called the police from a different shopping center. When the cops came, idiot BG was sitting a few feet from the scene of the crime, yukking it up with his idiot friends.

[f44life]

Here's the story of why I started carrying (this was almost 15 years ago):

Pulled my car up in a parking lot and a guy approached. Seemed normal enough and he was asking something about direction. My door was open. Before I could get out, he was in the doorway with a revolver (holding against his stomach, barrel pointed down), demanding my money.

By now, I had some firearms training (but no firearm of my own) and knife/hand-to-hand training (but nothing on me). My eyes got wide, my hands went up and I took a deep breath. I told myself that if the BG moves or the barrel moves I jump on him and I would rip out his eyes. Given the distance and my hands raised (this is actually something I had trained previously), I was close enough to do that.

He repeated his demand for money. I kept my left hand up and reached for my cash with my right hand.

Here's where it gets funny:

BG: "Is that all you got?"
Me: "Yeah."
BG: "Sh*t. That's it?"
Me: "I've got some change in the ash tray."
BG: "Give me your m'-fing change."
Me: "Ok."

With the additional few pennies, he walked away and I drove away. This was in an age before cell phones, so I drove away and called the police from a different shopping center. When the cops came, idiot BG was sitting a few feet from the scene of the crime, yukking it up with his idiot friends.

thats a smart bg there ha ha... Hope he didnt take your gum too

[Gray_Rider]

I have reached for my CCW a few times over the decades of carry, and drawn twice, once to a false alarm.

Believe it. If you carry a mouse gun, (.380 or smaller), and need to reach for it or actually need to draw, you will wish for a bigger gun.
That said, the times I have reached/drawn, the threat suddenly remembered pressing business elsewhere and I didn't need to fire.

Gray_Rider
Deo Vindice!
We warned you in 1862!

[onemule]

I guess this is an old thread and perhaps no longer active, but reading it reminds me of something in my youth. I was 18 or 19 at the time and a student and working at most anything I could find to try to make it through school. I took a job as a security guard with Wells Fargo and mostly worked nights at a building under construction in the center of a major city. Four floors were finished and occupied, but the rest of the building was still under construction, including the ground floor, which could not be locked up. Unlocked doors opened onto the surrounding streets on all four sides, as the building took up a full block.

My job was to protect primarily those first four floors and the construction material on a small plaza outside. I had a small desk with a phone in the lobby on the first floor, but I spent a lot of time prowling the building and monitoring outside activity. Every time I rounded a corner I had a substantial potential of encountering someone who did not belong. Fortunately, I don't recall coming upon anyone more threatening than a vagrant looking for a place to sleep.

For the most part, the job was extremely boring, to the point that I would sometimes call a bank phone number just to hear an automated voice give the time. I looked forward to one visit a night by the other guard in the building, who worked for a different company and guarded only the top floor with all the high voltage electrical power equipment for the building. I admired his revolver, especially since I was too young to be permitted to carry a firearm at the time. I also enjoyed a regular nightly visit from a mouse, but that's another story.

One night while I was seated at the desk in the lobby, a car pulled up onto the plaza and some guys jumped out and started grabbing construction materials. Between us was a wall of plate glass windows and a double, glass door. I was in the light, and they were in the dark, but I don't think they noticed me until I stood up. As you can imagine, I was wishing I had a weapon at the time. Lacking any other plan, I picked up the phone with my left hand, started talking as if I were in contact with the police and put my right hand at my side as if I were covering a gun on my belt, all the while focusing visually on the bad guys.

Fortunately for me, the perps decided not to call my bluff. They jumped back in their car and roared away. I don't think they even managed to carry off anything with them. Since I had no training as a guard and had no clue what to do and had not managed to see the license plate number, I didn't even call the police. I just went back to walking rounds and debating whether I needed the income enough to continue to take such risks. I stayed with the job.

As I ponder the dumb things I did as a young person, I wonder how I survived. And, I ponder whether I will in the future wonder the same thing about me at my current age, if I manage to live another few decades. However, whenever confronted with a dangerous situation I am unprepared for, I try to at least act as if I am prepared. Whether that is the best thing to do all the time, I don't know, but it has saved my life on at least one other occasion. Bluff is cheap, but I'd still rather be prepared with a plan and a weapon or two. Live and learn, they say. However, as I warn my children, a learning experience is not much use to you if you don't survive it. So, avoid trouble where possible, but prepare for it just in case.