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A time when I wish I had my sidearm......

compmanio365

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Apr 21, 2007
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Had a little incident this morning as I was walking to work from the train station in Seattle. As I crossed the street to the other side of Weller, some guy pops out from behind a truck and starts yelling at me to "mind your own business", along with some obscenities and name calling, he kept telling me he was going to "kick my ass", etc. I was like, whoa, what did I do to you? Kinda caught me off guard, but I recovered and said "What are you talking about? I think you have the wrong person." He just kept on about me "minding my own business" and he was "going to kick my ass". When he started towards me, I pulled what I had, which was my OC (pepper spray) and told him he'd better just turn right around and keep walking. He stood there calling me names for a minute but didn't come any further, then turned and walked down 5th towards the bus tunnel. I kept an eye over my shoulder but walked towards work. Came across a Seattle PD officer and told him about it and he sped off in that direction, so maybe they got the guy, I don't know.

Situations like this really make me wish I could carry to work and just lock up my sidearm at the front door in a lock box or something, cause this is thethird time I have seen or been involved in something like this in downtown Seattle.
 

BobCav

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See, that's exactly why companies and corporations need to allow lawful employees to carry to and from work. Thanks for sharing and glad that's all that happened.
 

amlevin

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Seattle uses their public streets as "Mental Wards". I used to work in the area around the train station and it wasn't unusual to encounter someone that "heard voices".
 

compmanio365

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Lakewood does much the same, I used to live in an apartment complex for 2 years by Western State Hospital......Seattle is just as bad though......and the ones in Lakewood didn't seem as disturbed really, just mentally deficient; every once in a while you would get a true "crazy".
 

YOPD

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You may have wished you had your sidearm, but what would you have done with it? Do you think that a firearm in this exact situation would have been the right tool for what happened, or was displaying the OC spray and the willingness to use it enough?

I think that you handled this situation perfectly. No harm came to you, and you didn't have to harm the other person. I applaud you and your decision making and tactics.:cool:
 

ConditionThree

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May 22, 2006
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Shasta County, California, USA
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YOPD wrote:
You may have wished you had your sidearm, but what would you have done with it? Do you think that a firearm in this exact situation would have been the right tool for what happened, or was displaying the OC spray and the willingness to use it enough?

This is why peace officers carry multiple levels of force with them.

OC, Batons, Tazers, and Firearms. Many tools, many situations.

Having only OC gives you no option to escalate the level of force if it is required.

It may have worked out this time- but what if the man pulled a knife or a gun? OC might work against an assailant with a knife-- but do you really want to get that close to someone wielding a knife? And with a gun vs OC- it would be something ofa miracle if you could spray the assailant directlyin the eyes without them firing on you.

We shouldnt be limited in how we can respond and carry as many tools for defense as practical.
 

compmanio365

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ConditionThree wrote:
YOPD wrote:
You may have wished you had your sidearm, but what would you have done with it? Do you think that a firearm in this exact situation would have been the right tool for what happened, or was displaying the OC spray and the willingness to use it enough?

This is why peace officers carry multiple levels of force with them.

OC, Batons, Tazers, and Firearms. Many tools, many situations.

Having only OC gives you no option to escalate the level of force if it is required.

It may have worked out this time- but what if the man pulled a knife or a gun? OC might work against an assailant with a knife-- but do you really want to get that close to someone wielding a knife? And with a gun vs OC- it would be something ofa miracle if you could spray the assailant directlyin the eyes without them firing on you.

We shouldnt be limited in how we can respond and carry as many tools for defense as practical.
Right, not saying I would have shot the guy just for yelling at me, but if I had to OC the guy and that did not work, the next level would be to use a firearm. Not having anything other than OC and having the person be immune to that leaves me without much option. Nothing did happen, but if it had, I would have been much better off with a firearm than pepper spray.
 

Tomahawk

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YOPD wrote:
You may have wished you had your sidearm, but what would you have done with it?
You keep it in reserve in case the nut corners you and you have no other choice. Obviously.

Why would you even ask such a question? Would you like to walk through a gauntlet of crazies without a sidearm to fall back on? Are you suggesting that it's a good thing this fellow could not carry his weapon to work that day? On any day? Do you think a near miss is good enough reason to take precautions and carry, or do you think he should wait until he gets stabbed or hit with a pipe?
 

openryan

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I think that if he had had a sidearm, and this nutjob had seen in, none of this would have occured at all.
 

HankT

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Tomahawk wrote:
YOPD wrote:
You may have wished you had your sidearm, but what would you have done with it?
You keep it in reserve in case the nut corners you and you have no other choice. Obviously.

Why would you even ask such a question? Would you like to walk through a gauntlet of crazies without a sidearm to fall back on? Are you suggesting that it's a good thing this fellow could not carry his weapon to work that day? On any day? Do you think a near miss is good enough reason to take precautions and carry, or do you think he should wait until he gets stabbed or hit with a pipe?

YOPDsounds just like a gun grabber to me!

Sarah Brady wouldn't have said it any differently...:uhoh:
 

Gray Peterson

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May 12, 2006
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Lynnwood, Washington, USA
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YOPD wrote:


Good luck, Lonnie and Joe W. You're gonna need it with these kinds of folks "helping" you.

I will not trouble this place anymore.

I'm bringing this to the attention of BobCav and other moderators at least as far as your treatment. I'm asking you to stay. You contribute information and to our cause. If you still can't stay here, no matter what I say, consider joining with the Pacific Northwest Open Carry yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pnwopencarry
 

joeroket

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Everett, Washington, USA
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Mike wrote:
I deleted all the posts with f words today. the thread is related to guns, but come on folks...

Thanks Mike. We don't need profane language here.

As far as the guy being a nutjob and the sight of the weapon being a deterrent, I am not going to be convinced of that. My dad was killed with his own service revolver because of a guy who suffered from parnoid schizophrenia. Guys like the one Compmanio encountered are, as far as I am concerned, the most dangerous people any of us will encounter. They typically live in a fantasy world driven by thier illness and on top of that they alsousually exhibit super strengths and immunity to things such as capsicum and tasers.

These people are not to be taken lightly. They need to be taken as a serious threat everytime we encounter one. By no means am I saying to pull your weapon on them everytime but we need to be extra aware during encounters with them.
 

HankT

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YOPD wrote:
You may have wished you had your sidearm, but what would you have done with it? Do you think that a firearm in this exact situation would have been the right tool for what happened, or was displaying the OC spray and the willingness to use it enough?

I think that you handled this situation perfectly. No harm came to you, and you didn't have to harm the other person. I applaud you and your decision making and tactics.:cool:

I agree. In this exact situation, a little assertiveness, a little alertness(OP could have used a bit more) and some OC were enough to take care of the situation. Even the OC wasn't really necessary. Certainly a gun wasn't needed in this situation.

Everything worked out fine.
 

Hamil1

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Mar 27, 2007
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Tacoma, Washington, USA
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joeroket wrote:
Mike wrote:
I deleted all the posts with f words today. the thread is related to guns, but come on folks...

Thanks Mike. We don't need profane language here.

As far as the guy being a nutjob and the sight of the weapon being a deterrent, I am not going to be convinced of that. My dad was killed with his own service revolver because of a guy who suffered from parnoid schizophrenia. Guys like the one Compmanio encountered are, as far as I am concerned, the most dangerous people any of us will encounter. They typically live in a fantasy world driven by thier illness and on top of that they alsousually exhibit super strengths and immunity to things such as capsicum and tasers.

These people are not to be taken lightly. They need to be taken as a serious threat everytime we encounter one. By no means am I saying to pull your weapon on them everytime but we need to be extra aware during encounters with them.
I would like to just interject thatthe reference to the mentally ill as "crazies" and "nutjobs" is as offensive as the use of profanity and does just as much to impress one's level ofprejudice towards that group of individuals as when the antigun consortium refer to "firearms enthusiasts" as "gun nuts." Enough of the name calling. As for the most dangerous personsone might encounter, those with untreated schizophrenia and/or other mental illnesses don't hold a candle to a true sociopath or an antisocial. Reason is, that those in the last catagory are able to reason and act without any reservation and for their objective gain, and afterwards smile while explaining why, without any remorse...
 

openryan

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People on meth and pcp also exhibit these behaviors, on a much more consistant basis than those who are mentally ill.

I guess I phrased my statement wrong, I had seen some conflicting posts in the thread, all I meant to say, was that if in a situation like that, even if you are not oc'ing and are cc'ing, it is comforting to know that you can escalate your level of force IF you needed to, and a big if at that...

And just to clarify the term 'nutjob' is not used speficially to degrade anyone, the term is relative, just like calling something normal, it is just a term to gauge a type of behavior etc...
 
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