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Open Carry as a Deterrent

goosemama

Regular Member
Joined
May 19, 2008
Messages
63
Location
Hooper, Utah, USA
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Well, sports fans, today was the first time I saw OCing really work.

My caroverheated and I had to pull over in SLC late this morning. There I was, in an industrial area at 4th West and 5th South. Not the best of neighborhoods. While I was on the phone with my husband, I noticed a couple of guys walking down the street. They passed me while looking at the steam spewing out from under my hood.

I went into condition RED:shock: anddecided to keep an eye on them since there was no one else around. Good thing too, because they stood a short ways down the street in the shade looking around and then started walking back towards my car. I watched them as they passed me again and then they turned around and did the same thing one more time.

Keeping an eye on them, I casually got out of the car, popped the hood and made sure they could see I had a gun strapped to my hip. I have never seen two men turn tail and practically run the opposite way down the street.

I was a little shook up, but managed to get my car running again. I finally made it over to my daughter's house where my husband picked me up and we got the car back home to Hooper. :D
 

swillden

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2007
Messages
1,189
Location
Firestone, Colorado
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Glad that story had a good ending, goosemama.

I'm firmly convinced that in most situations OC is better than CC for exactly that reason. If you'd been concealing, you might have been forced to draw.
 

Mike

Site Co-Founder
Joined
May 13, 2006
Messages
8,706
Location
Fairfax County, Virginia, USA
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One advantage of OCing from the get go is one gets the deterrant advantage without the risk of being accused of brandishing or disturbing the peace by physiucally taking action to expose your firearm.
 

Utah_Patriot

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
718
Location
Kearns, Utah, USA
imported post

glad this had a postive outcome for you it caused the criminal to think twice before deciding to take somthing that did not belong to them.
 

swjr

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2008
Messages
104
Location
UT, ,
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goosemama wrote:

Keeping an eye on them, I casually got out of the car, popped the hood and made sure they could see I had a gun strapped to my hip. I have never seen two men turn tail and practically run the opposite way down the street.
Exactly! They new you could defend yourself. I'm glad everything turned out as well as it did, you never know what could have happened had you not been open carrying.
 

LovesHisXD45

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
580
Location
, Utah, USA
imported post

althor wrote:
The other possibility is that you chased away help...

Any decent person in a position to "offer help" would not behave as those men did. Law abiding citizens would approach a gun-carrying woman to help with her car even if she was armed. Only a criminal would flee a situation like that.

Kevin
 

Alwayspacking

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Messages
599
Location
Lakewood, Washington, USA
imported post

Other than recognizing them as a threat, getting out of the car was the best thing you did today in preventing an attack. It's good you did not cower in the car like some others would, you would have been in as bad place for these guys to attack you and for you to draw from.
 

althor

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
61
Location
West Jordan, Utah, USA
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LovesHisXD45 wrote:
althor wrote:
The other possibility is that you chased away help...

Any decent person in a position to "offer help" would not behave as those men did. Law abiding citizens would approach a gun-carrying woman to help with her car even if she was armed. Only a criminal would flee a situation like that.

Kevin
I would, and I'm not a criminal. I would also have left when I saw that she was on the phone... that's all I really could have offered to help her with anyway if I were a pedestrian like those two men.

I also would have turned around if I saw a nervous woman with a gun eyeing me suspiciously.

Law abiding citizens call the cops on OC'ers all the time. Why would those people approach one to help?
 

swillden

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2007
Messages
1,189
Location
Firestone, Colorado
imported post

althor wrote:
Law abiding citizens call the cops on OC'ers all the time. Why would those people approach one to help?
They might have. But they wouldn't have walked back and forth past her three times (before seeing the gun).

They weren't there to help. They were working up their nerve, until they saw the gun.
 

JoeSparky

Centurion
Joined
Jun 20, 2008
Messages
3,621
Location
Pleasant Grove, Utah, USA
imported post

swillden wrote:
althor wrote:
Law abiding citizens call the cops on OC'ers all the time. Why would those people approach one to help?
They might have. But they wouldn't have walked back and forth past her three times (before seeing the gun).

They weren't there to help. They were working up their nerve, until they saw the gun.

Matches my assessment...

I do have a little bit of knowledge about things mechanical...

Someone who has something to offer WILL NOT "case" the situation as was described!

JoeSparky
 

mazellan819

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2007
Messages
158
Location
American Fork, Utah, USA
imported post

ProtectedBy9mm wrote:
goosemama wrote:
....I noticed a couple of guys walking down the street....

Kudo points go to you. Well done. I am very keen on keeping 360 degree awareness at all times. Good to know the art isn't lost on all.

Exactly!!! Normal law abiding citizens will not case a situation before helping. I would have defiantly stopped to help regardless of firearm or not. Especially since I would be carrying as well.
 
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