imported post
Lots of guys won't talk about their experiences, especially those who've drawn to save their lives. Pretty traumatic stuff.
I saw you were a younger fella (I'm only 23, not like I'm any wiser), but when you get to your CCW class when you're older, they're going to cover the most uncomfortable aspect of carrying: You have to be ready to use it someday. Period. End of story.
The instructor hammered this into us. Opened the course with a good, hard speech wondering if we were ready to kill someone. Ready to take a life, take a child away from it's mother. It's uncomfortable when a teacher does it, really makes you sit back and examine it. Anyway, point is a lot of guys maintain that mentality. FWIW.
I'm comfortable reporting one near use I had. Ironically, it was the first day I carried. I was carrying a Bersa Thunder .380 on my right hip, leather IWB with thumb retention under a work vest. It was after work, about 5:10pm, and I was walking out to the company car to go home. I drove behind our shop into an alley that leads over to the freeway onramp. As soon as I rounded the shop into the alley, I saw a group of Hispanics. Not uncommon, at the time we had nearly 80 non-office employees and I knew none of them. One walks across the alley to the driver's side of my car, waving me to stop. Again, not uncommon, the workers love to talk to the office guys.
As I came to a stop next to him, I got a bad vibe. I had started to let the window automatically power all the way down, but I stopped it after it cracked maybe 2-3", and that seemed to surprise him. He said, "Hey man, you got a smoke?" Told him no, don't have one, and at this point, I noticed 3-4 tear drops tattoo'ed on his face. (That put me an inch away from Red Alert") He then asked me for a light, and I again reiterated "No, I don't smoke." It was at this point he stepped closer to the car, closing the distance from a few feet to touching my car, and he swore a couple of times and stated "You'd better give me something."
As he came forward, I was in intense disbelief. Instinct kicked in a little, and I transitioned my right hand from the steering wheel to the grip of my weapon, brushing the vest out of the way en route, and pushed the snap retention out of the way. A tense moment followed, felt like a full minute but probably seconds only. His hands on my car still, I told him "Well I'm gonna go now" and I punched the throttle. Called the cops, they didn't necessarily want a report, but they said they'd go take a look. Never heard about it afterward.
I've had one other incident where I was around a man with a gun, but I was able to immediately retreat and I'm not sure he was a threat in hindsight. But that's my one story I can share.