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How'd I do/What would you have done?

CheerfulHoplite

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Messages
26
Location
, ,
A couple days ago, I'm stepping through a parking lot in front of a gas station in Covington. I'm OC with a S&W Model 15 (Full size revolver - used to be it was practically the "official duty gun of every cop in the country" weapon - There's absolutely *NOTHING* "sneaky" about it) on my strong side hip, and pushing a small cart I'm going to use to drag my groceries home with my weak side hand.

Some joker pops out of the gas station (I saw him coming, dismissed him as "Looks kinda "punk"-like, but obviously unarmed, and basically harmless") comes around the back end of the car (apparently his) parked in front of the door, and as he does, he apparently notices my weapon. So far, so "no big deal"...

But then as he rounds the corner of the car, he spins around, and as he mimes drawing a gun, shouts "Draw muthaf***er!" while pointing his freshly-drawn "finger gun" at me. Thankfully for my peace of mind, and fortunately for his well-being, somehow (I can't explain it any better than this) I "expected" it to happen - I'm sure you all know that "Something - Can't say what, or how I know it, but SOMETHING - screwy is about to happen" feeling... I'm not claiming ESP or precognition, or anything like that, just a hard-to-explain "gut feeling" that sometimes hits me - maybe it's just the heightened awareness that I feel when I'm OC in public. Whatever... Point is, fortunately, my reaction was nothing more deadly than a burst of annoyance that anyone could possibly be *THAT* stupid, a glance his way to verify that my original "unarmed, maybe a punk, but probably harmless - No target" assessment was correct, and continuing on my way while shaking my head at the stupidity involved. I mean jeez... Does this idiot *WANT* somebody to shoot him??? Or is there some other rational (but mysterious to me) explanation for such behavior when it can be clearly seen that the person being addressed isn't armed with a finger, but has an absolutely real gun hanging in "Blind man can't miss it" plain sight on his belt?

Anyway, thought I'd ask here for comments on both my handling, and any "You should have ________" or "If it was me, I would have ________" type observations on the situation. (No, I'm not looking for "You should've shot him" - At no point in the encounter did that even occur to me as being a viable option. Then again, I'd be lying if I were to try to claim that a thought something along the lines of "If I had shot him, the average IQ of the species would have risen by a point or three..." didn't float through my head as I walked away :) )

FWIW, Did my shopping at Freddy's, didn't get so much as a cross-eyed look from anybody, had a nice chat with the cashier (he obviously noticed my weapon, since he asked me what "flavor" it was, but just as obviously wasn't particularly concerned about it) while checking out, loaded up my little cart, and headed for home, arriving without further incident - in other words, aside from the doofus at the gas station, an absolutely standard (from my experience) non-incident trip to the Covington Freddy's for groceries.
 

jeeper1

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
692
Location
USA
You could have asked him what kind of an idiot he is.:lol:

or

You could have asked him if that single finger he is waving around is his IQ.:D
 

slapmonkay

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
1,308
Location
Montana
I keep some pepper spray on me while carrying for instances like these. Needless to say, if I had that gut feeling his finger gun probably would have been met with my pepper spray at the ready.
 
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MKEgal

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
4,383
Location
in front of my computer, WI
1) What an idiot he is. :shocker:
1a) Cops have shot people dead for what he did.
1b) Did you call the cops to report him as suicidal?
1c) Better yet, get him arrested for brandishing, like Skidmark was*. :lol:

2) Ignoring him was probably best. Maybe a "you sad thing" look w/ a headshake.
Flipping him off would have escalated the situation.
"Be innocent of instigation. Retreat, retreat, retreat."

* Someone has misread this to mean that I somehow think Skid brought his troubles on himself, or that they're funny, or that he did something wrong.
None of that is true.
(Well, it's funny in a "Surry can't really be that stupid, can they?" sort of way.)
I know Surry was/is being asinine about the whole deal,
but if he can be persecuted for doing nothing threatening,
why can't this idiot get in some hot water for pointing a "finger gun", yelling "DRAW!" & an obscenity?
 
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HankT

State Researcher
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
6,215
Location
Invisible Mode
Anyway, thought I'd ask here for comments on both my handling, and any "You should have ________" or "If it was me, I would have ________" type observations on the situation.

You did fine. Especially sizing the guy up. Good on you.

But, really, the guy was no threat to you. And no threat means no response involving threat of deadly force is warranted.

If you were to have pulled out the ole pistola, a lot would have been different. Probably bad. Mostly bad for you.

You did fine.
 

o2ryan

Regular Member
Joined
May 2, 2009
Messages
415
Location
Spokane Valley, Washington, USA
Flipping him off would have escalated the situation.

Escalated to what? He was a smart-ass being a smart-ass. Would he have gotten smarter? I doubt it. Would he have picked a fight with an armed man? Not likely.

I am with Difdi, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and that would have been appropriate given the situation.
 

amlevin

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2007
Messages
5,937
Location
North of Seattle, Washington, USA
However, you did the right thing. Good job.

Couldn't agree more. As we gain maturity, we learn that keeping the smart comments or gestures to ourselves is often the best course.

Raise the alert level and be prepared for defensive action if the situation escalates but in situations like this, these idiots don't have an "Act II". They just move on and try to impress others of the same IQ level with their idiocy.
 

Badger Johnson

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
1,213
Location
USA
I would have called 9-11 and said "a man (description), threatened to shoot me, not sure if he had a weapon, he verbalized it", and give location. I probably would have demanded the guy's name and/or watched to see if he got in a car and get his license plate #.
 

1245A Defender

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2009
Messages
4,365
Location
north mason county, Washington, USA
well,,,

why be so serious?
i think it would be appropriate to slap my gut, where the finger gun shot had Killed me, and said ouwwww...
THEN since we both knew I wasnt really DEAD,,, I Could make and Point MY finger gun, and shoot that guy back!!
then we would be even, and we could both laugh, smile, and enjoy the rest of our day...
 

golddigger14s

Activist Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
2,068
Location
Lawton, OK USA
I keep some paper spray on me while carrying for instances like these. Needless to say, if I had that gut feeling his finger gun probably would have been met with my paper spray at the ready.

Need to go back to the edit feature, or let me know where I can get "paper spray" Spelling/sarcasm nazi off.
 

BigDave

Opt-Out Members
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
3,456
Location
Yakima, Washington, USA
A little humor, after him pointing his finger gun at you, your response could have been Oh good one you got me, Now Let Me Try :lol::eek:

You did just fine.
 

hermannr

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
2,327
Location
Okanogan Highland
First you did fine,

However, I think my response would be to say something like "you should get into the cowboy quick draw compitition game. It's fun, and there you can find out how fast you really are."
 
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