Have you ever had the need to brandish/draw/shoot?

[Mark 1911]

I grew up in the city of East Chicago, Indiana. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, its not the nicest of neighborhoods (although it once was very nice years ago). It was around 1990 or '91, was taking a short walk from my house to the local McDonald's. A group of gang-bangers walking toward me on the opposite side of the street starting paying me a lot of unwanted attention. First talking among themselves while looking my way, then started to cross the street straight toward me. In those days I carried concealed. I simply pulled my jacket back and made sure they saw my piece on my hip. They immediately changed course. End of story. I have never had cause to actually draw, and that was the only time I ever purposely showed my sidearm to someone as a deterrent.

 

[SouthernBoy]

I grew up in the city of East Chicago, Indiana. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, its not the nicest of neighborhoods (although it once was very nice years ago). It was around 1990 or '91, was taking a short walk from my house to the local McDonald's. A group of gang-bangers walking toward me on the opposite side of the street starting paying me a lot of unwanted attention. First talking among themselves while looking my way, then started to cross the street straight toward me. In those days I carried concealed. I simply pulled my jacket back and made sure they saw my piece on my hip. They immediately changed course. End of story. I have never had cause to actually draw, and that was the only time I ever purposely showed my sidearm to someone as a deterrent.

This brings up a very interesting point because technically, you did brandish your sidearm. On the other hand, you could easily argue that you had apprehension of imminent harm to your person. Kind of a Catch-22 in some respects. From my perspective, if you were charged and went to court and I was on the jury and the facts bore your story out to be true, I would not vote guilty.

 

[Mark 1911]

This brings up a very interesting point because technically, you did brandish your sidearm. On the other hand, you could easily argue that you had apprehension of imminent harm to your person. Kind of a Catch-22 in some respects. From my perspective, if you were charged and went to court and I was on the jury and the facts bore your story out to be true, I would not vote guilty.

At the time it was absolutely clear to me that their intent was foul play. East Chicago is a high crime area with a lot of gang activity, it is a very far cry from typical suburbia or rural America. It is a different world, take my word for it. They were not an average group of kids, these were gang members, dressed in gang colors, and their demeanor was nothing but trouble. And you are right, if it had gone to court it most likely would have been thrown out. In 1985 I was beat to near unconsiousness with chains and brass knuckles by an outlaw motorcycle gang only 1 block from the spot where this incident happened. I wish I had been armed that night, it may have saved me 2 weeks in the hospital and a whole lot of money - I was a college student at the time and had forgotten to pay my isurance fees that semester, so I had to pay the $10,000 hospital bill out of my pocket and the scum buckets who did it got away scott free. There was no way I was going to go through that again.

I don't live there any more, but I have learned my lesson. That will never happen to me again, or to anyone I care about.

 

[WalkingWolf]

This brings up a very interesting point because technically, you did brandish your sidearm. On the other hand, you could easily argue that you had apprehension of imminent harm to your person. Kind of a Catch-22 in some respects. From my perspective, if you were charged and went to court and I was on the jury and the facts bore your story out to be true, I would not vote guilty.

I wouldn't call it brandishing, it was still in the holster, and I think Indiana is an open carry state. I do know the area though, I worked in Illinois for a few years, and I was sometimes in East Chicago not the nicest of neighborhoods even thirty years ago.

 

[SouthernBoy]

I wouldn't call it brandishing, it was still in the holster, and I think Indiana is an open carry state. I do know the area though, I worked in Illinois for a few years, and I was sometimes in East Chicago not the nicest of neighborhoods even thirty years ago.

Brandishing laws vary from state to state but in some states, you do not have to remove your gun from you holster to fall into that category. Simply pointing at it or showing it in a manner which could be construed to be intimidating is sufficient. It can get to a point of splitting hairs with some situations.

 

[SouthernBoy]

At the time it was absolutely clear to me that their intent was foul play. East Chicago is a high crime area with a lot of gang activity, it is a very far cry from typical suburbia or rural America. It is a different world, take my word for it. They were not an average group of kids, these were gang members, dressed in gang colors, and their demeanor was nothing but trouble. And you are right, if it had gone to court it most likely would have been thrown out. In 1985 I was beat to near unconsiousness with chains and brass knuckles by an outlaw motorcycle gang only 1 block from the spot where this incident happened. I wish I had been armed that night, it may have saved me 2 weeks in the hospital and a whole lot of money - I was a college student at the time and had forgotten to pay my isurance fees that semester, so I had to pay the $10,000 hospital bill out of my pocket and the scum buckets who did it got away scott free. There was no way I was going to go through that again.

I don't live there any more, but I have learned my lesson. That will never happen to me again, or to anyone I care about.

I don't doubt you for one minute and were I in the same situation, I'm pretty certain I would have done what you did. I think you acted in what most any rational person would say was your best interests under those circumstances.

 

[Logan 5]

Come on guys, don't brandish. Just kill'em.

Question: Why do you think there's so many bullets in a 9 round clip?
Answer: One bullet to drop'em and eight bullets to make sure.

 

[since9]

I came close, once, the first day I had my CCW in the state of Washington, back in 1991. Never since.

 

[Mark 1911]

This brings up a very interesting point because technically, you did brandish your sidearm. On the other hand, you could easily argue that you had apprehension of imminent harm to your person. Kind of a Catch-22 in some respects. From my perspective, if you were charged and went to court and I was on the jury and the facts bore your story out to be true, I would not vote guilty.

I know I responded to this a couple days ago, but something else just occured to me that I wanted to mention. That is I don't think that simply showing the handgun in Indiana could have been equated to brandishing. After all, although I was carrying concealed when this happened, I am allowed to OC in Indiana. I never touched the piece, I simply went from CC mode to OC mode, and both are legal in Indiana. So I don't think you could call that brandishing in my state.