CheerfulHoplite
Regular Member
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.
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.