A personal Gun story you won't see on the news!!

A little background
People who have read my other posts will know that I often talk about carrying a gun for the past 15 years, without incident. I have been in a few scuffles over that time, and I have never needed to pull out my gun, or even mention that I have it. There was even one occasion where the police came and questioned me after a fight, and it was no problem.

I am not a "sworn" officer, but I work for the state, and I do have permission to carry my personal weapon, even on state property. I had to jump through a couple of hoops, to make full disclosure and get an opinion from the legal department, but that is all done now.

Just for the record, I am also a decent sized guy, and the belly has recently gotten more than decent! I have salt and pepper (mostly salt) hair, I ride a Harley, and I have a little 95lb, blonde-headed wife, that attracts a lot of attention. (It is important for the story, I promise.)

So here's the story
My wife and I took off work last Wednesday, because we were fighting a red-light traffic ticket. After court, we went on a nice long motorcycle ride. I was wearing denim overalls, biker boots, and no shirt, my wife was wearing a little tight tank top and short cut-offs. We rode out deep into a state park, and after about 15 miles from the last main road, we stopped on a river bank and put down a blanket. We laid around for about an hour and a half. Long enough for me to smoke a nice big Camacho cigar.

When we got ready to leave, my wife grabbed the blanket, went up to the roadside, and proceeded to put the blanket into the saddle bags on the bike. I was still down a slight hill and out of sight putting out the cigar. This old beat up truck starts to drive by, then hits the brakes, pulls in slowly across from my wife. This was the first vehicle in almost 2 hours. Two nasty looking guys get out of the truck, and meander around for a second (they still don't see me, just a little blonde girl). I waited to see what was going to happen next, and sure enough, they both started walking across the road and back towards my wife. These guys look like they are straight out of Deliverance. All of my spidey senses were tingling. Then a nasty ol' lady gets out of the truck, puts the tailgate down, and starts moving things around to make room in the back?!?!? All of this happened in just a couple of moments. My wife stands up, notices everything, glances over her shoulder at me, and I just nod my head. She walks around the bike so that it is between her and them, and I start up the hill toward them.

NOW......this is where the gun comes in.
I reach back into my overalls, and flip the safety off of my .380. I reach into my front pocket and make sure my knife is quickly accessible, and I find the release button that springs it open. (Spring-assist knives are legal in Florida.) I stride up the hill, past the back of the bike and make eye contact. This is the first they have seen of me. Immediately, the woman by the truck stops what she is doing, and turns to watch. The two guys that are now approaching my wife and my bike, shuffle to a stop and kind of glance at each other. One is older, shorter, and rough looking, while the other is younger, and tall and lean.

I say, "Howdy fellas," and then stop and gingerly lean against the backrest on the bike, I maintain eye contact, and I keep my right hand just out of their sight. Now, my motorcycle is directly behind me, my wife is behind the motorcycle, and both men, the woman, and there truck are all in a line directly in front of me.

They didn't speak, but they stopped advancing, shuffled around in the road for a second, then the younger taller one begins to look up and down the river. The older one backs off slowly, but he is still very suspicious, because he doesn't just turn and walk away. He backs away until he can turn and say something to the woman. When he speaks to her, she starts to walk around and get into the truck, and I am afraid of what her intentions might be, so I speak again. I say, "Howdy, ma'am. You getting ready to do some fishing?" And, I start to walk towards them. As soon as I speak and start walking, the woman freezes, and the younger, taller man turns away quickly and goes to the back of their truck. The older man is mumbling something, he gets into the driver's seat of the truck and shuts the door. The woman gets in next, and then the young man jumps in the back. They drove away slowly, and as soon as they were out of range, we jumped on the bike and high-tailed it back to civilization.

Moral of the story
My record is still intact! I didn't have to pull my gun, or even mention my gun. BUT!!! It WAS a MAJOR factor in the encounter. The possible perpetrators knew that Florida permits concealed weapons, and they knew someone like me was likely to have one on me! Also, I knew that I had the gun, so I was confident in being assertive and diffusing the situation with my dominance. The gun played a major role, yet it never came out of its holster.

How many ways could this have gone wrong?

What if I had played a victim?
I could have attempted to just get on the bike and go, but Harleys don't always fire right up, and they likely would have gotten to me, before I got the bike started.

I could have acted like "prey" and attempted to befriend them, ignore them, or run from them, and they likely would have instinctually taken the role of "predator," and gave chase.

I could have acted overly aggressive, and then they would have been forced to defend themselves, and since I was outnumbered, things could have escalated quickly and ended badly.

Instead, I acted dominant, assertive, and confident enough to be a hard target, yet I didn't force them into a situation where they had to defend themselves. My wife used the natural cover of the bike to buy a little time, and they wisely chose to move on down the road somewhere. Everyone got to go home safely.

As soon as we reached a main road, we pulled over, and my wife was just shocked and stunned. I've been in many tense situations in my lifetime, but this was new to her! She said she had never felt the "willies" that bad in her entire life. She was scared to death! They were very obviously up to no good! I was also scared to death! I knew I was outnumbered, isolated, vulnerable, and with some enticing booty (literally and figuratively!!!)!!! We did the only thing we could do, and we got lucky, and it worked!

I don't know what their true intentions were, but I feel very lucky that this story has a boring conclusion, and I give 99% credit to the fact that I was carrying a gun! 1% goes to the fact that my wife and I have discussions about scenarios like this often enough to know how to react, and we kept cool heads.

These are the "Gun Stories" that never make the news. They are impossible to put into statistics. They won't make any headlines, and lawmakers won't hear about them. These are the "Gun Stories" that are more common than you might think!!

If you like this story, I can tell you about my 3 a.m. New Orleans encounter later on in the thread!

Well handled. Pretty much everyone in my family owns guns, and several are licensed to carry them. I've been considering lately following suit.

I'm glad you're both ok, and hopefully something like that won't happen again.

Be safe.

If you like this story, I can tell you about my 3 a.m. New Orleans encounter later on in the thread!

Oh do tell but not later now, I wanna hear this. Kudos to you for the way you and your wife handled this, I dread to think what would have happened if you were not there, it sounds like these guys got a big shock when they saw you.

Good for you well handled, there's a lot of baddies in this world, unfortunately here in the UK we can't have guns legally, the people that do have them are bad so it goes against the grain to get one of those, I dont know how your situation would have gone for me in this country.

Exactly. My uncle had a similar incident a while back. One of my best friends growing up had to help his dad fend off burglars at least three times when we got a little older.

In my own life, I've noticed that a lot of people against guns are not from areas where one would really need them.

My bottom line is that in a perfect world, guns would be unnecessary, but this world is not perfect or a pretty land of lollipops.

reply to post by restless genius


reply to post by BioStatistic


Thank you both!

Yes, I would hate to think how badly it "could" have gone. People go missing in Florida all the time. With all the forest and swamp and ocean, it is unlikely we would have ever been found.

I repeat stories like this when I can. Some people will think I am bragging or acting tough, but I assure you it is just the opposite!! Inside, I was shaking like a leaf and scared to death. Luckily the persona on the outside can still be intimidating enough to be effective.

It has been almost a week, and I still get chills thinking about those first couple of moments as they got out of the truck and began to approach. It was very, very unnerving!

Good story...and good ending....did you happen to take note of the tags? lol

As a woman out by myself a lot....and get approached by creeps often...very bold ones even...I am glad I live in a CCW state.

Other than a gun...women need to learn self defense...since many states do not allow one to walk around armed.

LOL great story,i love my state of arizonas lenient gun laws and i love my XD-9

reply to post by getreadyalready


Good story. Assertiveness is very important. Walking that line between confidence and arrogance, delicate. I always try to maintain the same level of "fearlessness" whether or not I am armed. Some of my experiences have helped in that regard. I may share more shortly on that. My problem is that I have "cat's eyes" that I think is a trait I picked up being a NYer. I never look anyone in the eye for more than a second or two, and tend to see "through" people in but in two-dimensional panorama sort of fashion if that makes sense. Anyway, that one habit leaves people thinking I am shiftee. Kind of bothers me on the one hand that I don't have that "man" dead-eye (except if I am indeed doing so very deliberately) but it can also be taken as an overt sign of aggression. Here in NY we tend to see things that we never saw.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


LOL! I knew someone would ask about the tags, and honestly I never thought of it until I was typing this thread.

I doubt if the police would have wanted to hear the story anyhow. In the grand scheme of things, all they really did was stop on the side of the road, meander about, and then drive away. They can't prosecute "intentions" or "creepiness."

Here in North Florida / South Georgia, we have a lot of folks that live out in the swamps and forests, and they haven't evolved much over the years, LOL!

glade nothen happend. I live in california. i can carry a gun in a holster in view with the clip on the other side of the hip but it cant be loaded. I dont do it because not to many cops here know the law and im sure i will get a cop pulling his gun on me the moment he sees me packing

I walked into a taco bell once with my gun and everyone was tripping. people are scared of guns here in california

reply to post by BioStatistic


f-ck, it sounds like they were ready to kidnap your wife, violate her, kill her and dump her somewhere, or mostly likely bury her, never to be seen again and end up a missing person statistic with no investigation.

you should have rid the world of those scum. this obviously wasn't the first time they have done this and they sound like opportunists or pre meditated serial rapist/murderers.

i know it might have been hard without endangering your wife, but you should have let it play out longer until they made a definite attempt on your wife, yelled at her to run and then start dropping bodies.

at the very lest you should have made them taste the fear of death, so next time they might think twice or God willing stop.

i feel bad, this is evil at it's worst form. the next girl might not be so lucky.

Guns are only used for illegal activities by criminals. Criminals would still be able to get guns if they were outlawed. Now all the criminals have guns and we don't. Oops.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by greeneyedleo

 

LOL! I knew someone would ask about the tags, and honestly I never thought of it until I was typing this thread.

I doubt if the police would have wanted to hear the story anyhow. In the grand scheme of things, all they really did was stop on the side of the road, meander about, and then drive away. They can't prosecute "intentions" or "creepiness."

Here in North Florida / South Georgia, we have a lot of folks that live out in the swamps and forests, and they haven't evolved much over the years, LOL!

Well, let me tell you a story...
Green River Killer became the #1 suspect in the Green River murders because someone took note of his truck and his "creepiness" and called police. (the short version of the long story) Information is information and can aide in things down the road....so while one may not be seeking "prosecution" never know if that truck and it's passengers have been seen before associated with a crime or hanging around where they should not....

Just some thoughts though I know the point of your story is that we should ALL be able to arm ourselves for situations just like this...

reply to post by randomname

i know it might have been hard without endangering your wife, but you should have let it play out longer until they made a definite attempt on your wife, yelled at her to run and then start dropping bodies.

at the very lest you should have made them taste the fear of death, so next time they might think twice or God willing stop.

i feel bad, this is evil at it's worst form. the next girl might not be so lucky.

You know, in my mind, I love vigilante justice, and I would have been all too happy to take the appropriate action if things had escalated, but I could never "allow" it to happen and endanger someone I love. I might not be as quick, or as tough as I think I am, so I would never take the chance.

I have thought about the "next girl" all week, and it does bother me a little.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


That's a good point.

I work in conjunction with law enforcement, so I will contact a detective tomorrow and pass along what I do know. I have a vivid imprint of the truck and the people, even the stuff in the back of the truck. I might not have seen the license plate, because the tailgate was down when they left, and it was hanging low, it didn't have the straps. I'm sure I could recall a lot of detail. It was all pretty surreal.

It couldn't hurt I suppose.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by randomname

 

i know it might have been hard without endangering your wife, but you should have let it play out longer until they made a definite attempt on your wife, yelled at her to run and then start dropping bodies.

at the very lest you should have made them taste the fear of death, so next time they might think twice or God willing stop.

i feel bad, this is evil at it's worst form. the next girl might not be so lucky.

You know, in my mind, I love vigilante justice, and I would have been all too happy to take the appropriate action if things had escalated, but I could never "allow" it to happen and endanger someone I love. I might not be as quick, or as tough as I think I am, so I would never take the chance.

I have thought about the "next girl" all week, and it does bother me a little.

you cant beat yourself up over "the next girl" you saved your own and thats all that matters. Its out of your hands now and done with.

2nd amendment was designed for personal security in the face of ANY domestic threat, seems to me this story is just one drop in an ocean, but that ocean is full of mean spirited anti establishment mouseketeers, I for one hope that the 2nd will stand firm, as financial chaos continues to make more have-nots than haves I believe such scenarios will become even more common place, the predators packing up and the free getting cornered, best to have an "equalizer" at all times.

Liked your story and glad it turned out as well as it did OP. S&F from me. My personal not reported gun story is when I was staying at the small plant that I operated a while back when someone was working the back door of the warehouse section. It was unusual enough to rouse me from my sleep at 3 in the morning.

They did not know their target that I am certain. As I approached the back door I could see the knob being worked and hear someone drilling the lock with a fairly quite battery powered drill. They did not know that the door being steel also has 2 sections of chain attached to them one on top and on bottom that are hooked over steel bolts that are in the frame of the door. It also has a 2 inch steel pipe bar across the back door so no amount of drilling or cutting that lock would get them inside.

I did not want this to continue at this point and figured if they were armed I should let them know I am on them. I chambered a round into my shotgun. I turned on the green laser illuminator and aimed at the door. I then heard the drill stop. The door knob was released and the sound of several sets of running feet could be heard and then a car starting and tires screeching and them driving away.

I called my partner in the business and told him about it and we agreed that calling it in and reporting it could be more hassle then it was worth. It will not be on the news and did not involve the police so it did not happen as far as the world knows. That is how I think many gun situations play out every day.

reply to post by camaro68ss

I dont do it because not to many cops here know the law and im sure i will get a cop pulling his gun on me the moment he sees me packing

I walked into a taco bell once with my gun and everyone was tripping. people are scared of guns here in california

I think you are correct. The culture in California is so much different that an exposed gun would be problematic. I have only rarely visited there, but the first time I got pulled over, they used the PA to order me out of the car, face down on the ground, and then they cuffed me. All of that for a minor traffic stop? The cop said it was standard procedure "in that area." I suppose it was a high-crime area or something, but I didn't like it.