When have you come the closest to shooting someone?

[Irving]

I thought you had gone down stairs and when the guy took a step toward you, you were in the same surface. His reaction makes a bit more sense now.

[LongArmoftheLaw]

No, I was still up in my room. Didn't want to get any closer than I already was.

[Irving]

I agree then that everyone was lucky. Glad it worked out.

[LongArmoftheLaw]

So am I. At that age though and given the situation I'm not sure I would have been able to pull the trigger. But that's Captain Hindsight coming out too...

[Irving]

I recently had a lady bang on my (and many others') window late at night saying that she was being chased by someone. I answered the door holding my pistol in the SUL position. I told her she could hide behind my bushes while I called for help for her. She saw my pistol about the same time that my dog started barking at her and just backed away mid sentence and drifted off down the street to bang on other windows. Within a few minutes a car pulls up to my house, parks in the middle of the street and the guy gets out and starts walking up the walkway. I jump out the door onto the walk, still holding in SUL position. Conversation goes as follows;
Him: I think I saw...
Me: GET OFF MY LAWN! (He backs up to the sidewalk)
Him: I think my girlfriend. ..
Me: There's no one here for you! (At this time my dog is barking her head off and my wife sticks her head out the door and starts yelling that she called the police and they are coming). He notices the pistol, holds his hands in the air, and says,
Him: Hey...I think I'm in the wrong place.
Me: I think you are.

Then he left. The lady came back, and there were two other neighbors outside at that time (she knocked on their windows and freaked them out) talking with me. She said she needed help, then asked for a lighter. While I was putting my dog in the backyard, she told one of them something about being traped in a Craigslist sex ring or something. She was on drugs or something from what I could tell. Police showed up, we gave a description and they went to look for her. She gave an address which we all now know, and I see the car the "boyfriend" was driving everyday since he lives just up the street. I may go talk to him, even though it's been over a month now. I'd rather know everyone, than have enemies.

This is a perfect example of what Jer was talking about in that there were many things I could have done differently, (call the police, listen to my wife, not go outside, listen to my wife, not display any firearms, listen to my wife, etc) but I'm okay with how this turned out. I made a strong, and immediate, show of force that shut everything down immediately. Supposedly, this lady continued to run down the street knocking on windows in the days right after (unconfirmed by me), but she didn't at my house.

TL;DR Lady bangs on window late at night saying she's being chased. I'm concerned that this is a set-up and act accordingly. Dude shows up right after looking for her. I display a show of force which works as intended to get him to leave.

[Danimal]

Deleted

[Jer]

The only time that I ever really needed a gun I did not have it. It was before I really got into guns. I was driving up to Loveland and all the sudden I heard a car honking at me from the shoulder of 287. I looked over and some guy was trying to merge. I never even saw him turn out so I think that his beater low rider was having a hard time getting up to speed and he was trying to pass me. He flipped me off and screamed something in Spanish at me. So I flipped him off and yelled some tasteful lines that I had perfected with my 6 years in the navy. That is when I realized there were four thugs in the car. The guy started trying to force me off the road, and the guy in the back seat was flashing a pistol and pointing it at me. I kept driving swerving around them finally making it down the hill into Loveland. Red light, I ran it. They followed still screaming that they were going to kill me.

I had just gotten out of the military and moved to the Denver area. I did not know where anything was, or really where I was going trying to get up to the VA clinic in Ft Collins. No phone, the gas light was on in my car (chevy cavalier) and I was wearing fucking flip flops. That is the last time I wore flip flops.

On a bright note, that day is when I discovered Jensen Arms. What a way to get your eyes opened. Somewhere around Hwy 34 a cop car pulled out and I gunned it right up behind him. The car following me started to trail back a bit. The police car turned into the shopping center where Jensen Arms is and there was another stopped patrol car there. I parked right next to them. One cop got out and asked me if everything was alright. I told them the story and sat there for a bit until I calmed down while they took my information. I don't know if they ever caught the guys. Lucked out.

Shortly there after I bought a pistol and got my CCW. Like a week after I got my CCW I had to put a deer down and draw on a rottweiler that was attacking me and my sister in-law. I was driving across the state and came up on a accident where a girl had hit a deer and broke its back. It was flopping in the road trying to get off. So I told her to get going and I would take care of it. Then I got to my parents house and while I was unloading my car I hear a neighbor scream something. I looked up to see a 120 lb rottweiler running at full speed toward my sister in-law, who in turn was running straight at me. I grabbed my gun off the front seat lined up the shot and the dog stopped. I hesitated, but probably should have ended that dog right there. The owner came running up and grabbed the dog dragging it back to their lawn. A month or two later the dog was put down because it got out and bit the crap out of the mailman. Having a gun on you is good for a lot more than just the bad guys.

That part I bolded is where you went wrong and where I've changed since I started carrying 24/7 many years ago. Old me (who was actually young and dumb) would have done the same thing. The consequences were never really a concern because I'm a fairly good size fell and have never lost a fight so that's where my mind always went... kicking someone else's ass if they got too big for their britches. I never really thought I could be shot/killed or they could. Once I started carrying I quickly realized that with that comes a great deal of responsibility because if I play a role in the road rage and shit goes down... someone could die. Regardless of if it was their fault or mine or I was charged criminally/civially or not I will always have to know (if I'm the one that lives) that had I not partaken in the douche baggery that person would still be alive. Had you not flipped them off or sad anything and just waved sorry or ignored them completely none of the rest of that story happens and gun not needed. This is the lesson I've learned over the years and I would hope that more of us gun toting folks learn it as well. Every time someone gets shot over some road rage BS it makes us all look bad and it lends credibility to the anti-2A people's insistence that those with guns use them to settle all issues big or small. Not good.

/soapbox

[vossman]

I always enjoy it when people try to merge, do a shitty job at it then get pissed because they didn't get their way.
On a similar note, COS is doing a good job of making long merge lanes on Powers, plenty of time to get into the turn lane or flow of traffic.

[BushMasterBoy]

A guy ripped off my friends wifes gold chains off her neck at a gas station in South Florida. We got some of the gold back from a crack house, because they were family heirlooms. We found out the guys street name. Later the next night, we went looking for him.We found him and told him we were looking for some powder cocaine. He got in the back seat of the car. He said "turn left". We turned right heading for the police station. He said, "I ain't messing with you white boys! I got a gun!" I was in the passenger seat. I turned around and stuck a snub nose revolver two inches from his nose. I told him to shut up. I told him to put his hands on the ceiling of the car. He complied. I asked him if he believed in God. He said he did. I said "good, you might get to see him tonight".
We pulled into the police station parking lot. Two cops outside talking to each other, so my friend driving the car jumps out and runs over to them. I'm holding the the strong arm robber in the back seat at gunpoint. The cops run over to the car, one cop on each side of me. I have guns pointed at my head from both cops. If they fired I guess they would have shot me and each other. I told them exactly what I was going to do. I pointed the gun at the ceiling of the car, and then laid it on the dash. I put my hands in the air. They grabbed the gun, and the robber. Hour later I was walking out the police station with a brown paper bag containing the bullets and the gun. The detective told me,"wait until the next stoplight before you reload that thing". At the next light, I promptly reload...

[Jer]

A guy ripped off my friends wifes gold chains off her neck at a gas station in South Florida. We got some of the gold back from a crack house, because they were family heirlooms. We found out the guys street name. Later the next night, we went looking for him.We found him and told him we were looking for some powder cocaine. He got in the back seat of the car. He said "turn left". We turned right heading for the police station. He said, "I ain't messing with you white boys! I got a gun!" I was in the passenger seat. I turned around and stuck a snub nose revolver two inches from his nose. I told him to shut up. I told him to put his hands on the ceiling of the car. He complied. I asked him if he believed in God. He said he did. I said "good, you might get to see him tonight".
We pulled into the police station parking lot. Two cops outside talking to each other, so my friend driving the car jumps out and runs over to them. I'm holding the the strong arm robber in the back seat at gunpoint. The cops run over to the car, one cop on each side of me. I have guns pointed at my head from both cops. If they fired I guess they would have shot me and each other. I told them exactly what I was going to do. I pointed the gun at the ceiling of the car, and then laid it on the dash. I put my hands in the air. They grabbed the gun, and the robber. Hour later I was walking out the police station with a brown paper bag containing the bullets and the gun. The detective told me,"wait until the next stoplight before you reload that thing". At the next light, I promptly reload...

Again, moral of the story is taking the law into your own hands is a bad idea & you're lucky when you went looking for trouble you didn't find it. Some gold (heirloom or not) isn't worth dying over. Seeking out bad guys is just a bad idea all around. The idea of CCW is to protect yourself from threats & not to go looking for situations that require defending.