When have you come the closest to shooting someone?

[SU405]

I don't really have any good stories as of yet. But my father told me one that had me shaking. Dad has been in constuction for the better part of his life since he was like 16 (left home at 13). Anyway he was woking at the channel/tower 31 jobsite. I can't remember if he was the super on that job or not, but he and another guy were having heated differences of opinions all day long. So lunch time rolls around and Dad is sitting there having his lunch when the guy that he's been at it all day with comes to sit down next to my Dad. The guy sits down, opens his lunch box and pulls out a 44 mag, puts it square between my dads eyes and pulls the hammer back. At this time one of the other guys finished with his lunch sees whats going on grabs a shovel and proceeds to sneak up behind 44 mag dude. Taking notice of this my Dad keeps the guys attention focused on him. My dad says many words were exchanged. But my Dad basically told him if he pulls the trigger "my problems will be over and yours will be just beginning". The guy lowers his weapon, gets rushed and the weapon taken from him. The proper authorities alerted and he never seen or heard from the guy again. My dad has many crazy stories of the trouble he and his 7 brothers were always into. I don't even know how he's still alive to this day.

[Irving]

To this day he rarely talks to me and hates guns.....

Well does he still drink milk?

[BigBear]

HA, you know... I'm not sure!

[cowboykjohnson]

I was driving to lunch on a nice warm weekday here in longmont when a group of gangbanger wannabe kids pull out in front of me. They start to brake check me and are a laughing about it. Luckily they get in the left lane to turn at the next light which happens to turn red before we get there. They start shouting obsenities from thier car at the stop light, and are attempting to turn it into a fight, which I want no part of. They guy in the passenger seat starts digging around on the floor boards and acting suspicious, so I grab my G20 sitting next to me and put it just below the window frame with my right hand. The passenger finds what he's looking for and starts to swing his arm out the window like he had a gun. I brought the glock up above the window just before he finished putting his arm out. As i had thought he did indeed have a weapon and i was ready to fire... but he was lucky i had noticed it was a clear airsoft gun and not a threat. When He realized mine was real they took a hard left turn through a red light.

I got their plate numbers, and reported them to the local authorities.

[TFOGGER]

Good call - I killed a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

[Ridge]

Last summer, goin to bed some time between midnight and 1am. I hear lots of yelling out in the street, a bunch of people calling out my neighbor's name. I'm about to open the window and yell at them to shut up when I see from the patio light they are all carrying weapons.

2 sledge hammers and a freaking fire axe!

I go for my AR, which I keep loaded behind the dresser. I realize there is no light on it, so I put it back and just call the cops. These guys go to town on the neighbor's house, smashing cars, chopping up the deck, throwing rocks through windows, etc...

The guy with the fire axe opens the front door to the house, and gets slugged square in the nose by my neighbor, so they take off running before the cops show up.

Apparently it all started because of some drunk argument they had in the car an hour or so earlier...

Used to have pics of the carnage, but they are gone now.

[Irving]

I don't understand your decision to put the gun back because it had no light. Good on calling the cops though. I had a similar issue in the lawn of my apartment complex once and I called the cops as well.

[Ridge]

I wanted to be able to clearly see everybody around me. To not have a light would have impacted my situational awareness, and put me at risk of getting a hammer or hatchet in the back of the head....

[wyzardd]

Back in the pre-CCW days, must have been about '95, I'd been married around a year, had already quit drinking (or this would have turned out different, I'm sure) and was heading home from a friends house. After 10:00 on a weeknight because I was working weird hours. Anyway, driving down in the DU area when this blue Taurus cuts me off out of nowhere. I honk at the SOB while narrowly missing him, and he decides to play with me. Slowing down, switching lanes, you know the routine.
After a couple blocks of this I slow down and pull over a bit hoping he'll get bored driving 10mph in the bike lane and just go away. Didn't work. He hits the brakes and I figure he wants to get out and fight, so I punch it and try to go around.
That didn't work either, he starts smashing into my Bonneville with the Taurus. This is a new one to me, I'd never seen a road rager that would damage his own car, so I figure now this guy has gone over the line. I'm also right beside him and can see that he's got several friends in the car with him. I figure now all the criteria have been met so I pull my 1911 from wherever it was legal for it to be at the time and try to anticipate his next move.
His next move was apparently to listen to one of his buddies that had a better view of me and took off like a bat out of hell.

I pulled over at the police substation that was a block or so away and eventually got someone to listen (I had to find a pay phone and call it in, the chick behind the desk wouldn't do anything unless her dispatcher told her or something). The cop that finally arrived was a good guy, I sat in the passenger seat of his car while he tracked down the plate number I gave him. Kind of funny listening to the owner answering the phone all pissed off that someone's calling that late (nearing midnight by this time, I think). "Yeah that's my car, why? Whadda mean do I know where my car is? It's parked in my fu.... MY F'ING CAR IS GONE!!"

Joyriders, never caught them as far as I know. And the wife was pissed that I was out so late (pre-cell phone)

[KevDen2005]

I read a good number of these and am sorry that I haven't read them all. I have been in a number of situations where I could have justifiably shot someone. For those of you that have seen combat and actually shot someone this is probably a whole different ball game. Also, I have not shot anyone in the line of duty.

The scenario as follows:

I was responding to a "shots fired" call, with only one call. Usually real gun shots will get several calls or no calls. Also people often mistake fire works, back firing cars, loud crashes, etc for gun shots. However, I make it a point to not be complacent.

I was the first officer to arrive in the area with two more coming. The car I was driving was an older car that had an older style gun rack and therefore my AR15 was in my trunk (cruiser ready-full magazine, no round in the chamber). I pulled into the neighborhood and thought to myself that I am going to a "shots fired" call so I stopped, popped the trunk, pulled the AR out, put a round in the chamber, and put it in the seat next to me. I then pulled onto the street that the house was on that I was going to. I blacked out and as I am getting ready to park several houses away to try and sneak up on the house I see a figure run across the street. I see two more figures also running across the street behind the first one, leaving from the house where I was going to. I then turned my headlights back on, and put my spotlight on the two figures that were running after the first one.

This happened so fast that I did not have time to grab my rifle, I hopped out and, drew my gun, and started yelling at the three people. The first person, who was missing a shirt, covered completely in blood, and had major head trauma laid down first. The other two males, wearing all black, going after the guy started coming towards me. I yelled again for them to get on the ground and I started moving back and left, still have the closest guy at gunpoint and trying to watch the other two. The closest guy was about 5-7 yards from me, and I wanted to create a little distance. I thought to myself that these guys are going to stop and i put my finger on the trigger and was getting ready to shoot. I yelled again to get on the ground and they complied. I was prepared to fire on him immediately after that third verbal command, but as I was yelling he was getting on the ground. The other guy that was with him got on the ground as well.

I was alone here for about 15-20 seconds, in my mind, could have been more, could have been less, I will never know. My partner showed up and we held the three at gun point until other officers arrived to help. Of the two guys in black, the first guy had brass knuckles, pepper spray, and a knife on him, the second guy had a taser and pepper spray that we pulled off of him. The gun they used and failed in using to kill the first guy they ditched and we found it later.

That is the gist of it really. Like I said, not the first time and it wont certainly be the last time, but it sticks out the most to me. I thought of when I just had a CCW before I was an officer if I could have handled that situation as calmly as I did, ready and prepared to shoot, and I am not sure that I would have. Sad to say, the more times this happens the easier it is to handle and work through.