When have you come the closest to shooting someone?

[KevDen2005]

When did this thread go to shooting yourself and not someone else ?

Please lets start another thread for the closest I have ever come to almost shooting myself and leave this thread for the times we have nearly shot another...

Although that could be both for some people.

[tat2man75]

I believe the year was 2004. I was living on the west side of Colorado Springs with just me and g/f in a old Victorian style house that had been made into about 7 apartments. Our little studio apt. had the only door that was on the outside of the house by the street. It was new years eve night or probably new years day by then. Our bed was right by the front door and at about 2am this really drunk or drugged out guy started banging to high hell on it . Screaming let me in you bitch..open the door ..I'm gonna f**k you up. My XD used to hang on the wall in the holster next to the bed. How i ended up at the front door with it in .001 seconds is beyond me. (I wish I had surveillance back then)

So I start yelling back thru the door, You got the wrong house guy stop bangin on my door. But this only made him get even louder and started bangin harder. As I"m lookin thru the peep hole I can tell he's got a pocket knife in his his hand . So I told him if you break this door your gonna get shot! So he starts stabbing the door sayin shoot me then bitch . By this time the g/f has 911 on the phone and she hands it to me and the dispatcher is asking me whats goin on. And she can hear him bangin on my door and she asks me is it locked and I'm like yeah if it wasn't we'd be talkin about this dead guy. By this time he's bangin so hard on the door with his shoulder i can see him thru the crack of the door. The dispatcher said all their officers are on other calls but as soon as they get freed up they'll be on there way to my apt.

So there I am drawin down on the door yellin at the guy to stop and talking to the dispatcher. And I tell her it looks like he's gonna break the door open and he has a knife. If he opens this door i'm gonna shoot him. So she starts tryin to talk me outta shootin the guy and right about then the banging stops. He must have seen the lights and ran or something because they never caught him. That was my closest ever, it came so close I think about it all the time.

Two weeks later the g/f was babysitting two of our friends kids during the day while I was at work. And I get a frantic call that someone just broke into the house while they were watching t.v. and saw them.. and ran back out the door. When I got to the house the cops had already left , but there were pieces of wood from the door all over the ground from the crow bar the guy used to pry it open. I've always wondered if it was the same p.o.s that I almost shot that night. We moved that week.

[cms81586]

I've never had to shoot an American.

The closest I came to shooting someone was when I was in college. My soon to be wife and myself had an appartment with two other friends. It was a first floor deal in a large brick victorian right on the riverfront (Lock Haven, PA). Our front door was broke and when it was locked if you grasped the knob hard enough and turned it...the door would come open. We had told the landlord and he said he'd get to it next week. About two days later we had finished dinner and all racked out. We woke up to our roomate screaming and then yelling "There's someone in the house". I grabbed, of all things, a FN PS90 I had just bought and was laying out of the safe, and stepped into the hall. I yelled that I had a gun and whoever was in the house had 10 seconds to leave. Immediately I see a man running straight at me. It was dark and I couldn't see his hands. I really didn't know what to do so I shouldered the rifle and stepped back into my room, making the decision that since I was blocking his escape route to the front door I would only fire if he turned and proceeded into our bedroom. He continued straight and after he ran past I stepped back into the hall and held steady on him until he exited out our front door. My wife called the police and I stood guard at the door. Mind you...this is a very small city. I worked and lived at the fire department for the two years prior and the police would always stop at McDonalds and then walk across the street to the station and watch TV until something came up. After about 35 mins the police finally showed up with fries on their breath...(I'm not anti-police...I'll probably be a state trooper some day...but these guys were your typical "Keystone Cop"). Frustrated I asked what took them so damn long only to get the typical "We responded as soon as we could." They asked what happened and then drove around for a few minutes, didn't find anyone and drove back to our place. After asking a few questions they left and nothing else came of it.

What happened was someone came in through the broken door and went to one of our roomates bedrooms. He climbed on top of her and when she woke up she hit him with her alarm clock and began to kick him. He got up and exited her room and ran for the door shortly after. Our best guess is that he was drunk but we don't know what happened for sure. I filed a complaint with the PD because of their response time.

Lessons learned:

-Don't rely on the police. While they are helpful in most cases you can't expect them to be there when you absolutely need help. You are your own first line of defense.
-Always carry a good flashlight. You can get some pretty small and bright Surefire flashlights these days. I carry one clipped into my weak side pocket and have a pocket knife on my strong side. I have an extra in the truck and a few throughout the house. There's nothing like not being able to identify a threat when it's dark. The man who broke into our house was almost shot because I couldn't see what was in his hands (and that was my fault)
-Know your laws...in PA there is no Castle Doctrine. I had a duty to retreat if possible. I was able to retreat back into the bedroom. If I would have shot him in the hall I would have faced some legal difficulties. If he had turned into our bedroom instead of continuing straight to the front door I would have been in the right to shoot him in the eyes of the Commonwealth of PA. I wasn't thinking about retreating to the bedroom because I was legally obligated to when it was all going on...it just seemed like the best move at the time.
-Have a weapon sufficient for self defense. I'm not trying to start a 5.7 debate, but I personally don't feel that it's a viable self defense round. I had better options available but they were locked in a safe. The next day I set out a 12ga with #00 Buck and a flashlight. I should have already done that.
-Have sufficient security in your home. I should have demanded that the landlord either replace the door knob immediately or I should have bought one myself. It all would have been prevented if he had not been able to make it into the house to begin with.

[SideShow Bob]

Does being on the receiving end of 2 NDs count ?

[Irving]

I once punched a person holding a loaded gun because he kept nearly sweeping me with it.

[Jer]

Does being on the receiving end of 2 NDs count ?

No but please share the details anyway.

[gnihcraes]

Saw a guy at the pawnshop today take a $10, .22 revolver and stick it to the forehead of the guy behind the counter. They were BS'ing before hand and apparently know each other, and the guy behind the counter was moving some guns around in the display case or something.

I just looked at the one guy, with a "Not Amused" look on my face and he made some jokes about cameras and the police might be watching etc.

Stupid people. I really just can't believe he did that. I think I shall contact the store owner about that.

[Irving]

I've actually considered walking into a "joke" situation like that and drawing down on/shooting someone that was only messing around. It scares me. People don't know that I'm carrying a gun, so they would have no reason to suspect that their "Crazy Terrorist at the office" prank could get them killed. Like a Candid Camera nightmare.

[KC_]

Great thread, hand on but never had to draw.

I use to take friends from CA into the AZ desert to shoot on weekends - I always told them to keep a fully loaded magazine at the ready, you never know when some druggie might attempt to bush-whack you....

Be safe, KC

[tat2man75]

Ok I guess i might sound dumb but, What does Nd stand for? (I keep seeing it from time to time in peoples posts)..