Has anybody here actually had to use their weapon?

[mcantar18c]

Tag?

[Graves]

Tag?

So he can find this thread later.

[Dr_Fwd]

Tag?

Ya, if someone posts something I'll get email notification....

[mcantar18c]

Ya, if someone posts something I'll get email notification....

Ah, cool.

[Dr_Fwd]

So, what's happened?

[mcantar18c]

What, you mean the incident earlier tonight?

[Dr_Fwd]

Yeap

[flan7211]

yeah i need to hear this story.

[mcantar18c]

Me, a friend who's in from out of town (girl), and a buddy of ours (guy) went out. Place is in a not so nice part of town (Broadway and Evans area), parked on a residential street around the corner. On our way back out our buddy kicked a can, and some guy sitting on his porch starts yelling at us about littering and throwing trash all over where he lives and such, calling us all kinds of things. Buddy yells back at him, calling him an a**hole, explaining that he kicked a can that was laying in the road. Guy says something like "what the f*ck did you call me?," sets a can down (I'm assuming beer, and I don't think it was his first one of the evening), gets up and starts walking towards us. Stops at the end of his porch, turns around and opens his door, reaches inside for something leaning against the wall by the door. My first thought is he's getting a shotgun or other long arm, and my hand is on my gun. Its dark, and even though his dim porch light is on he's far enough away that its tough to make out details (we're in the middle of the street, he's across his lawn on the porch). Then he turns around and starts towards us with a long dark object in his hand, and I get the gun in my hand but keep it concealed in the holster... my thinking being that I don't want him to see me drawing on him and shoot at us, I'll wait till I get a chance to get a clean shot off before he can react. He gets about 10 ft away and I can see that its a baseball bat, and decide its best to take care of this without weapons. He walks up to within striking distance of our buddy directly in front of him, I move to his 2 o'clock so I can get behind and choke him out when he swings and is off balance, and our female friend is in the middle of me and our buddy and a little ways back. He and my buddy are yelling at each other and the guy raises the bat and fake swings at him. Buddy doesn't flinch which seems to piss him off, and I remember thinking "wait till he strikes, wait till he strikes, don't move until he hits him." Then he winds up and fake swings again, getting real close to my buddy's head. I told him that if he makes contact with that bat, it'd be the dumbest thing he's ever done. Until now I'd been letting him focus on my buddy so I can make my move and surprise him, but when I said that he looked over at me and stared at me for a second, then backed away and started walking back to his property still talking sh*t. Buddy yelled a couple things back at him (not the brightest guy) but he didn't turn around. We got in the car and drove off pretty quick.
After driving for a bit, the female friend said that she was more scared by the look I had on my face than by the asshat with the bat. Said that it was a mix of "I'm going to kill you" and completely emotionless and cold.

Couple things are sticking in my head about this.
1. I was exactly as I told myself I'd be. I didn't hesitate in my decision to use lethal force when I thought he had a gun, I didn't even get a significant adrenaline rush like I've had in fist fights. I was 100% ready to pull the trigger, and I was completely cool about it. Part of me is scared by how cold I was about it, but another part is thankful that I know I can keep my cool should something happen in the future.
2. My decision not to draw on him still after it was apparent he had a bat not a gun was based mainly on how much of a pain it would be to put up with all the court crap should things go south. Not so much that I was afraid of it (see my sig), just that it could have been handled so easily hand to hand that it wasn't worth the trouble. Had my girlfriend been with me, I think I probably would have drawn on him... I'm not willing to draw a dangerous situation out longer than it needs to be by fighting someone when she's around, I'd rather eliminate the threat as quickly and effectively as possible.