“Carry your f***ing guns, people!”

[ericire12]

I missed this story, but its a really great read. Caleb over at Gun Nuts Media had a close enconter with the criminal kind and gives a very poetic recount of the event.

BTW #1 Caleb will soon be making an appearance on The History Channel
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/05/28/historys-top-shot/

BTW #2 Its a coffee post in the Down Range Cafe ~~~~~~~~~~~ Thats delicious!


http://gunnuts.net/2009/10/26/dont-bring-a-knife-to-a-coffee-fight/

Don’t bring a knife to a coffee fight
Posted on October 26, 2009 by Caleb

It’s not exactly easy for me to come up with a humorous way to segue into this post as is my normal routine for dealing with serious topics.  So I guess I’ll just go with the old “damn the torpedos, full speed ahead approach”.

The short version of the story is that on Saturday leaving my office, I was the subject of an attempted mugging by a member of the Indianapolis Choir Boy School of Good Men Who are Only Down on Their Luck.  As I was leaving my office, said altar boy came around the corner of my building to the left into the side parking lot, and as I turned to face him noticed the knife in his right hand.  The Chaplain’s Assistant demanded that we engage in an abbreviated barter process, wherein I would provide my wallet and car keys in exchange for not getting shanktified, which to him probably seemed like a reasonable exchange.

I politely demurred by hurling a cup of hot Starbucks at him while fishing my Beretta Jetfire out of the stupid pocket holster it was riding in.  After taking a face full of Columbia’s most popular legal export and confronted with a counter offer of bullets to his previous barter exchange concept, the young gentlemen decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made all due haste in a westerly direction.  For my part, I locked myself in my office, called 911 and waited for the cops to arrive to take my report.

Now, while I did write out the AAR slightly tongue-in-cheek, what happened to me is a deadly serious thing.  I was mugged in broad daylight, not 20 yards from the parking lot of a semi-popular video store.  Two days later, I can look back on this after talking it over with some cop friends and other self-defense types and gather two important take-away lessons that I’ll be remembering for quite some time:

1.Awareness is king.  Because I heard/saw the guy as he came around the corner, I was not caught completely flat-footed when my world went abruptly pear-shaped.
2.Action > reaction > passivity.  My wife asked me later “why did you throw your coffee at him?”  My only reply, and which remains my reply is “seemed like the thing to do at the time” – but from a 10,000 foot view, tossing my coffee had major impact on the encounter which was to switch the initiative from my would be attacker to me.  By throwing my coffee, I was forcing him to react to my actions instead the other way around, which gave me the opportunity to retrieve a better weapon than a cup of coffee.

The moral of the story for me anyway is twofold: keep your head up.  While you can’t be in condition orange or yellow or whatever all the time, there are certain times when it behooves you to keep your head on a swivel.  Secondly, as pdb is fond of saying, “carry your f***ing guns, people!”  It’s impossible for me to know what would have happened had any number of variables gone differently, but one that I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about was “what if I only had that cup of coffee and didn’t have my Beretta with me?”  On Saturday, a .25 in my pocket beat hell out of the 9mm I left sitting on my desk at home.

[Ping]

Absolutely right!!!!!! I carry all the time. I'm not paranoid, I am prepared.... 

[fightingquaker13]

Absolutely right!!!!!! I carry all the time. I'm not paranoid, I am prepared.... 

Damn straight! They really are out to get us, every single one them, just look that bastard over there!
FQ13 who likes to think he isn't paranoid either, but its a good bet that if I'm wearing pants, I'm carrying.
PS +10 on the improvised weapon. Probably the first time a cup of Starbucks was worth the $4.

[Ichiban]

Outstanding reaction and outcome.

Short of shooting him in the back, I don't think I would have been as charitable in my negotiations.

[WatchManUSA]

Great advice - I just patted my LCP.

[Sponsor]

[ericire12]

.
PS +10 on the improvised weapon. Probably the first time a cup of Starbucks was worth the $4.

I think it was a great reaction... a hot cup of coffee can be a valuable stunner to buy time to either escape or draw your gun.



As a side note - when I was in high school a friend of mine was the target of a half assesed attempt at a mugging. My friend was walking out of a subway sandwhich shop when the purp approached and asked to "borrow some cash". My friend hit him with the sub (a footlong) a couple of times and was able to make a hasty escape.

[tombogan03884]

1.Awareness is king.  Because I heard/saw the guy as he came around the corner, I was not caught completely flat-footed when my world went abruptly pear-shaped.
2.Action > reaction > passivity.  My wife asked me later “why did you throw your coffee at him?”  My only reply, and which remains my reply is “seemed like the thing to do at the time” – but from a 10,000 foot view, tossing my coffee had major impact on the encounter which was to switch the initiative from my would be attacker to me.  By throwing my coffee, I was forcing him to react to my actions instead the other way around, which gave me the opportunity to retrieve a better weapon than a cup of coffee.

“carry your f***ing guns, people!”

a .25 in my pocket beat hell out of the 9mm I left sitting on my desk at home.



All very good points

[Walter45Auto]

I have at least one with me all the time if legal to carry there. If Not legal, I try to avoid that place if at all possible.

[Timothy]

These learning moments are why I'm working on my fourth license for a neighboring state.  It's too easy to find yourself over a state line around here and though a few don't prosecute if you're "just passing through", I don't take the chance.  I'll probably not bother with Rhode Island.

[kygunnut]

Some people say that because I am paranoid I carry a gun.
I respond that because I carry a gun I have no need to be paranoid.