First week with CCW and had my first "confrontation"

Throwaway account as I am not that comfortable talking about this, but thought it would be good for you guys to hear about. I want to point out right from the start that I screwed up and should have called the cops immediately. That would have been the correct answer in this situation.Anyways, got my ccw about a week ago and have been carrying concealed since then. Yesterday my GF left my house to run some errands. I get a call from her about 15 minutes later that she was in an accident (and her insurance just expired too). I tell her to exchange information with the other driver and leave right away. She says OK and I hang up to drive over there. (I won't go into it too much but they claimed right away that she was at fault and started bullying her, but everything I can see from her story and the damage on the cars tells me they initiated the accident).I call my GF back a couple minutes later and ask what is happening and she tells me that the guys who she was in an accident with want her to get into the store and pull as much cash as possible out otherwise they are calling the cops. I tell her to ask again for their information (insurance and license) and I hear them refuse over the line, "You don't need that from us."I tell her to close her door and lock it at this point. She lets me know that they won't let her close her door and are holding it open. I tell her to immediately run into the store she is outside of and stand near an employee. Again- I should have called the cops at this point.I get to the store, go inside and find her and then walk out with her behind me. These asshole's are pacing in front of the store making sure she gets the cash for them.I tell them that I need the license and insurance from the person involved in the accident. They say again, "No- you don't need that from us."I tell them that yes- I do need that information. At this point they start getting into my personal space. (2 big russian guys- one was a bit old to scare me physically, but both were much larger than me). I put my left arm up stiff arm like and tell them to back away from us.By now camera's are out and the guys are being video taped. I now tell them in a loud voice, "You have refused to give me your license and information after an accident. You need to let us leave and move out of our way. You need to get out of my way and move away from me!" (I said this in a loud commanding voice and am still keeping them at distance by using my arm). The older of the two started trying to slap my hand away during this time but I kept moving and kept it up.I continue to walk my GF to her car but these guys refuse to get out of our way to get her into her car.They are not letting me leave and I don't think at this time I should pull my gun on them (I had another escape still). I tell my GF to run to my car (on the other side of the lot) and move my way in-between them and her so they can't follow.She gets to my car, and then I followed shortly behind. Cops were already called at this point so before I could call they arrived. The Russian fuckers started lying that we were trying to hit and run and claimed they wanted to press charges against me (I laughed in their faces at this point).The people video taping showed the proof of us asking for insurance information and then them aggressively not letting us leave so I was not worried in the least that we would be in trouble. Cops sorted everything out (information exchange) and didn't even ticket the GF for lack of insurance.I honestly don't know what the point of this story is other than the fact that things could have got out of hand fast... If we didn't have another escape route where I could get her safely out of there or they tried to stop me from getting into my car things would have gone a lot different.My personal takeaway is I am going to some additional CC classes in my area (signed up today). I don't know if those will make me more comfortable (or if being comfortable is even a good thing), but learning never hurts.Another thing that is funny to me and stuck in my head... If I didn't have my gun on me, I probably would have escalated the situation into a fight pretty early on in this situation (judging by previous decisions I've made dealing with bullies). Knowing that my escalation point means that someone dies certainly changes how I view these situations (for better or worse). I am glad we ran, and I am glad (and they are lucky) that they didn't decide to stop us from getting to my car. I am still really pissed off, but grateful that this didn't turn out worse./end ramble via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2bdAd0Z