First off, if this doesn't belong here in /r/CCW, I apologize - I thought it was the best place for this. Mods, please let me know if there's a better sub. Secondly, sorry for the length of this post. I don't have a shrink to talk to, just Internet strangers.TL;DR: Got caught in the middle of a gang-fight on a well-traveled highway, almost got carjacked, shots were fired, and even though I thought it was fun, I'm still pissed I was disarmed by Maryland's shitty laws.So last night my flight got into BWI Airport (Baltimore) at around midnight and I had to cab home to Northern Virginia. We're coming down the Baltimore/Washington Parkway with light traffic, when a BMW blows past us at 80 mph, weaving between cars. Within seconds, the BMW crashes into a car two cars ahead of us, and we skid to a stop. The guy in the SUV next to us opens his door to see if everyone is alright, when the driver of the BMW runs towards both of us. He's wearing black pants and a black shirt pulled over his mouth and nose, and carrying a semi-automatic pistol.He runs up to the SUV (the driver of which has gotten back inside), and bangs on the window with his pistol yelling, "Get out of the car, get out of the car!" He punctuates his demand by firing his pistol into the ground twice. He is four feet off our right front quarter panel. My cab driver throws the car into reverse and tries to swerve around the cars behind us to escape. The gunman turns and looks at us. We both said, "oh shit" at the exact same time.The gunman looks past our cab and notices a truck behind us, who is now trying to plow through the stopped cars in front of him in order to get to the gunman. His eyes go wide, pulls a Curly, and leaps the median barrier to flee into the northbound lane, presumably to escape the guys in the truck who are likely much badder than he. My cabbie hits the gas, slaloms around the crashed cars, and gets us the fuck out of there, di di mau.Random thoughts (of which I'm only capable right now):This all took place over the course of three minutes.We were in an 'initiative-deficit' position from the very start.I was completely calm, and even slightly amused, during the entire three-minute shit show. I'm probably a sociopath.There was no hint whatsoever that we would be in a running gang-fight, nothing we could've done to put us in a safer position. That was profoundly sobering.Because I was coming from the airport (flying in from Chicago to Maryland), I was necessarily unarmed. Didn't stop my hand from going to where my pistol should've been.At one point, we could've easily smashed the car into the gunman, pinning him between our cab and the SUV. I didn't offer that suggestion because of the risk of not killing him, and him shooting back.Even if we/I had acted to neutralize the threat, we had ZERO indication that there were other bad guys behind us.We both though it would've been funny if the gunman had accidentally shot himself, either directly or by ricochet.The cabbie got a $100 tip for saving our collective bacon. We bro-hugged when he dropped me off.Fuck Maryland and everything about it: your refusal to recognize my VA CCW license, my constitutional right to self-defense, the out-of-control gang problem, and especially the Ravens.What are your thoughts? Have you guys been through anything like this? I felt absolutely helpless without my CCW. And that's the reason I refuse to drive into Maryland. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2dTQRWX
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