Longtime shooter, but new to CCW. Had an experience (thankfully uneventful) today that hopefully you all can learn from.Earlier this afternoon I popped over to a buddy of mine's house to get some work done on my car. He's been trying to get into shooting, and I've been shooting pistols since I was a kid so I decided to bring my CZ to teach him a bit about it.I'm not used to carrying because I've only recently gotten my CCW permit. Because I was going to be rolling around under a car, I opted to keep the firearm in an OWB holster clipped to some MOLLE webbing inside my tool bag. My buddy still hasn't been able to make it to the range, and has told me he's a little nervous about handguns so I just threw in an empty mag with a snap cap. No actual bullets - I didn't want to stress him out because his kid was around. I assumed it would be 'straight there, straight back'. Dumb mistake.Our repairs went well and I was driving back home when I was merging onto the highway, and spotted a broken-down motorist. Riding high on the 'we can fix it' attitude and conveniently placed to stop to help out, I did. Turns out it was two really big sketchy-looking dudes. I'm average-sized, wearing a computer science t-shirt from the local college, and drive a lightweight hybrid car. If something were to happen, it wasn't a situation I felt like I'd be able to win. Red flag.They had a blowout on their left driver-side tire and the jack stored in their truck wasn't tall enough to lift the frame up to remove the tire. I said something to the effect of, "Man that's really shitty that the jack that came with your truck doesn't even work for it." And they said "Yeah, nah. It's not our truck. Borrowed." It was hard to understand what he was saying, and when I did it seemed really unusual. Red flag.I loaned them my tiny-ass jack and they actually got it lifted enough to remove the busted tire. I'm hanging back in my car, took a picture of them, their plates, and sent all that (with my location) in a text to my girlfriend. Just trying to keep some distance. These guys didn't know how to use a jack or change a tire very effectively. Guy #1 calls over to me to ask about how to get the tire off. As I'm going over to look at the left-rear tire, Guy #2 is walking to the cab out-of-sight on the passengers side. Red flag.I get sketched out and say "Nah man, sorry I don't know" (in reality he just had to kick it off, something my buddy taught me half an hour prior). I didn't want to get distracted by getting involved with the repair. Guy #2 could have easily gotten around to my right side, and with Guy #1 to my left, the only open route I would have had was into traffic. Red flag.As I'm making the way back to my vehicle, I realize I left the keys in the cupholder. The car has a proximity sensor and push-button start. Even if nobody clubbed me over the head they could have just run over to my car, turned it on, and drove off. With my unloaded handgun. Dumb mistake.Eventually they got the tire off and the repair continued. I grabbed my keys and started hanging around the back right quarter panel of my car, in case somebody not paying attention decided to just plow into our shit. In that moment I feel like I got a good glimpse into life as a highway cop: trying to balance helping people out, keeping a healthy paranoia about people you don't know, and keeping an eye out to avoid getting run over. Actually insightful.They successfully finished their repairs without incident, I got my jack back, and nobody got hurt. I'm glad I helped, but I'm berating myself for not handling myself better.Lessons learned:If you have a gun with you, at least carry the damn bullets.Being able to carry on-body is important. Try and do it whenever you can. I couldn't easily work on a car and carry a gun the size of a Glock 19. I have an IWB holster but didn't bring it. I should have brought a loaded firearm in the IWB holster, took it off to work on the car, and then put it back on.Have a little reflective triangle in your car. I have a good roadside kit I put together but apparently neglected the triangle in favor of flares. Flares aren't as useful in daylight.If you don't have a roadside kit in your vehicle, put one together. You'll need it more often than a gun. If you do have one, go organize it, because I'm sure you've pilfered tools from there and neglected to put them back where they should be :)If you pull over to help out a stranded motorist, take pictures and let a loved one know where you are. Text every 10 minutes.Be alert. Have some healthy paranoia but let it stop you from helping someone(s) in need.Take it easy.(Scenario) because I don't know how to flair via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2oX5Sve
No comments:
Post a Comment