I posted this in another forum and the best responses told me to share my story here so me and others can learn what to do in a situation like this.To start I live in a ghetto part of town where there are always sirens and gun shots at night, violence and just overall crime, one of the highest in the nation right now.Anyways my girlfriend and I were walking my dog around 5pm and we were about a block away from my own house when my gf pointed at another house just a ways down. I looked up and see a figure dart back into the house super quickly. As this was happening a sketchy man walked passed us and said "I like your red shirt [to my girlfriend] and brown dog." This set off alarms in my head before I knew clearly what was going on. Then I noticed that man was saying it into his phone and was likely identifying us. I looked back at the house where the other man had darted and noticed that the car parked in their driveway had its window smashed. Then adrenaline kicked in like crazy and I grabbed my gf and told her to keep walking and stay close to me. A car parked a blocked down peeled away and started following us. She didn't know what was going on so I yelled at her to keep walking and stay close (wasn't thinking).Luckily or unlucky we were only a block away from my house the whole time, but before we could get in,the car that was following us parked in front of us and honked his horn twice to talk to us or something. The way he was looking at us was terrifying. I don't know if he was trying to bribe or intimidate us for witnessing a crime. I ignored him and ran into my house and grabbed my gun just in case.Now this may seem like a bunch of coincidental events, but where I live break ins happen and usually there are a couple lookouts and witness intimidation is not uncommon. Also the reason we know he followed us is that the guy identified our clothing while on a phone, was parked just a block away from the break in, then peeled off and followed us a single block down to park in front of our neighbors house trying to get us to talk to him or intimidate us.After we run in the house and both of our adrenaline is through the roof and one of my roommates comes home. I tell him what happened and that we are freaked out. We're also freaked out because they know where we live now.Then after a while my dog starts going crazy at the front door. He can recognize when it's a roommate because he won't bark at them. I'm still on an adrenaline rush and my dog is going crazy and my gf tells me to get my gun, so I grab my gun and go to the front of the house. Nobody is knocking, dog is barking, and my roommate is still in his room not answering the front door. So I load my gun and it rang out distinctly. Immediately my roommate rushes out and yells at me that it's just his friends. He didn't tell me he was inviting people over right after this went down, and didn't answer the door even though he could hear my dog going crazy which my dog normally doesn't do. So I put away the gun before he opened the door and ran back in my room feeling terrible.I feel awful because there is no way they didn't hear the gun being loaded and I feel like I intimidated them and that I'm overly paranoid. I didn't talk to them because I was too embarrassed and don't know them. And now I question if I should have even drew a weapon to begin with or should I have waited until I knew for sure someone was breaking in. I was in such an adrenaline high I couldn't think straight and that scares me because I don't know how to control my thinking with that much energy surging through me.[Updates] I talked to my roommate today and apologized and luckily his friends didn't notice the gun being loaded from outside, but still feel really bad about it and irresponsible.This is what the other sub told me: Should have called 911 when we got home just to be on the line, stayed in my locked bedroom then draw the weapon, and communicate better with my roommates so they knew we still felt like we were in a dangerous situation.We didn't call the police because at the time I was thinking it was an immediate danger and where I'm from it takes them over 25 mins because they are servery understaffed so a gun seemed a safer bet. I get that was dumb now because I would have had better legal standing if the situation had been different.Should we have just kept walking past my house so they don't know where we live, or would that have been more dangerous to be exposed and unarmed?What's the best thing I could have done and what precautions should I take now?Are there any techniques to think more clearly with that much adrenaline? It was one of the craziest feelings I've ever had, and I don't understand how anyone can think in that state of mind without making dumb mistakes that could end up being life endangering.Any other insights? via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2gzBYOy
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