Yesterday I came milliseconds away from drawing for the first time since having my CCW after a guy at a gas station became aggressive/threatening towards me for not agreeing to give him a ride.I haven't been carrying much lately to be honest. Grabbing my gun before I leave the house just hasn't been something I've been thinking about in the course of a busy day. Yesterday though I had to go to the grocery store and, at the last minute I thought "You know what I haven't taken my gun out in awhile," so I put it on before leaving. I go to the grocery store and theres no problem there. On the way back I decided to stop for gas. I start pumping my gas and I see this guy walking up to me. He's middle aged, a bit shorter than me, but bigger than me in the sense that he's a bit stocky/overweight (I'm 6'1 165-170lbs so not a big guy). I make eye contact with him and he says "Hi sir I'm not looking for money, but my car broke down and I need a ride to Smith's (grocery store)" I respond "Oh, well if you need to go to Smith's thats only maybe a 5 minute walk from here" he says "No I need to go to another Smiths on __ and ___ (cross streets)"For a moment I considered giving him a ride but something about him seemed off. He didn't look homeless or anything. He was well put together, but just seemed a little weird. So I responded "Sorry man I can't do that. I have a newborn at home and have to get back ASAP (which was true)" At this point he looks agitated but seems like he is going to turn around and walk away. Instead though he aggressively says "You know what, you're a real piece of shit". As he says this he steps toward me. I extend my arm, and step over the pump to get on the other side of it (which is still in my car) to put some distance/an object between us and I say something like "Whoa whoa take it easy". He becomes more agitated and aggressive and starts pointing his finger towards me and saying stuff like "What do you think I am some bum?! Huh?! You fucking asshole!". Honestly from there I don't remember what he was saying because my adrenaline started pumping and I sort of blurred it out but he begin stepping towards me, saying aggressive and threatening things. I backed up a few steps, while extending my arm in a sort of stiff arm pose toward him to maintain distance. All the while I'm yelling at him to calm down and go away but he isn't listening. After a few moments of him advancing towards me (we're now about 15 feet from where we started because he just keeps coming at me) I put my hand back and grip my gun, though it still concealed under my long shirt. I decided that if he was going to push this any further I was going to draw. He sees me do this, and I don't know if he realized what I was doing or what but he stops moving toward me although he's still being aggressive and talking shit. Finally he begins to back away and as he does he's saying things like "You better get the fuck out of here if you know whats good for you. I'll be back in a few minutes and you better fucking be gone" After he was a safe distance away I took my hand off my gun, hung up the pump and got out of there. I could see that he was still watching me from across the parking lot even after I had gotten into my car, still looking agitated like he was considering coming back over.Anyway there are a few lessons I took away from this1) Always carry your gun. Your friends might think its stupid. Your girlfriend might think its stupid. You might get complacent and start forgetting it, but you never know. 80% of the time lately I haven't had mine on me. I was lucky that the one time I decided to carry in maybe the last month is the one time I've had an experience like this.2) Everyone in these types of encounters tells you about the adrenaline factor and its definitely a real thing to worry about. I was able to process things rationally while this was happening and make decisions about what I was going to do, but it definitely took conscious effort to do so. I also didn't expect the adrenaline to have such a pronounced effect on my memory of the event. Much of the dialogue I described is approximated as I have almost no memory of what was actually said in the moment. I now understand how people often get things totally wrong when they describe events to police afterward.3) Really study up on the laws in your state and when it is legal to draw/fire so that there is no question in the moment. I am generally knowledgeable but found myself in this situation on the fly thinking "Should I draw? Would it be legal for me to draw and fire? I mean he's been verbally threatening and is moving toward me but he hasn't taken a swing or produced a weapon so should I draw?". In the end I made up my mind that if he continued coming towards me after putting my hand on my gun, I was going to draw, but perhaps I would have legally been within my right to draw earlier, and perhaps even fire. I don't know for sure. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2nPTCk8
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