I was on a walk with my girlfriend and dog one Friday evening near my home in AZ on a route I had taken many times before. I brought along my LCP2 and an extra magazine loaded with Hornady Critical Defense .380. We were just chatting about how far to walk when we spotted two large dogs with no leashes or owners on the path ahead.Oh shit.Luckily my girlfriend had my dog's leash at the time so I had both hands free. Instinctively I held out my left hand and yelled STOP while my right hand drew my gun from it's pocket holster. I hoped the dogs would run away. Instead, one ran right for us, and let out a growl. By now the gun was in both hands and I fired twice. All hell broke loose.The dog stopped, and whined continuously while folding it's paw. My GF is exclaiming "Why did you do that?" and crying. The dog makes another move towards us and I fired twice again. The dog decides it has had enough and runs away down the path behind us.My left ear is ringing slightly. I holster the gun and pull out my phone and call 911 while I walk to the nearest intersection."Hello I was just attacked by a loose dog and it needs medical assistance." I stammer."A dog bit you?""No a dog ran at me and I defended myself... With my firearm.""Oh you shot a dog?""... Yes." I admitted, feeling foolish for being so vague.Then the operator got my location, and was going to give me instructions on what to do with the gun when a police cruiser pulls up on the path.The officer had a calm demeanor which I definitely appreciated. He had me put my hands on my head and he disarmed me and put my knife and gun in his car. At this point I am wondering if I should call USCCA, but he assured me I was not a suspect of a crime. I was still wary. We gave statements, a supervisor came and talked with him for a bit before driving down the path.About this time a character comes riding up on a bike and asks if we've seen a couple dogs. "Yeah a dog got shot!" The officer replies. Bike guy asks, "Who shot him?" I am standing there by the hood of the patrol car filling out a witness statement and no one says anything. I think he put two and two together and I am hoping that I don't get any retaliation.Bike guy explains that a little girl had the leash, and the dog broke free when it saw another loose dog. The officer does not hold back with this guy, "Well maybe she shouldn't have been holding the leash if she couldn't control it! If your dog ran up to me like that I would shoot it frickin 10 times!" It was nice that the blame was put on the correct party, and to hear someone tell the hard truth.Bike guy calms down and gives his information to the officer. Some officers go to the dog owners house (friends of bike guy), and look for the dog.About an hour after the shooting, the report is finished. He sets my unloaded pistol on the ground and asks me not to touch it until he leaves. I ask if they found the dog, he answers that they did find it down the path and it was headed to a vet. He assured me I did nothing wrong, I am relieved because I was unsure of my liberty during this whole ordeal.We walked the long way home and talked about it all night. We remarked that neither of us saw any blood, and I don't think the dog was seriously injured.TAKEAWAYSSelf defense shootings aren't cool, or fun. It sucks to hurt a living thing but it was necessary to protect my family. I have a dog and love dogs, but would do the same thing over again.If safe to do so, put your weapons on the ground before the police arrive. You can even unload the gun because you are more familiar with it then the police will be..380 is small. 7 rounds is not that many. Accuracy sucks when in a self defense situation. Next time I want to have larger rounds, and more of them. I was able to stop the threat, but only because the attacker ran away. If I needed to kill the dog right then I'm not confident that 7 rounds would get the job done.Be knowledgeable of your state laws. I am in AZ and I don't have a carry license because we have constitutional carry. We also have civil immunity for self defense shootings. I'm sure there are states where shooting a dog is a criminal act under any circumstances, but luckily AZ is not one of themI have a can of dog Mace, but I left it at home. I would have liked to save myself and my GF the trauma of shooting a dog, but that was my best option at the time. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail..380 will not make you go deaf when shooting outside with no ear pro My ear rang slightly for a few minutes only.THANKS FOR READINGI'd love to hear your thoughts and criticisms of my self defense experience. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2veMDEX
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