Have you ever bluffed to avoid a confrontation?

[ojibweindian]

I don't bluff. Too much of a hassle, and I'm not very good at it, anyway.

 

[Ivy Mike]

You'd be surprised how a mock drawing motion can quickly change someones mind. You don't pull out an empty hand but reaching around your back (like you're carrying at small of back) and kind of lifting your shirt as if to clear the holster and keep your focus on your would-be attacker. If they think you've got a gun, they may think better about rushing you.

However, if you get your bluff called, you had better be ready for a nasty fight.

 

[Mandirigma]

You'd be surprised how a mock drawing motion can quickly change someones mind.

You'd be surprised at how quickly that escalates things

 

[Gadget]

The only time

took this out

 

[george29]

Never. I only bluff when I can afford to lose.

 

[Zedo]

You'd be surprised how a mock drawing motion can quickly change someones mind. You don't pull out an empty hand but reaching around your back (like you're carrying at small of back) and kind of lifting your shirt as if to clear the holster and keep your focus on your would-be attacker. If they think you've got a gun, they may think better about rushing you.

Legally, if you're posing an armed threat, you're putting the other person in a position to shoot you in defense. "He threatened me with a gun."

Reaching in the pocket, behind the back -- any move that might suggest you're going for a firearm. That's the legal tipping point that puts the other person in a position to fire upon you.

In discussing lots of confrontations with lots of police, what becomes apparent is that any time there's a "violent confrontation" generally both parties are guilty of precipitating the incident. This is particularly true of confrontations in traffic. Police responding to violent confrontations don't generally "pick sides." Just because you called in the complaint doesn't mean you're not the jerk in the confrontation. Watch a couple episodes of "COPS" and you'll see this issue demonstrated repeatedly.

"I have a gun." or "You'll get shot." -- are armed threats. They're legal bearing varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Mostly, they're an escalation of the confrontation. In most jurisdictions, you're legally bound to DE-escalate the incident.

Your best defense is de-escalation. Shut up and MOVE AWAY.

If you need to shoot, they don't get to know you have a gun until the bullets are flying their direction.

 

[Gatordad699]

Bluffed once without knowing it.

Was visiting a friend in Tennessee. He always has a firearm on him. He was in the Navy with me and I think (never asked or proven, that he even carried to work, since we were in nuclear power, an even bigger no-no). We went out to dinner at a Steak and Shake. Just sitting there minding our business when two real bad looking skinhead types walk in. I mean bad, over 6" easy, shaved head with only a ponytail, swastika tatoos, etc... For one of those unknown reasons in life they walked straight to our table and started the crap. I am 100% sure in my thoughts that my friend is carrying, probably his USP 40. Because of this belief I use my best Navy command voice and convince the two gentleman that they should leave us alone. After a few minutes they do leave. I get the manager and order him to call the cops. Once that is done I ask my friend which of his many firearms he is carrying. His reply is, of course, "Uh, none, I left it in the car." He almost sustained injury from me. When we left the police had the two gentleman in the position with a gun and very large knife from each laying away from them. A reminder that leaving it in the car does no good.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

About 4 months ago, I walked into our local drug store, and a creepy looking guy was leaning against the building. He looked at me as I entered, and somehow I knew he was going to do something when I came out, like ask for money, ask me to take him somewhere, whatever. I came out with my stuff and he starts the brief conversation:
Creep: I like your jacket
Me: Thanks
Creep: How 'bout we fight for it?
Me (turning to face him): You don't want to fight me
Creep: Oh why's that?
Me: A dead man don't need a jacket
Creep: Yeah, you do look kinda big

I wasn't armed that evening (lesson learned) and didn't know anything about him, but I figured if I acted any way but tougher than him, he wouldn't quit. It was over in a flash, not even long enough to get the adrenaline going, but it taught me a lesson about leaving the gun at home. Seems as long as I have it on me, this kind of crap never happens, and I like that.

 

[Rob Pincus]

You can't bluff to avoid a confrontation. If you're bluffing, you're in one.

 

[jpsimms]

yeah, I have a lot. Normally a good stare, or just acting tough works.
But this one time in a bar about 2 years ago one really drunk mouthy guy, his girl, and his 2 big friends wanted some trouble. I didn't want any, had not offended them, but I was the biggest guy in the place, so I guess worth a try for them. after some trash talk the guy says he is gonna kick my [expletive deleted], I adjusted my leather jacket on my shoulders and said "Listen buddy, I don't wanna fight you, so if you don't make me pull it, your girlfriend doesn't have to identify your body." As I reached into the jacket they ran off.

I was un armed, ready to fight, but 3 on one would have been bad for me to say the least. It worked, but that's the only time I said something like that to bluff my way out of a fight.

 

[orvpark]

two, I wasn't old enough to carry at the time.

I was a supervisor on the night shift at your friendly brown truck loading dock. When I got off at 4:00am I stopped in at the only place in the ghetto open for a bite to eat and some gas. I paid at the pump and went in and paid cash for my food. When I walked out there was a guy (read he had 100lbs on me) leaned up against my car. I asked him to step back so I could pull the pump out and go home. He told me it would cost me $5 I told him I didn't have any cash but I would get him a smoke out of my console. I walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. I reached in and told him to [expletive deleted] off or I would smoke his [expletive deleted] with my piece. He turned as white as a man of color can and sped off.


A few months later I was commuting with a friend (read frat boy that likes to fight and WILL win). We were in his Jeep when we pulled up to the same friendly gas station a man who looks like he's had a needle in his arm approaches us for a "buck". We say sorry no cash and proceed inside. We come back out and he is leaned up against the back of the Jeep smoking. I tell my friend to just put it in gear so he knows we are coming back and surely he'll move. No luck.......in fact he comes around yelling and kicks the drivers door of my friends (brand new) Jeep. I yell " Dustin DUCK I'm gonna blow holes in this guy!" Just as the cops pull up, apparently the clerk in the store called the cops. Dustin just about streaked his tighty whities, he bought my bluff too.

I was unarmed in both instances...............and these two instances helped convince me to not be so as soon as possible. I avoided this place from here out.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

the one problem with a bluff? the guy who calls it. a fact i'm reminded of everytime i run my tongue around my mouth where my right upper inciser used to be

 

[B yond]

You'd be surprised how a mock drawing motion can quickly change someones mind.

That's a horrible idea!!! A mock drawing motion can get you shot by someone who's NOT bluffing. Not too long ago some kids with an unloaded gun were 'bluffing' people into giving up their money, until they tried it on someone who called their bluff. Now at least one of them is dead. DO NOT bluff with or about guns, unless you're going to die if you don't.

Bluff all you want about being a tough-guy. That's (hopefully) just gonna get you beat up if someone calls it. You bluff with a gun or about having a gun and you've just escalated the situation to lethal force.

My $0.02.

 

[theken206]

nope, i dont bluff lol

 

[distortion9]

You'd be surprised how a mock drawing motion can quickly change someones mind. You don't pull out an empty hand but reaching around your back (like you're carrying at small of back) and kind of lifting your shirt as if to clear the holster and keep your focus on your would-be attacker. If they think you've got a gun, they may think better about rushing you.

However, if you get your bluff called, you had better be ready for a nasty fight.

You'd be surprised at how quickly that escalates things

That's a horrible idea!!! A mock drawing motion can get you shot by someone who's NOT bluffing. Not too long ago some kids with an unloaded gun were 'bluffing' people into giving up their money, until they tried it on someone who called their bluff. Now at least one of them is dead. DO NOT bluff with or about guns, unless you're going to die if you don't.

Bluff all you want about being a tough-guy. That's (hopefully) just gonna get you beat up if someone calls it. You bluff with a gun or about having a gun and you've just escalated the situation to lethal force.

My $0.02.

FWIW...

I guess I was around 19 or 20. Me and a couple of my friends were on our way to a party when this car load of kids our age comes screaming by us, cuts us off, locks up their brakes then gets on the gas again. My buddy was driving and he gets on the horn and flips on the high beams. They slam on the brakes again and my friend cuts the wheel, punches it and tries to pass on their right. Other car swerves towards us and runs us off the road where we miss a street light by a foot....both cars stop and start to empty out.

I'm in the back seat and get out on the passenger side and start around the back of the car as a kid in the other car is coming around the back of their car. He has a baseball bat at his side and starts bringing it up over his head while letting loose a stream of threats and profanities. I freeze, reach behind my hip (no gun, don't even own one) and scream, "DROPTHEBAT!!!!!!!!!!!"

The bat was on it's way to the ground before I finished speaking. He backed off, hands in the air, telling his buddies to get back in the car. They all piled back in and took off.

My other friend saw the whole thing and was like, "Dude, I didn't know you carried a gun." I said, "I DON'T"...I smoked like 50 cigarettes right after that.

Dumb, smart, luck, divine intervention? I don't know but, it worked and everyone went home alive. Other then begging for my life, I don't know what other option I had.

 

[Mandirigma]

Other then begging for my life, I don't know what other option I had.

um, how about staying in the car?

but I understand youthful mistakes, btdt too many times.

 

[Oana]

The above post reminded me of a bluff by Ronald Reagan, way back in 1933:

"Reagan Was Hero To Iowa Woman"

Former President Ronald Reagan is known as the "Great Communicator," but one Iowa woman will always know him as her hero.

Melba King (pictured, pictured below right) was a 22-year-old nursing student in Des Moines in 1933. She was walking home one autumn night when a mugger came up behind her with a gun and demanded her money.

At that moment, Ronald Reagan -- who was a Des Moines radio sportscaster at the time -- came to her rescue. Reagan pointed a .45-caliber revolver at the robber from the window of his second-floor rented room.

"And he said, 'Leave her alone or I'll shoot you right between the shoulders,'" King told KCCI.

Reagan scared the man off and calmed King's nerves. Then, the future president said he would walk King home.

King didn't see Reagan again until 1984, when Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad heard her story and invited her to an Iowa caucus campaign event (pictured, above left).

After King and Reagan hugged on stage, Reagan laughed, and said to the crowd, "This is the first time I've had a chance to tell you the gun was empty. I didn't have any cartridges. If he hadn't run when I told him to, I was going to have to throw it at him."

King's rescue became a national news story. "The phone rang constantly," King said.

All the media attention caused Reagan and King to stay in touch. The two families exchanged cards on birthdays, holidays, and during times of sickness and grief.

The Reagans helped King when she lost her husband Harold in 1987, and now she will send Nancy Reagan a sympathy note.

 

[Griff]

RR is a tough act to follow, but you may get a kick out of this old story:

One 'ponce a time some Army buddies and I were out walking around Taegu, S. Korea, when 3-4 drunk locals spilled out of a Soju bar, right into our path. Or theirs. We stopped short, exchanged looks, and figured out that they were not very happy to see us. Heavy breathing, hearts pounding time. Oh, boy...

As soon as the tension got to be too much, I just kinda went for it and started doing the Hare Krishna song and dance routine. You could feel a pin drop for a moment, then, before we knew it, everyone in both groups was singing and dancing and laughing together.

I hate Soju. Love Koreans.

 

[Gottahaveone]

Once, sorta. I was living in Colo at the time and a buddy had asked me to take the barrels of an old side by side that he had to our machine shop at work and do a nicer job of shortening them to 18 1/4" inches than he could have done with a hacksaw. The next weekend I was driving over to his house to take them back when two bozo's came tearing thru traffic, driving like maniacs and at the last second cut in front of me to get onto my exit lane. They didn't miss my front bumper by more than a foot. I didn't see a real reason to change my speed at that particular instant, and kept that foot distance for about 30 seconds before backing off to a safer distance. The driver was waving in a gesture that I took to be telling me I was number One in his book. I just smiled back at him, like one would do to a foolish child. We exited the highway and were apparently headed in the same general direction because I made the same next two turns on surface streets that he did. By this time I thought the whole thing was over and was very surprised when the light in front of us turned red and they both jumped out of the car. I knew there wasn't a car behind me and threw it in reverse and backed up about 25 feet.The passenger stayed where he was and the driver came walking back to my car, raising cane and talking trash. When he was about 10 feet away, he asked me if I was looking for trouble. I had laid the barrels so that the business ends were on the crook of my left elbow, and I slowly raised my elbow up and rested it on the window sill and asked him "Why? Do you have some trouble for me?" He responded "No Sir" turned around without another word and drove off thru the red light. It wasn't a complete bluff, I had already decided that the barrels, held by the muzzle end and with the heavy lock block on the breech would have made a dandy club should it have come to that. No, that wasn't perhaps the perfect way of handling it and I'm sure I'll hear about all the errors I made that day. But it worked out well in the end and everybody went home that night. I guess that is a good enough ending. And the look on his face made the shakes from the adrenal dump worth it

 

[308win]

In poker you bluff to get caught. In a self defense situation that would be a deal killer.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

as some others here - sort of. I had a .22LR Ruger semi-auto pistol against a .22LR rifle and who knows what else. I emptyed a clip at a pick-up truck with 2 rednecks looking for trouble one night. and I had only 1 spare clip left. I was camped out in a remote area of WNC and had a fire going, the reds came up the trail (I had ridden a BSA Lightning up it, I had TT tires on it) and 'investigated' my camp, I had the pistol hidden under the fold of my sleeping bag. I knew one of the reds as trouble and recognized him when they started up the trail. maybe they saw the hatchet I had handy and demurred from any attack - I don't know. I had a reputation as a 'scrapper' at that time and maybe I was recognized.
As it turned out they left and when getting back to the truck I layed my sights on the truck interior light. In just a few minutes .22LR shots came my way, I was behind a boulder with my shooting arm layed on it. I returned fire and heard slugs hitting sheet metal they scrambled getting out of there.
I heard them get to pavement about 1/2 mile away and I packed up and went deeper into the woods, spending an uneasy night with the cartridges I had left until daylight when I got the Hell out of there as fast as that 650 could take me.
Since then I've carried another magazine full and a spare box of cartridges on my M/C camping trips. sometimes a back-up pistol my Beretta .32acp.
you just can't take anything for granted these days - if you ever couild.

 

[biggiesmalls]

i BLUFF to my girlfriend about going to the range so as to avoid a CONFRONTATION. i tell her i'm going to physical therapy. does that count?

 

[SamG.]

Marlin, sounds like you need a bigger gun!

 

[Nicky Santoro]

Have you ever bluffed to avoid a confrontation?

Bluffed? No. I have asked if the individual had ever been bashed in the head with a pipe, or stabbed, or shot, and if they hadn't, today would be a whole new experience for them. Bluffed ? No.