Have You Pulled Your Gun On Someone?

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Tomcat47

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A couple other threads made me think....Thus This Thread!

My occasion was returning from a trip out west, stopping at a rest area (one with no facilities just a lighted pull off with park spaces) in eastern tennesee.

As I pulled in I noticed 1 vehicle in parking lot, it was around 2 am, foggy, it ws very dark other than parking lot area. I was on dash mounted cell phone (circa 1993) talking to my dad, giving him ETA and what.

The 1 person that was present at onset was kinda suspicios to me but no real alarms going off. I had been setting there for about 3 min. and the guy walked by front of truck and down passenger side dissappearing out of rear view. Now I am alert, scanning mirrors. He reappears farther away from passenger side and walks back across front of truck and back to his (?) car.

As I watched him lean on his car in a nervous jerk, I told my dad that I was in a situation, at that moment the guy ran back across front of truck, down passenger side and back up by drivers side window and looked me in the eyes and swiftly returned to his car fender. My dad said get out of there.

As I reached for key he began rushing drivers side of truck, sticking his right hand in his pocket, It was like an automatic reaction from me because before I realized the chain of events I had rolled the window down and he met my Beretta 92 at about 3 feet from window and got to here the hammer pull back...As I yelled in a loud voice Can I (Fudgin) Help You!

He back pedaled as doing the backstoke in the olympics and fell on his ass and rolled over backwards, jumped to his feet and busted the woods wide open, I havent seen deer run that fast into the woods.

It was funny at the moment, but it was an elightening moment! First time I had ever pointed my pistol at another human. And as I pulled away, realizing that my dad was still on phone.....He said well I guess he didnt like your Beretta! (he was truly worried at the onset of it, but it turned out ok) Maybe he give that idea up for a living...we can only hope.
 
more than once. the most significant time ended with the guy on the ground at my pistol point and his being arrested by the local sheriff's office. he was in my back yard at 1030 PM-uninvited.
 
Just wondering, as it was an obviously stressful situation. Did your trigger finger rest safely outside of the guard or did it find it's way to the trigger?
 
I give this post about 20 more minutes before the axe...
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LOL nah, it's a reasonable enough question I suppose. Problem really is that it's been asked thousands of times already and a few minutes with the search would bring up a TON of threads on it.

I've had to do it 3 times, once at the request of an LEO I happened to be around. None of the incidents are something I ever want to repeat.

Once in my back yard when I was a teenager, guy was trying to drive his car through our back door. Turns out his BAC had no blood left in it :)

And another strange attempted car jacking situation a few years ago in downtown Dallas.
 
It was actually on the guard! My brother was an auxillary deputy when I was in my mid teens and I spent a lot of time with him on shooting range.

and I do not see why this thread should get the axe.....

This stuff really happens in life!

As long as everyone takes the high road with no graphic detail and hopefully only endings as mine or the arrested, uninvited guy.

any way what will be will be :)
 
I wouldn't exactly call defending yourself, "pulling a gun" on someone. I had a home invader about fifteen years ago and encouraged him to wait for the cops. He remained mostly calm for the 45 minute response from local law enforcement. Thankfully, I only lived a mile from a police station with 70 officers working out of it. The criminal was so tired of waiting he wanted me to either shoot him or let him go. Lying prone on a sidewalk in January was not as fun as he imagined.


I bet researcher Gary Kleck is right, there are thousands of times when the mere presence of a firearm deters crime without firing a shot.
 
i just have to say, the fact that this sentence:
He remained mostly calm for the 45 minute response from local law enforcement.
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was followed by this sentence:
Thankfully, I only lived a mile from a police station with 70 officers working out of it.
Click to expand...
is just amazing.


i never pulled mine, but did show it once as a young man in south dallas, and my older brother had a spirited debate about how my bro's money should be split between the two of them.

he felt that he should rightfully be entitled to said funds, and requested it as my brother filled the truck with fuel.

it was very cold and my brother had gotten out of the truck and shut the door. i stayed in the truck on the passenger side and was listening to sports radio not really paying attention (i know, my bad)

all of a sudden the door opened and my bro was backed into the opening between the truck and the door. the man was so close that he was also between the truck and door, and they both could see me and i made eye contact with my brother and could see that he was quite distressed.

i then just leaned forward, like you do when you check your blind spot in your side mirror, saw that there was nobody behind or beside the truck on my side, unlocked my seatbelt and door, and stepped out onto the ground, but still in the door opening.

by this time my brother and the man watched me step out and i had both of their full attention. my brother wasnt looking at the guy, and the guy wasnt looking at my brother anymore. they were both looking at me.

i went to my shirt and coat with my left hand and cleared the way for my kimber pro-carry 45acp to be snatched out, and put my right hand on the pistol in full view.

by this time, seeing what i was doing, my brother had gotten very small in his door. that is to say he hunkered down toward the dash and squatted down, and at the same time, the man went from sort of leaning over toward my brother to standing straight up with his hands in his pockets.

he didnt try to run away. it was too late. the next thing he said was "please sir, dont shoot me" ,,,, i started saying "take your hands out of your pockets" but didnt get the whole sentence out. he realized what i was going to say and instantly did it.... i asked him to step back and keep his hands where i could see them, and he immediately complied, and thats when the strangest thing about the whole deal happened.

he walked backwards far enough where he was no longer a threat, turn, and ran across 8 lanes of city hwy traffic, and never looked right or left to see if any cars were coming. he just ran. its a miracle he didnt get plastered right there in front of us.

my bro and i were both pretty shook up by the whole ordeal.

this happened one year ago this friday, on new years eve.
 
I guess I am just lucky or boring. Except for Vietnam and being a LEO I have never drawn my weapon as a civilian.
Situational awareness is a good skill to practice.
 
Gunfacts states that 92% of successful gun defense situations are resolved without ever shooting the assailant. Criminals respect guns.
 
For me it was 20+ years ago, working armored car. Never pointed it or fired it. I once had three "gold chain peddlers" follow me through an airport. Mr. Model 66 came out, three jerks made a u turn and got away from me, real quick. I would probably be arrested if I did that in todays political climate. We pulled out the K-Frame anytime we felt the need.
 
As an armored courier ,many times and had to aim it at 3 with raincoats that ran up to the truck door with hands in raincoat pockets.They actually challenged me to shoot - I said I was about to= just show me your gun and they left.

After I was LEO it was a frequent thing to do arrests at gunpoint = felony arrests.

As citizen again - happened too often.Not much to tell but was interesting and nerve wracking.

Wont bore ya'll with details,but a gun has saved my butt more than once.
 
I have never pulled, threatened nor shown anyone a handgun I was carrying in the USA, the others don't count.
 
merlinfire said:
Gunfacts states that 92% of successful gun defense situations are resolved without ever shooting the assailant. Criminals respect guns.
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That is good to know. I have a CCW and have always wondered at what point it would be appropriate to draw your weapon. This information is helpfull to me in determining that.

I've never had to do this, the closest I've ever come is when a burglary suspect went fence jumping through the neighborhood to evade police. I heard commotion and yelling from the back yard, I grabbed my pistol and looked out the window. The offender was on the ground, in my yard, with three police officers standing over him.

My uncle has had to face an assailant at least twice. He did not have to shoot on either occasion. I'd probably have a story like this too if I had stayed in Memphis :eek:
 
Lying prone on a sidewalk in January was not as fun as he imagined.
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I've got a question about this. Now say the suspect got up and ran the other direction? You obviously can't shoot him when he's running away from you -how legal is it for us as CCP holders to pin somebody down and threaten them with harm? The way I understood it was once the threat was neutralized you need to put your gun away. Maybe I'm wrong???
 
A man attempted to open my (locked) passenger door, and I put my hand on my gun in it's "spot" but I saw the guy coming, always have my doors locked and already established a safe path to drive off. I do not know if my guy ever even saw the gun but he stopped what he was doing when he found the door was locked.

So like bikerdoc said, situational awareness was used in this case.
 
2004 I was managing a gas station, I shut down and headed to my car whch was parked just outside the door. A guy came at me from the other side of the car and I promptly told him to stay on the other side of the car. He immediately tells me that he isn't going to hurt me which sends my red flags flying. Long story short after he repeatedly told me he wasn't going to hurt me and trying to come around the car I put my Bersa .380 in his face the third time he decided to try to come around the car. He quickly started to back pedal and appologize. We both went home in once piece and noone got hurt,so happy ending!
 
I've never had to draw on somebody since I've had my Ohio CHL.

On the other hand, I had to point a loaded HK93 at a guy on the Interstate in the middle of the night back in '84. A friend and I were driving from Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis back to Fort Knox. To make a long story short, we canceled on being the OPFOR for a friend's military Explorer post because of some politics and were headed home. On the way back, a guy cut us off and tried to force us off the road. I loaded my friend's HK93 and pointed it at the guy through the windshield. We hadn't changed before we left, so we were still in "foreign" military uniforms. I had my friend hit the dome light just as the other car almost touched our front bumper. When the other driver saw a "foreign soldier" pointing an "assault rifle" at him, he took off going about 110mph. I wouldn't at all be surprised if he ruined his engine in the process. We'd already seen evidence that he'd tried the same thing with someone else, and were later told by another friend that he'd tried the same thing with him.

Serial killer and child molester Alton Coleman was doing his mid-west tour at the time, so it's entirely possible that it was him.
 
You obviously can't shoot him when he's running away from you -how legal is it for us as CCP holders to pin somebody down and threaten them with harm?
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I'm not a cop.
I don't want to be a cop.
I don't want people to think I'm a cop.

I don't do "apprehensions". If I have to pull a gun on you and you run away before I shoot you, the LAST thing I want to do is keep you in close proximity to me where you can continue to be a danger to me.

The only reason why I didn't shoot the guy in my other post was that I wasn't physically in a position to do so yet.

Not too long ago, a guy in New Mexico or Arizona called 911 and told them that he was holding a home invader at gunpoint in his home. He did EVERYTHING correctly, including describing his location and appearance. When police arrived, one of them shot him in the back repeatedly, without trying to ascertain the situation or even seeing the gun. That's just one more reason why it's a bad idea to try to "detain" people if you can at all avoid it.
 
I have done it many times in the line of duty...

As I am aware of the problems of pulling a gun on someone in a civilian application, it would be the last thing I would do now...

In some ways carrying ccw will keep you a calmer person, right up to the moment it is needed, then you are truly commited and will fire it, not just show it...

Been my way of thinking for some time now...Sort of a secret until exposed:D

When the time finally arrived for action and not just words, this man had the right idea IMHO

Bernhard Goetz...

Goetz fired an unlicensed revolver five times, seriously wounding all of the would-be muggers. Following this incident, he was dubbed the "Subway Vigilante" by the New York press, and was both praised and vilified in the media and in public opinion.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Goetz

Regards
 
I'm not a cop.
I don't want to be a cop.
I don't want people to think I'm a cop.

I don't do "apprehensions". If I have to pull a gun on you and you run away before I shoot you, the LAST thing I want to do is keep you in close proximity to me where you can continue to be a danger to me.

The only reason why I didn't shoot the guy in my other post was that I wasn't physically in a position to do so yet.

Not too long ago, a guy in New Mexico or Arizona called 911 and told them that he was holding a home invader at gunpoint in his home. He did EVERYTHING correctly, including describing his location and appearance. When police arrived, one of them shot him in the back repeatedly, without trying to ascertain the situation or even seeing the gun. That's just one more reason why it's a bad idea to try to "detain" people if you can at all avoid it.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% - some of these post are kind of blowing me away with their bravado. It's like an episode of cops in their front yard or something. They're apprehending perps and what not. It sounds like some will pull their gun out simply because you approached them too quickly at a late hour. Where I live that will get you a trip to the County Motel real quick, and I don't like their menu.
 
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