So I thought I'd submit an event for the review of the forum, let the guys here Armchair Quarterback and tell me if I done good or overreacted.
Wednesday, 24 DEC 2008 at approximately 8:30PM. I'm exiting my girlfriends house, about to take (4) friends with me to go look at Christmas lights. As I put my hands on the gate to exit the yard, I hear 3 distinct pops in the distance. It's enough to make me pause, I've now jumped from Yellow to Red. After about 5-10 seconds, I hear no more pops, and decide the ones I heard were a long ways off and are of little threat to me right now, so I drop to Orange and continue out the gate. 2 of the 4 friends are with me at this point, and didn't seem to notice the shots, even after I asked them.
So myself and the first two friends are now in my SUV, waiting on the last 2 people to exit the house. As they make it to the SUV and enter, I notice a white male in a leather jacket walking in our direction (Eastbound) on the opposite side of the street. This male steps off the sidewalk and begins approaching my driver's window, making a fairly polite motion to roll down my window and indicating he wants to talk. POSSIBLY, a mistake on my part, but I comply and crack the window approx 3 inches. He asks me if I've heard any gun shots. I respond that I heard some sort of popping, that I'm not entirely sure if it was gunshots (could've been firecrackers for all I know). He indicated where he thought they had come from, and I responded that I thought they might have come from a different direction, in my opinion. He stands there for a second, not sure if he was trying to continue the conversation, but ends up saying thanks and walking away from my car. He leaves going back the direction he came from (Westbound now) but crosses in front of my headlights, and for the story, this happens to be the direction he indicated the shots came from. As he crosses in front of my headlights, I now see his leather jacket does not cover his belt in the back, and this exposes a OWB black holster with a pistol, the steel magazine is shining brightly in my headlamps. I make the comment to my 4 friends in the car "Hey, he's got a gun". Literally, right after I say that, he raises his right arm and REMOVES THE PISTOL FROM THE HOLSTER. The clear image of a stainless, full frame pistol in his hand out to the side is etched into my mind.
This is the last thing I see from the man. Given that I don't believe he was a direct threat to me, I quickly elect to retreat. I put my SUV in reverse, and proceed to retreat as fast as I can in reverse (before you criticize my emergency reverse, the street was well lit and empty, and I've taken courses in driving that covered this maneuver, I was not a risk to the public by emergency reversing). We got about half way down the GF's block, she's already got 911 ringing on the cell phone per my instruction. We parked, I reported a full description to the police dispatcher and informed her the man was "brandishing a firearm, gun IN HAND". Dispatcher said officers were in route. And that's where my story ends. I pulled a u-turn and made my way out of there.
Personal Review: I'm not a cop. This man did not directly threaten us, did not attempt anything funny while talking to him, and therefore I do not believe it was my place to confront the individual. I had a clear route of escape for myself and the (4) passengers of my vehicle, and believe my best course of action was to retreat. I called the police because brandishing a firearm is against Nevada law. I would not have called the cops if I had only seen the gun on his hip, OC is legal in Nevada. I only called because he brought it out of it's holster. My personal opinion, after dwelling on this, is that this person was an overzealous armed citizen, who thought they'd to protect the neighborhood or something. He might have even been a CCW carrier, I do not know. I feel I did the right thing, I feel Armed Citizens shouldn't be walking down the street looking for trouble except for the rarest of SHTF/EOTWASKI situations, and for all I know the police stopping him might have saved him from wandering into a deadly situation or having another armed citizen taking him out.
Sorry for the long post. Lots of people here post their experiences when something close to this happens, and I figured I'd submit this for the review of my fellow forum members.
Wednesday, 24 DEC 2008 at approximately 8:30PM. I'm exiting my girlfriends house, about to take (4) friends with me to go look at Christmas lights. As I put my hands on the gate to exit the yard, I hear 3 distinct pops in the distance. It's enough to make me pause, I've now jumped from Yellow to Red. After about 5-10 seconds, I hear no more pops, and decide the ones I heard were a long ways off and are of little threat to me right now, so I drop to Orange and continue out the gate. 2 of the 4 friends are with me at this point, and didn't seem to notice the shots, even after I asked them.
So myself and the first two friends are now in my SUV, waiting on the last 2 people to exit the house. As they make it to the SUV and enter, I notice a white male in a leather jacket walking in our direction (Eastbound) on the opposite side of the street. This male steps off the sidewalk and begins approaching my driver's window, making a fairly polite motion to roll down my window and indicating he wants to talk. POSSIBLY, a mistake on my part, but I comply and crack the window approx 3 inches. He asks me if I've heard any gun shots. I respond that I heard some sort of popping, that I'm not entirely sure if it was gunshots (could've been firecrackers for all I know). He indicated where he thought they had come from, and I responded that I thought they might have come from a different direction, in my opinion. He stands there for a second, not sure if he was trying to continue the conversation, but ends up saying thanks and walking away from my car. He leaves going back the direction he came from (Westbound now) but crosses in front of my headlights, and for the story, this happens to be the direction he indicated the shots came from. As he crosses in front of my headlights, I now see his leather jacket does not cover his belt in the back, and this exposes a OWB black holster with a pistol, the steel magazine is shining brightly in my headlamps. I make the comment to my 4 friends in the car "Hey, he's got a gun". Literally, right after I say that, he raises his right arm and REMOVES THE PISTOL FROM THE HOLSTER. The clear image of a stainless, full frame pistol in his hand out to the side is etched into my mind.
This is the last thing I see from the man. Given that I don't believe he was a direct threat to me, I quickly elect to retreat. I put my SUV in reverse, and proceed to retreat as fast as I can in reverse (before you criticize my emergency reverse, the street was well lit and empty, and I've taken courses in driving that covered this maneuver, I was not a risk to the public by emergency reversing). We got about half way down the GF's block, she's already got 911 ringing on the cell phone per my instruction. We parked, I reported a full description to the police dispatcher and informed her the man was "brandishing a firearm, gun IN HAND". Dispatcher said officers were in route. And that's where my story ends. I pulled a u-turn and made my way out of there.
Personal Review: I'm not a cop. This man did not directly threaten us, did not attempt anything funny while talking to him, and therefore I do not believe it was my place to confront the individual. I had a clear route of escape for myself and the (4) passengers of my vehicle, and believe my best course of action was to retreat. I called the police because brandishing a firearm is against Nevada law. I would not have called the cops if I had only seen the gun on his hip, OC is legal in Nevada. I only called because he brought it out of it's holster. My personal opinion, after dwelling on this, is that this person was an overzealous armed citizen, who thought they'd to protect the neighborhood or something. He might have even been a CCW carrier, I do not know. I feel I did the right thing, I feel Armed Citizens shouldn't be walking down the street looking for trouble except for the rarest of SHTF/EOTWASKI situations, and for all I know the police stopping him might have saved him from wandering into a deadly situation or having another armed citizen taking him out.
Sorry for the long post. Lots of people here post their experiences when something close to this happens, and I figured I'd submit this for the review of my fellow forum members.