I now live in TX where carry is an option but grew up on the east coast, in NJ, and there is no carry there, no matter what any site might list as the virtues of May Issue. I had two incidents back east involving the need for a gun.
In 1994, not long after I'd gotten out of The Corps, I visited some friends at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY, for an autumn afternoon. We were heading back to their apartment from dinner and a couple beers, at dusk, and were accosted by two black kids in hoodies demanding cigarettes. My defenses went up but so did my hands, and those of my friends, when they produced what appeared to be a .38 snubby, visibly loaded.
It was myself, my pal Dan and his housemate. The thieves were calm and cavalier as they worked, one with the gun on us as his friend casually went through our coat and pant pockets. All the while, the gunman exhorted us to be cool. They took the cash from our wallets and threw the billfolds in the bushes, took our watches, which were uniformly cheap, my Camels and my Zippo! and Dan's friend's ring. Then they demanded we remove our shoes, which they threw down the storm grate, and called us chumps and sauntered away around a corner.
It was very cold with no one out on the streets. They were cool and obviously well versed in robbery. I dug in the hedge and retrieved our wallets and we went to a bar on the next block in out stocking feet and called the police who were blase and less than helpful. I drove home in my wool socks, fuming! But, I considered myself lucky. I hadn't been shot, lost my ATM or credit cards or ID and was shaken but unhurt. Fresh from service overseas and a combat vet, I never once thought about taking them on barehanded.
That same year, I was driving down the Garden State Parkway around three in the morning, heading south to my home coming from north Jersey where I'd done some shooting with friends. In NJ ammo and guns must be stored separately during travel so my ammo can was in the trunk of my car and my S&W 686 and Rem 870 were on the back seat in their cases with my range bag. It was a clear spring morning, few cars on the road and I was wide awake and stone sober, listening to the radio and considering a diner stop for coffee and pie.
A Ford Taurus appeared on my passenger side, driven by a guy with his hat pulled low and several other people in the car. He was beeping and making obscene gestures so I sped up a little. Again they paced me, gunning the motor and beeping. Now the window was down and they were waving a baseball bat and what appeared to be a kitchen knife of some kind. I had no cellphone, there was no one else around, I saw no police, we were pretty far between exits. I sped way up, as fast as my little VW Golf could go, and reached back and fished the 686 case into my lap. As they got close to me again I raised it up, so they could see the stainless gun in profile and then extended my arm straight out, pointed the empty revolver at them.
The driver slammed on the brakes and I drove on, setting the 686 back in it's case. I got off at the Cranford exit and went straight to a diner and asked them to call the police. I had the car's plate #, the make, model and color. I was informed in a few minutes that the car had been stolen from a nearby town and went on my way. I did not mention the guns in my car, nor what I had done.
So, there's twice when a firearm MIGHT have helped. In the first, I was not being situationally aware so maybe I'd never have drawn. Or, maybe I'd have had to, given that we were frisked and robbed. In the second, I wasn't in any real danger but had they attempted to run me off the road, the rounds in my hatchback were far away in a locked ammo can and would I have time to get it open, get the gun loaded? Doubtful.
I carry every day, everywhere I can. I am grateful to finally be able to exercise my right to do so. I avoid trouble, dark places, lonely streets, etc. when I can. I am more aware, older, wiser. In the end, Be Prepared and Keep/Bear are part of my daily life. It is better to need my gun and have it then need it and not.
