Have you ever had a gun pulled on you?

I had a would-be robber try to shoot me with a cross-bow once. I was working in the cash office at a big-box grocery, and he had held up one of the departmental registers, then got greedy and made her take him to the cash office. He hid out of sight so we buzzed her into the countdown room, he dodged around her...she slammed the door behind him and ran. My manager saw him as he came in and hit the panic button, thinking the crossbow was a rifle, which locked the doors. He stood in the countdown area, screaming at us to let him out...we hid around the corner out of sight, heard a couple of big crashes, and I figured he'd kicked the outer door open. I snuck a peak around the corner, and he fired the crossbow bolt into the security glass between us. It went about 1/3rd of the way through, and I went back around the corner again until the cops had him in hand.


Twice with a gun now...Once when I was 19, mugger got the drop on me...I flipped him my wallet (with a single dollar bill and NOTHING else in it) so that it went towards the side he was holding the gun in. He had to twist to catch it with the other hand, which pulled his gun hand around. The instant it was off-line from me, I became a mere rapidly fading speck in the distance...

Second time was a police stop, I was driving home from work and suddenly the entire Columbus, Ohio police department flipped their lights on behind me...literally a dozen cars! They brought me out in a felony stop, proned me, cleared the car and patted me down. Turned out that a guy who looked like me had robbed a bank, then fled in a vehicle identical to mine, with a license plate that matched on 6 of 7 numbers, with the last number on his an 8 where mine was a 3...both round on top (which also meant the guy had been 5 people behind me in line when I registered the car, I just realized that...).
 
A couple of good ones …

Back in ’84 or ’85 a guy mistook me for a dude that was fooling around with his wife … while I was pulling out of the parking lot of a watering hole. The bullet came through the open driver window, passed in front of my head (felt like a light slap in the side of the face), and busted the passenger window into teeny pieces. It was a complete surprise and I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, so I ducked low and showered on the gas. Didn’t look up till I felt the gravel parking lot change to asphalt road. By the time I got back to the place, the guy had hauled butt so I asked around for info. Couple of weeks later, I found him at the same bar. A broken pool cue and a bunch of bruises on the guy later, he paid for the broken window, I paid for the beer, and we were friends. He had apologized profusely while I was beating on him and didn’t fight back(just tried to cover up while saying he was sorry), and I got ashamed of myself for hitting him so much (I was still a bit angry at the time). A gal I was "sorta dating" drove us two drunks home. About two years later the two of them were married. The world’s a strange place sometimes. We’re still friends and they’re still married. He’s a good guy, really. Never heard from others about him doing bad stuff before, nor do I know of any really bad thing done by the guy since. Temporary insanity, I guess.

Back in ’79 or so, was banging on the door of a guy’s place about 3:00 AM(that’s when he said to go by). He hadn’t gotten home yet and I didn’t know he had a roommate. Next thing I know there was this ugly toad pointing a .45 at me through the open door. The toad was cool as cucumber and said "What do you want?". "A Govt model as beautiful as that one" was the wrong answer at the time, judging by the sound of the safety clicking off. (it was a REALLY nice custom job) So I added, "Sorry, I’m looking for Paul. He told me to meet him here.", or something like that. Anyway, I guess we each impressed each other in the following conversation and with our attitudes towards the situation. He’s my closest friend in many ways and for many years now, maybe what some would call my "best friend", but I try not to rank friends and just accept them for what they are ... and he’s a toad, but he can’t help it … the Marines did that to him. :p:D

Several other times, some were good times, some not so good, but none as good as those two …as far as outcomes go.
 
Twice

I was walking into the Acme in my home town while it was being robbed. Two guys, I guess with stockings over their faces and a short side by side. The shotty holder was waving it around as they ran out. Flashed on my face a couple of times. The shotgun was about all I could really see.

Riding my bike thru town and was pulled over. Guns drawn the patrolmen got out of their cars. I fit the description of a guy that had been running around with a knife a half hour earlier. Looked the same from a distance, they knew who they were looking for. After taking my ID they got off me and let me go. Without so much as a "sorry about that".
 
A Glock 9mm feels a bit heavy pointed against your head... Police officer... I won't mention why...

I know it was a .45, and I know it was pointed at me, but I don't know why he was doing so. May have had to do with his daughter... I couldn't see him at the time.

Ex girlfriends new boyfriend wanted to display his 9mm when he thought I was snooping around... Apparently I wasn't allowed to walk under the awning by his bar... I didn't know she and him were dating...

I was shot at while hiking one night, we had no clue there was a house up there...

Neighbor pointed his shotgun at me thinking I was breaking in his truck... He is always drunk... I was going out to my car.

Shot at while I was in L.A. with my cousin, poor choice of friends on his part. I was only 12 at the time. His friends father died.

I think that's it... I hope it's all I ever deal with...
 
Never a gun, but had knife pulled on me not to long ago. I'm not a big guy and most people think I can't take care of myself. Think Doc Holliday, I'm not the tough guy but I'm always there to back up my friends. So I was with my friend it was about 11 and had been an "eventful" night. So we went to his neighbor's garage to hang out. His neighbor is great but his neighbor's older brother is always stealing things and getting high. So we are all having a good time BSing and his older brother comes in, I reach to make sure I have my knife on me and find I don't. So I'm a bit worried, he looks high which makes me even more worried. He just cuts in and starts talking crap to me for no reason, I just ignore him which makes him more angry. He pulls a knife with about a 6 inch blade on me, telling me how fast he is and how he could kill me before I could do anything. I don't show that I am actually worried because I have nothing to defend myself with. He pulls out a pack of smokes and drops them, he makes a mistake and sets the kife down to pick up them up. Quicker than I've ever done anything in my life I had the knife off the table, in my hand, and pointed at him. He then proceded to wimper and not move. I handed the knife to his brother and left. A few hours earlier my friend's brother and his girlfriend were fighting and he ended up getting a gun out, no one got hurt but I was ready to go for the gun at the first sign of trouble, thankfully they both calmed down and I didn't need to see if I was faster than my friend's brother.
 
Interesting that most of these instances do not fall into the category of what I expected when this question was asked. Most of your stories are either of police offices just doing their job, perhaps in some cases a little too aggressively. Or vice versa where the poster actually was the cop and a BG pointed a gun at you. Several other stories are occupational hazards. So far none of those apply to the general CCW world. And several are misunderstandings or people screwing around. In fact, very few of your stories are of actual cases where a BG is intending you harm.

Does anyone else here find this interesting?
 
Oh yeah, and several out of the country stories as well. The middle east and Mexico do not apply to my justification for carrying. Again, just found this interesting.
 
Posted by Cooter Brown:
Does anyone else here find this interesting?
Click to expand...


Not really. You can’t draw any conclusions from that. In a forum, people usually speak up about things that are interesting to them and what they want to talk about at the time.

I purposefully picked two stories that I believe are out of the ordinary and where both sides ended up "winning" (out of the ordinary in itself, imo).
I like out of the ordinary stories. They’re more fun than the normal stuff that is expected, and I suspect most people share this trait. So … that’s why I posted them. Plus, I remember them best because they’ve been thought about more and told more times because I really like it when everybody wins.

Most of my stories would be "bad guy threatens", and ones that I don’t care to dwell on or recount because they seem more ordinary. Also, some remind me of bad times that I don’t particularly care to relive. I kinda hate to admit it, but offhand, I have no idea of how many weapons have been pulled on me by bad guys intending harm to me (or others).

Anyway, anecdotes don’t justify, they illustrate. If you want to justify carrying a weapon, look to the hazards you might possibly encounter, weigh the possibilities of you being able to protect yourself with and without a weapon against your desire to exercise your right to protect yourself, responsibilities incurred by carrying, and decide if carrying is right for you. In the end , it’s just a personal choice that you have the right and responsibility to correctly make. The choice is justified by your percieved need and your right to do so, nothing more. Nothing more is necessary, imo.

To me personally, its usually too much of a PITA to carry. Several people that know the areas I work in think I’m crazy not to. Fine, they can lug around a heavy thing that snags on stuff at every turn and ends up covered in sweat in the 100 degree heat … if they want to. I’m taking the chances I prefer, and they take theirs.
This is not to say that I am unprepared, nor that others choose to carry unnecessarily in the areas that I frequent. I simply prepare differently, and in a way that might not be right for them.

just to get back on topic, another "out of the ordinary" one with a bad guy about to do harm (a 2-for 1 really.) ... from 1986. I quit working in bars a long time ago

A coworker was backing away and yelling my name, his name, and "it’s me" after he pulled a gun on me. … I came to my senses (it only took a second or so but that can be a long time). He would have been fully justified in shooting, no doubt in my mind at all about that. Recognizing his voice "brought me back" after his pistol caught my attention. I don’t think either voice or gun would have done the trick alone, but there’s no way to know, and I had him cornered. Me being "out of it" wasn’t due to alcohol or drugs, if that’s what you’re thinking. I was "on" adrenaline and whatever other natural juices were dumped into my bloodstream after getting mad … He came up immediately after I had been attacked by a few bad guys in the parking lot of a bar where I was spinning records. (The only reason they had given for the attack was that they didn’t like the music I was playing. I was unarmed to begin with, only one of them had a pistol. I also remember a tire iron and a knife, but not much else. I think the other two were unarmed but I've never known for sure. Memory of the actual fight is sketchy because I blacked-out during it.)
 
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It happened to me scarcely two days ago. I was driving to my grandfather's house late at night, having been at a party. I was supposed to stay at his home for the night, then take him to a doctor in another part of the state.
The house is rather isolated, surrounded by a chain-link fence, and he owns several dogs.
I had assumed my parents (who had told me of the plan) had told my grandfather I was coming. As they say, "assume makes an ass out of u and me." Even worse, I had shaved my head, was wearing a backpack with my clothes in it, and since I was planning on doing some shooting later the next day, had a rifle strapped to my back. All that had rather altered my silhouette.
So when I opened the gate and drove inside, the dogs began barking like crazy. I drove to the house and saw my grandmother looking out of the window at me. I waved, and when she left the window I assumed (there's that word again) that she was going to the door to unlock it.
When I walked to the other side of the truck, my grandfather was aiming a Glock at me. :eek:
After I spoke up, he recognized my voice and we both had a nervous laugh.

Lesson to be learned from all, this: Don't assume anything.
 
Hi guys. Unfortunately, yes. I have a different but very common story in one form or another for a woman. Husband number one pointed a loaded revolver at me in the woods and asked me if I was scared. He turned out to be in the early stages of schizophrenia. Husband number two just thought it was cute to post a picture of him pointing a gun directly at the camera (and hence, me) right in front of the toilet in my bathroom. After divorcing this guy, I now shoot his preferred make and model of handgun. I like it. Feels right.
 
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It is funny. To me anyway. It might actually be his gun for all I know. He sold it after the divorce to a local dealer at a gun show. And I bought it from an overpriced place up the street. It's got the tapering on top of the slide, toward the front sight, like the old re-tasked military ones do. Feels very very familiar. Without checking registration, which I don't have the capacity to do, I'll never know. But if there is some kind of karma in this universe, it's his gun.
 
Nah, it's good. I actually laughed a bit. I've spent the last 8 months in ranges a few times a week so my skin is tougher anyway. I enjoy that kind of stuff once I know people are decent underneath. And it doesn't take long. We trade guns, shoot awhile then they seem to want to tell me their life story. It's all good. I'd never know these people otherwise so I think it's a unexpected surprise to add to the joy of shooting.
 
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