My Road Rage experience

C

cobraman

New member
On the way home from work last night I had a close call. I apporached the two left hand turn lanes and merged in the right most left turn lane. As I am closing up on the car in front of me, I see a large red object out of the corner of my right eye and its getting closer. All of a sudden a big old red Caddy is trying to occupy the five feet between me and the car in front. So I jerk the wheel over and jump into the left lane. I gave a little honk of the horn. Big Mistake. The guy driving the Caddy gives the 1000 yard stare. So I reach to bag and put my hand on my Sig. He reaches down in car with his right hand and comes up with a little mouse gun looking piece. He doesnt point it at me but he shows it to me just over the edge of the door. At this point I am clearing leather when the light turns green and Caddy boy pulls away like a crazy person. Like I told my girlfriend "Holy Crap!" My piece never completely left its holster in my bag. Not a good drive home.

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Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart**** That's right I'm a gear whore and proud of it***
 
Sounds like you handled it very well.

Damn, he actually displayed his pistol!? :rolleyes:

I know it would have been completely foolish but it's nice to at least think about showing him yours while thinking "mine's bigger". ;)

Always be prepared. Condition yellow.

CMOS

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NRA? Good. Now join the GOA!

The NRA is our shield, the GOA will be our sword.
 
cobraman,
Glad you and yours are ok. :eek:
That incident sounds kinda like the 405 freeway here in la, la land. (Southern Kalifornia)....real bummer man. :(

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"Lead, follow or get the HELL out of the way."
 
Did you happen to get his license plate number? People like that really need to have a little talk with the police. They probably couldn't make an arrest, but a good scare wouldn't hurt anything.
Eric
 
I didn't get the Plate # really wish I had. He held the piece just above the window sill pointed toward the rear of the car. Kind of like drawing from a shoulder holster.
I feel like FUD now.

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Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart**** That's right I'm a gear whore and proud of it***
 
I'm glad that you are alright.

This brings up an interesting question for others members that I have been thinking about for a while ... if this guy continued to follow you and/or point the gun at you, what is the proper course of action? Show him your own gun and take the chance of being accused of aggravated assualt if the story changes where it reads that you pointed a weapon at someone?

I guess a cell phone might be one option but one that would still leave me uneasy in such a situation.

Again, I'm glad that everything turned out okay.

FUD.
 
I would not show him my gun! Get his license number and do not aggravate him! Let the PD handle it. Let him go on his way, it is not worth it to get into a confrontation with him.

The only time the creep would find out I have a gun is when the first round hits him. Surprise is your best weapon. If he follows me with his gun I will assume he means to use it and take appropriate action, but only after I give him ample opportunities to go on his way.


Geoff Ross
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cobraman: ... I feel like FUD now.[/quote]cobraman, the point that I have always tried to get across in my posts is that this type of stuff can & does happen (but less observant people might not even notice the potential danger around them) and my threads were designed to give members something to think about.

If you read my posts, you'll see that in a majority of them, nothing really happened. Instead, I took a particular situation to the next level by posing a number of "What If's?" sparked by the original event.

Hey Rich, I read a few days ago that you like the FUD Files. How about another sub-forum consisting of these "What If" type of firearms/self-defense situations /questions / experiences (thus freeing up "General" to be more general)? FUD.

[This message has been edited by FUD (edited September 21, 2000).]
 
"You call that a gun?!?!"

(then you show him your MP-5! :D )

But seriously,

No sence in making the situation worse than it already was, he had almost no chance of shooting you from one moving vehicle to another (i've seen this many times in the movies and people almost never get shot :) )

Too bad you didn't get his tags.

such is life.



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~USP

"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998
 
Cobraman, if I'd known it was you, I wouldn't have been nearly as angry.......


Seriously, you did a good job. Just get the plate number next time (easy for me to say.) Not the kind of mistake that gets anybody killed, so let's just call that experience.

Actually, you cop members would know better than I would, but if you could describe the car and the driver, couldn't you still report it just in case? How many red Cadillacs can there be?
 
I don't guess I would have done this however, could you imagine the look on his face (and the mess in his pants :)) if when he showed you his mouse gun you showed him an AR?

Will
 
I had a friend, now retired, that worked for GM on a project for the Saudi Royal Family. They were having a custom Suburban built that had a hidden machine gun. The roof opened and the gun mount extended upward via an electric powered lift. The gun was remotly controlled by the driver. Only really good for spraying the road in front of the vehicle. The M2HB did not work to well as the muzzle blast took out the windshield but the belt fed 7.62*51 guns did well.

Let us see a driver of a red Caddy pull that stunt on a driver of a Suburban with Saudi plates.

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1911's forever, or at least until they come up with a hand held electronic rail gun.
Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Don Gwinn:


Actually, you cop members would know better than I would, but if you could describe the car and the driver, couldn't you still report it just in case? How many red Cadillacs can there be? [/quote]

Sure, even without a plate. Maybe cobraman drives the same route every night. Maybe the idiot decides to tell a fairy tale about him to the next cop he sees. Depending on the jurisdiction, maybe the LEO can`t or won`t take a report. But get his name, badge #, car #, date & time. If something arises, you can show that you were concerned enough to report it. Don`t bother adding that you were armed. It makes no difference in this case.
 
1) I think you did good - nothing good would come of escalting a bad situation. You encountered a bully - he thinks because he has a big car and gun, he will have his way (they usually do, for a while).

2) It would have been nice if you could have reported his tag. Here in GA, waving a gun around like that is a felony. The next person he pulls that on might not be so prepared (not your fault or problem, but the more idiots that are off the roads, the better off we all are). In GA, you would have been legally justified in using deadly force. He showed the 3 qualifiers - Intent, Capability, and Proximity.

BTW, if you ever have to show your gun call the police immediately! If he calls first and reports you, you'll have to prove - at great expense - that he threatened you first. Kinda hard to prove what happened in one brief moment in time, especially if he takes the gun out his car...


[This message has been edited by Danger Dave (edited September 22, 2000).]
 
I am using this experience to live and learn.
Now Don I now it wasn't you. I saw the pictures from EOSM. So I know it could have been you. Unless of course you shrunk alot.

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Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart**** That's right I'm a gear whore and proud of it***
 
Take this same scenario and place an anti or fense sitter in Cobramans place. It is actions like that from this jerk that gives us all a bad name. To an anti or fense sitter he is just another gun owner. :mad:
Cobramna you did well in my opinion. You're right to that Don is hard to miss. He is a mountain. Maybe after Bush is elected he will make Don a national park. ;) (He has the heart and intellect to match his rather large proportions.)

FUD, did you see Mike Irwins post about off topic threads? He has provided a place for TFL'ers to meet and exchange FUD like stories and off topic threads here: http://disc.server.com/Indices/129537.html .
Another big "attaboy" for Mike for doing this for us. :)

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Gunslinger

I was promised a Shortycicle and I want a Shortycicle!
 
Let's use this as sort of a 'Red Zone' discussion. And, FUD, we already, theoretically, have such a forum ... AF/CQC: Alternative Force / Close Quarters Combat is often used for such discussions.


cobraman, I'm assuming that you were alone in your car (if you weren't, this gets even hairier). And, I'm assuming that there was a fair amount of traffic around. I'll also assume that this guy was on your right side, and your passenger door window was up.

Under those circumstances, it seems very unwise to me that we should (1) display our firearm, and (2) even pull and fire our firearm if he points his gun at us.

If I'm sitting in a car, in heavy traffic, it seems to me that it is best to use that car to get away from the guy if he threatens me with the pistol. In heavy traffic, I would run a high risk of causing injury to others if I draw and fire ... especially since my rounds (at least at first) will first travel through my side window. Even if the window was open, this seems very, very risky.

In my experience so far, I have a lot of options and ability if I stay in my car and move out. The minute I touch the gas, he loses any sight picture he might have had. And, I'd rather bump and scrape other cars than be part of a gun fight in the middle of traffic. Only if I felt there was no escape, and he was about to use lethal force would I draw and fire. Simply too much risk to other innocents, and too many options to avoid the nutcase. I am responsible for every round I fire, and 'know your target and what is beyond' would be very, very problematic in this kind of situation.

Very interested in other opinions. Thanks.

Regards from AZ
 
Jeff Thomas you summed it up pretty good. I think I reached from my piece as a gut reaction. Lucky some cars ahead of me inched up and I followed as to move away from this individual. My weapon never left my bag on the seat beside me. I honestly dont think I would have returned fire. Too many people around.
GS. I knew it couldnt be Don the Caddy was in too nice a' shape.

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Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart**** That's right I'm a gear whore and proud of it***
 
Geez guys -
Display of a weapon, especially without witnesses to back it up on self-defense grounds, is considered aggraved assault everywhere I've ever lived.
If you think you need to use your gun, or at least have it instantly ready, try to keep it hidden.
Display to frighten is a really bad idea.
Think out it - cobraman keeps his pistol down on the seat and doesn't wave it around: now the bad guy can't call in his license number and say he was threatened. He wouldn't even know cobraman was carrying.

However, if cobraman shows his piece, the bad guy can still call it in and deny he ever showed a gun himself. Chances are the caddy driver's gun was stolen and not registered to him, but cobraman's probably is.

Result - cobraman is arrested for felony assault, goes to jail, is probably convicted, goes to prison or parole, loses his right to own firearms, etc.

I guess my point is: don't show what you got if you can help it, and it's not a good way to discourage bad guys, especially other drivers.
 
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