Road Rage

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Doc Holliday 1950

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You're with your wife & making a left hand turn on a street that has 2 left hand lanes to do so.
You realize your lane is going to merge into one lane . You have cars on your left & cars behind you. You can't stop so you put on your signal that you're coming in but the driver on your left decides not to be a nice driver and he goes faster than you so you can't get into the correct lane. Split second timing, you hit your gas & get into the only lane open to you. The guy who was trolling you slows up, goes around you on the emergency side of the road, pulls up in front of you & he jams his brakes on making you come to a full stop. You realize that you & your wife are on very very dangerous grounds & your wife is terrified.

You've carried 24/7 & are in Florida which has a "Stand Your Ground Law. For many years you've heard & saw many many cases of Road Rage. You realize that this person did what he did on purpose & you have just a few options. So, here's the Question. What do you do ??
 
Nothing, let him have the lane. Unless he gets out of his car with a gun or opens fire on you, you let him go on. If necessary, you apologize profusely. Your pride is not worth your or your wife's life, or doing time in prison. You keep your weapon out of sight unless YOU or your wife is subject to a direct threat.

Sure it rankles, but believe me, the alternatives are worse. Do you know what it means to be arrested, spend time in jail, have to put up every nickel you have to make bail (if you even can), have your guns seized and held until sometime or maybe forever, try to find a defense attorney who will want maybe 20-40 thousand for a defense, and that assumes the you and the other driver are the same race. If not, multiply all your problems by twenty.

Jim
 
I don't want to play scenarios, that is a silly game with no winner. You live in the real world and will have to take the consequences of your actions in that world, not in some fantasy land.

If you cannot move, just sit there. Not easy, but at that point he controls the situation. As long as he doesn't make a direct threat just wait him out. Now if he gets out and approaches your car, you prepare to defend yourself (gun in hand but not visible). If he shows a gun or other deadly weapon, you wait until you have no alternative, then do what you have to do. Don't argue, don't mouth off; when you have NO alternative, use any means to defend yourself and your wife. At that point you are the innocent person; by making that aggressive move he has taken on the role of the bad guy. (If you have a cell phone or a mobile radio, you should have called the police when he first blocked you in.)

If he is as impatient as you describe, he won't stick around long. I would bet he will "gas and go" in about 2-3 minutes.

Jim
 
I'd have to agree with James. No way out without exiting the vehicle, which isn't a good option. If they haven't gotten out and approached, then leave them be until they pull away. If they're just yelling, then let them yell. If they have a weapon in hand, then there's a different set of circumstances.
 
If the other car is blocking the road, and you have a cell phone or mobile radio, you should have already called the police to report the road block. I wouldn't mention any previous events, just that the road is blocked. You are now on record as the innocent citizen. When the flashing lights show up, i suspect the other guy will remember an appointment elsewhere.

Jim
 
Yes, that was originally my exact thought
but life sometimes is not black & white.
For a mili second my choices went back
& forth. Thankfully everyone walked m
away with no missing parts.
 
James K said:
Nothing, let him have the lane. Unless he gets out of his car with a gun or opens fire on you, you let him go on. If necessary, you apologize profusely. Your pride is not worth your or your wife's life, or doing time in prison. You keep your weapon out of sight unless YOU or your wife is subject to a direct threat.

Sure it rankles, but believe me, the alternatives are worse. Do you know what it means to be arrested, spend time in jail, have to put up every nickel you have to make bail (if you even can), have your guns seized and held until sometime or maybe forever, try to find a defense attorney who will want maybe 20-40 thousand for a defense, and that assumes the you and the other driver are the same race. If not, multiply all your problems by twenty.

Jim
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Excellent answer. Also just restate, do not get out of your car. Do not roll down your window.
 
Lets not forget you have a 2000-5000lb loaded weapon in your hands, cocked, and your finger on the trigger, so to speak. An automobile accident is easier to deal with than a shooting, I imagine. You have options. But as has been said, wait'n'see is probably the best choice...as uncomfortable as it may be.
 
I am with James on this. I hate fantasy what if's.

You are carrying a gun, you can't afford to be an aggressor.
 
Lets not forget you have a 2000-5000lb loaded weapon in your hands, cocked, and your finger on the trigger, so to speak. An automobile accident is easier to deal with than a shooting, I imagine.
Click to expand...

The second you use you car as a weapon, it is legally a weapon. Unless of course it is a black military style vehicle.
 
You realize that you & your wife are on very very dangerous grounds & your wife is terrified.
Click to expand...

Assuming this is true, my first move would be to call the police. As others said, stay in the vehicle and don't show a weapon.
 
The second you use your car as a weapon, it is legally a weapon.
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You're right. Poor choice of words on my part. It is a tool at one's disposal. It doesn't necessarily have to be used as a weapon, to be used defensively.
 
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Nothing. There is no information at that point that would justify anything other than being ready.

Would I put hand on pistol, leave it hidden, wait for another move, get out of the situation if possible? Yep. call the cops and wait for further developments. Road rage, or whatever you want to call it when some aggressive beast makes dangerous moves, usually involves escalation. don't escalate.
 
So the guy in front jammed on the brakes... Is he now proceeding? Did he get out of his car? If so, what is he doing? Are his hands empty?

For now - do nothing. Any action from you will likely escalate the situation.

Not really. let's say that we were pretty pinned in this troll would not allow you to go your way.
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Call the cops - make sure the other driver sees that you are on your phone.
 
It seems to me that if the emergency lane was there for him to zoom around you, then it would also be there to provide you with an avenue of escape, should he get out of his car to escalate the situation. Now, if he gets out of the car flashing a gun, and you are in imminent danger, then do what you must to defend yourself and your wife. But in the time it would take for him to get back into his car to come after you, you could zip over into the eee lane and put the pedal to the metal and get some distance between you and him while you call da popo.
 
As MandolinMan and Onward Allusion have stated, your best weapon is your phone to call for police. I would have my wife make the call so that I could stay focused on the situation at hand. And stay in my car at all cost. Try to find a way out of the area with your vehicle.

- P
 
Life is full of adversity and a person should probably accept that from time to time they are going to have to manage a few bumps in the road. Let me say first that given what has been said in the narrative.. this is NOT a gun situation in my mind, not yet anyway. I will also say that I would be hard pressed to accept the need of a gun when dealing with ONE seemingly UNARMED individual, no matter how hostile he/she may be. I will not use a gun to avoid something less than clear imminent life threatening circumstances. What "can or might" happen is very different than what reasonable evidence suggest is "probably" going to happen (right now).

All that said, I would try to avoid contact with the person. I would get a call to the authorities and request help. I would back up or drive away to the degree that is reasonable acceptable under the circumstances to escape danger. If I am able to get mobile, I will coordinate efforts with the authorities to rendezvous with them. The bottom line is that in order for the bad guy to get to me, he has to exit his car. When he does that, I will simply drive away. I will leap frog my way to the authorities in as safe a manner as I can manage. Stop, start, stop start... until I reach them.

[IF] the person with ill intent produces a weapon, I will respond to that in kind. If multiple violent badguys intent on harming me try to remove me from my vehicle..I will do what I must to repel that because in my mind it suggests life threatening danger. One unarmed person is generally something less than that and not likely something I would considering using a gun to manage. To me( in my mind) there are some exceptions but I am simply debating generally.
 
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