Confrontations

A co-worker just told me a tale about a confrontation in a parking lot.

He does not have his concealed carry permit so he was not armed. He did have a Leatherman type tool in a pouch on his belt, this becomes significant later in the story.

He was walking out of a restaurant picking up a carry out order when a man approached him wanting to give him a package. He politely told the man he was not interested in the package and he kept walking towards his vehicle.

The man became belligerent and charged him while making verbal threats.  At the last moment he stepped to the side and let the man charge on past, and when the man turned to face him he had his hand on the Leatherman with that side turned away.

He pulled the velcro flap up on the Leatherman pouch and told the man once more he wasn't interested.  Apparently the sound of ripping velcro made the man believe he was armed, so while still making verbal threats the man turned and walked away.  When my co-worker pulled out his cell phone to call the police, the man ran away.

What would I have done, my co-worker wants to know? I don't know what I would have done, but I am sure that I would have at least shown my carry weapon (as long as I had it, if the restaurant was one that served alcohol I would not have legally been able to have it with me even to pick up a carry out order; if I had been coming home from or going to my defenseless victim zone workplace I likewise would not have had it with me).

I'm too fat and slow to run, I told him, and too old to fight, so that only leaves me one option. If I had had my son with me the time frame for that option would have shortened considerably. I most likely would have drawn and prayed that the man was just a bully and would see that there was no profit in continuing to harass me, and hopefully he would have gone his way. That's the way I think it would have ended up since that is the way it went for him.

When all is said and done everything worked out well, but it is something that he says has been torturing him all weekend.  I told him it was perfectly legal to carry openly without any permission slip from the State, and if he had been openly carrying maybe he would not have been approached at all. We then discussed the pros and cons and the what-ifs and the maybes.

We discussed shooting to wound vs shooting to kill, and I informed him there wasn't any such damn thing. You shoot to stop the threat, as much as you need to, and then you shut your pie hole and get a good defense attorney.  If all goes well you won't need one, but if it goes sideways its better to have one on call. In the end that was the only thing I could tell him.

One thing for certain, it makes me glad I have protection.