parking lot incident

[Seismic Sam]

Had something similar but a lot less scary happen to me last Thursday. The wife works at a practice up on North Rice Street on Thursday (it's right across from Born's Bar, so it's the BAD part of Rice Street.) and she doesn't want to get her Audi A4 convertible dinged up or stolen, so she drives my truck with the gun stickers on it on Thursdays, and I get the convertible. So I pull up in front of the EFFEN Gopher Bar after work, and I have the top up, and stop the car and pull the keys out of the ignition. All of a sudden this large street person comes waltzing through the Kat Keys parking lot looking all over the place, and I realize I'll probably pass him on the way to the bar.

Then the situation escalates and he walks in front of my car and around to my window, and stands there. WTF?? At this point I am giving him the stink eye, and have my right hand firly wrapped around the 50, and ask him through the closed window what he wants. He stares at my posture and the fact that my right arm is cocked with my hand inside my sportcoat, and after a few seconds hesitation asks if I know where he can get a tire fixed. I say NO, and keep my hand on the gun under the coat, and he goes away. Thinking about it later, I am reasonably sure he was trying to set me up for the old "gee buddy, my tire went flat on the freeway, and can you drive me over to my friend's place to get a spare tire scam" where the guy will pay you a lot of money later if you just give him $20 to pay for the tire from his buddy.

It was defnitely a good day to have a gun on you!!

P.S. - You did great, Sparky!! Was this the Tamarack Home Depot??

[GregM]

Had something similar but a lot less scary happen to me last Thursday. The wife works at a practice up on North Rice Street on Thursday (it's right across from Born's Bar, so it's the BAD part of Rice Street.) and she doesn't want to get her Audi A4 convertible dinged up or stolen, so she drives my truck with the gun stickers on it on Thursdays, and I get the convertible. So I pull up in front of the EFFEN Gopher Bar after work, and I have the top up, and stop the car and pull the keys out of the ignition. All of a sudden this large street person comes waltzing through the Kat Keys parking lot looking all over the place, and I realize I'll probably pass him on the way to the bar.

Then the situation escalates and he walks in front of my car and around to my window, and stands there. WTF?? At this point I am giving him the stink eye, and have my right hand firly wrapped around the 50, and ask him through the closed window what he wants. He stares at my posture and the fact that my right arm is cocked with my hand inside my sportcoat, and after a few seconds hesitation asks if I know where he can get a tire fixed. I say NO, and keep my hand on the gun under the coat, and he goes away. Thinking about it later, I am reasonably sure he was trying to set me up for the old "gee buddy, my tire went flat on the freeway, and can you drive me over to my friend's place to get a spare tire scam" where the guy will pay you a lot of money later if you just give him $20 to pay for the tire from his buddy.

It was defnitely a good day to have a gun on you!!

P.S. - You did great, Sparky!! Was this the Tamarack Home Depot??

What sort of holster do you use? And was your setbelt fastened at the time? I keep a shooter concealed in the map compartment, but I always wonder how quickly I'd be able to get it out ...

[Greg]

Is it possible that your gun "prints" through your clothing? he may have noticed this or somehow figured out you were carrying and possibly thought he could snatch it from behind? after you turned around , his odds changed quit a bit.

Yeah lets blame the gun for someones elses bad behavior.

The right thing to do in this situation was exactly as you did - as for further options - there are plnety of people here that would be willing to put you through a class.

That's hardly "blaming the gun", or the attempted victim for that matter, and it's a valid question.

The scumbag is still a scumbag, but there is no reason to set yourself up as a potential victim, not saying she did, but it's something to consider.

[joelr]

Is it possible that your gun "prints" through your clothing? he may have noticed this or somehow figured out you were carrying and possibly thought he could snatch it from behind? after you turned around , his odds changed quit a bit.

Yeah lets blame the gun for someones elses bad behavior.

The right thing to do in this situation was exactly as you did - as for further options - there are plnety of people here that would be willing to put you through a class.

That's hardly "blaming the gun", or the attempted victim for that matter, and it's a valid question.

The scumbag is still a scumbag, but there is no reason to set yourself up as a potential victim, not saying she did, but it's something to consider.

And, for that matter, he may not have been a scumbag (although that is the way to bet).

Some years ago, I noticed a well-dressed woman in a parking lot at Southdale, walking rapidly toward the entrance a briefcase in her hand, and repeatedly looking at her watch, as though she was rushing to an important business meeting. I thought about walking up from behind her (as I was more behind her than to the side of her, and she was walking away from me kind of obliquely), and pointing out that she had a piece of toilet paper stuck to her right rear heel, and then decided that coming up from behind her could easily have been misinterpreted, and that shouting, "Hey, lady -- you've got some toilet paper stuck to the heel of her shoe" might not have been well-received.

If I had come up to within a couple of feet behind her so that I could mention it quietly, and she had turned to glare at me, I'm not sure what she would have thought, but it might not have been entirely charitable.

In practice, I decided that I'd already done enough good deeds for the day, and let it be her problem.

[Seismic Sam]

[
What sort of holster do you use? And was your setbelt fastened at the time? I keep a shooter concealed in the map compartment, but I always wonder how quickly I'd be able to get it out ...

As far as the seatbelt was concerned, it was OFF because I already had the car stopped and in park. If it hadn't been, a simple button press pops it loose, and the reels on both an Audi A4 and a Nissan Titan are strong enough to pull it up out of the way in a second, literally.

As far as the holster, I use an hbeleatherworks.com IWB with the standard 15 degree rake on the 2" clip, I wear a Spec-Ops Better BDU belt, and a pair of regular fit jeans that are quite snug. I carry at 3 o'clock, and due to the belt and the tightness of the jeans, the gun stays put even when I sit. The grip of the gun is against my right love handle with the butt pressed against the seat, and I can easily grab it (and I did last Thurday!) when I'm seated. The other thing is that this holster is extremely comfortable to wear (check the leather thickness on the left side) and rides VERY low in my waist, which helps keep it out of the way when I'm driving. When it isn't on me, the Nissan Titan has a center console between the seats that's also lockable, so I can grab it in an instant if it isn't physically on me.

The holster was custom order and Eric even molded a recess in it for the laser grips, and it was about $75. The only drawback is that with this kind of quality and prices, you have to wait a couple of months to get a holster from hbeleatherworks.

[aviator]

The book that mnxd9 is referring to is "The gift of fear" which is the first book I recomend anyone read. We all advocate retreat before any other action and using our natural instincts are a way to acomplish that. It is written by Gavin DeBecker and sadly, toward the end, he pointedly suggests that guns not be considered as part of the defensive equation. Know your target, Hank.

[Aceq2jot]

Had something similar but a lot less scary happen to me last Thursday. The wife works at a practice up on North Rice Street on Thursday (it's right across from Born's Bar, so it's the BAD part of Rice Street.) and she doesn't want to get her Audi A4 convertible dinged up or stolen, so she drives my truck with the gun stickers on it on Thursdays, and I get the convertible. So I pull up in front of the EFFEN Gopher Bar after work, and I have the top up, and stop the car and pull the keys out of the ignition. All of a sudden this large street person comes waltzing through the Kat Keys parking lot looking all over the place, and I realize I'll probably pass him on the way to the bar.

Then the situation escalates and he walks in front of my car and around to my window, and stands there. WTF?? At this point I am giving him the stink eye, and have my right hand firly wrapped around the 50, and ask him through the closed window what he wants. He stares at my posture and the fact that my right arm is cocked with my hand inside my sportcoat, and after a few seconds hesitation asks if I know where he can get a tire fixed. I say NO, and keep my hand on the gun under the coat, and he goes away. Thinking about it later, I am reasonably sure he was trying to set me up for the old "gee buddy, my tire went flat on the freeway, and can you drive me over to my friend's place to get a spare tire scam" where the guy will pay you a lot of money later if you just give him $20 to pay for the tire from his buddy.

It was defnitely a good day to have a gun on you!!

P.S. - You did great, Sparky!! Was this the Tamarack Home Depot??

Was there a ATM near by?? There used to be a couple of guys who worked Roseville a couple of yers ago who looked very intimidated who would approach people in nice rides and spin a story about how they needed to borrow a few dollars to get a new tire etc. When you say i dont carry cash they would direct you to a near by ATM get the money scribble an un readable addy and Book it.

[1911fan]

Call the manager, HD usually keeps Video tapes for a while, they might find that the guy was a wanted person
or a known predator

[mnxd9]

The book that mnxd9 is referring to is "The gift of fear" which is the first book I recomend anyone read. We all advocate retreat before any other action and using our natural instincts are a way to acomplish that. It is written by Gavin DeBecker and sadly, toward the end, he pointedly suggests that guns not be considered as part of the defensive equation. Know your target, Hank.

Well I give and take a little from everything I read, I think we can figure what my take is on a hand gun not being part of the equasion, other than that lots of good points to consider.

[SethB]

The book that mnxd9 is referring to is "The gift of fear" which is the first book I recomend anyone read. We all advocate retreat before any other action and using our natural instincts are a way to acomplish that. It is written by Gavin DeBecker and sadly, toward the end, he pointedly suggests that guns not be considered as part of the defensive equation. Know your target, Hank.

Well I give and take a little from everything I read, I think we can figure what my take is on a hand gun not being part of the equasion, other than that lots of good points to consider.

I think you're better off if you don't consider a handgun part of the defensive equation, up until it's too late not to. That maximizes your chances of not actually needing to.

[Andrew Rothman]

I'll second the recommendation for "The Gift of Fear." It has enough insight into criminal behavior to justify ignoring the author's anti-rights stance.

(I also still listen to Cat Stevens' music sometimes...)

[Rags]

I do not recommend the De Becker book -- not because I've read it and found it wanting, but because I saw the guy beng interviewed on TV and he was too obviously anti-gun to be taken seriously. Yeah, I know, that doesn't invalidate his stance on paying attention to your fears. I agree: Pay attention to your fears. I need a whole book for that?

But the guy was just creepy. He said, looming over the interviewer like a vulture, "Have you ever heard of anybody stopping a crime with a gun?" The interviewer hadn't, apparently. This is a snippet from a blog item I wrote that hasn't been published yet because I don't have a blog:

He is clearly anti-gun, if you take his words literally, but you’re not supposed to. He finesses his views in a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t sort of way, so that he emerges as not really anti-gun, just anti-, er, um, anti-something else that you probably wouldn’t understand.
In a 2000 interview in Guns Magazine, De Becker is asked repeatedly about guns, and artfully evades an answer like a matador caping a bull. He says, “. . . we are at a place, culturally, where it's important to take note of the impact of handguns. [Oh, right, we never noticed.] For example, for the first time in our history, the leading cause of death to teenage boys in America is gunfire. When we were kids, the leading cause was car accidents.”
Which sort of sounds reasonable until you think about it. He goes on to claim that cars got safer, which is true enough, but that “guns got more dangerous and more accessible.” He also claims that gun manufacturers have not improved safety in 200 years.
This is just plain wrong, and he undoubtedly knows it. In the first place, the “teenage boys” reference evokes an image of youthful hot-rodders. The actual demographic today is Crips, Bloods, and Vice Lords – that’s who’s shooting each other at a staggering rate.
More accessible? No, since 1968, many restrictions have been placed on gun sales.

[joelr]

I agree: Pay attention to your fears. I need a whole book for that?

No, you don't. (I think there's more good stuff in the book, but nevermind that, for the moment.) But while you're not unique in that, a fair number of people I've talked to have had their eyes opened by reading that book. While I agree with others about him being an idiot on the gun stuff, he's right on what is, for most folks, most of the time, far more important stuff.

An fraction of an ounce of situational awareness and -- with apologies to General Patton -- taking counsel of one's fears will get folks a lot farther in life than a couple of pounds of gun. Yeah, I know: people are better off with both, but first things first.

It's why I've become more tolerant, over the years, of the battered womens' advocates not getting into the gun stuff. Sure, they're wrong . . . . but all the other stuff (mainly the getting out, or, more accurately, the failure to get out) has gotten a lot more abused spouses (term used precisely) crippled and/or killed than the failure to get armed.

[Andrew Rothman]

I do not recommend the De Becker book -- not because I've read it and found it wanting, but because I saw the guy beng interviewed on TV and he was too obviously anti-gun to be taken seriously.

It's ridiculous to reject anything without examining it on its own merits. If the top expert in, say, Linux, happened to be anti-gun, would that make his Linux book useless?

De Becker's book is too valuable to dismiss because he thinks with his politics on one issue.

Why not read a copy from your local library before passing judgment?

Pay attention to your fears. I need a whole book for that?

Well, sure, every author knows that a title completely defines the content of a book.

[hammAR]

It's ridiculous to reject anything without examining it on its own merits. If the top expert in, say, Linux, happened to be anti-gun, would that make his Linux book useless?

Well color me ridiculous, yes I would refuse to purchase his Linux book if he was openly anti-gun and supported such causes, I will not give him money to spend against me. The same goes for why I do not use Paypal, ebay, and others that support causes that attempt to eradicate my Rights and privileges.........