CCW Have you ever had the need if we had it?

[Babaganoosh 192]

CCW and the lack thereof for us gets talked a lot about on here. No here is what I think is a good question. Has anyone here been in a situation where they could have used CCW? If yes feel free to give details on the situation. Were you actually hurt? Were you robbed?

 

I am 33 years old. There is only one instance in my life where I would have benefited from having CCW. The problem is I would have not been carrying anyway since I was coming from a bar/club.

 

Three of us were coming out of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. We got there a little late so had to park on the street approx one block away. There were a few people milling around waiting for cabs near the door but it was late and most people had already gone home. We were walking to our car and a guy was walking about 15 to 20 feet behind us. When we got to the car (Jeep Cherokee) the guy approached and asked us for money. Now normally I didn't see an issue with this because there are usually a few panhandlers in that area asking for money and a guy who tries to wash windows at red lights. So we answered. "No sorry man". His voice changes and he pulls a revolver from inside his waistband and points it at us. We are all within 3-4 feet of eachother and our backs to to the truck because we were getting ready to get in. He says, "No you don't get it, GIVE me your money".

 

I end up giving him approx 80 bucks, he actually hands back my debit card, credit card and license. Says "just the cash". My buddy gives him 40 or so. My other friend had spent all his money at the bar. He tells us to stand there till he walks away and not to call the cops. He walkes about 50 feet up into the ghetto apt complex and dissapears.

 

We end up calling the cops a few minutes later. They take a description. Approx 30 year old, 6 foot, black male. Kinda pointless considering thats the makeup of Asbury Park. We don't follow up on it because the chances of us recognizing the guy 4 weeks later when they ask us to look at a photo line is slim to none. Especially considering it was dark and we all had a few drinks.

 

So thats it. Thats the only time in my life so far that I could have used CCW. The bad part is I wouldnt have had it on me anyway so moot point I guess. When I look back the guy obviously targeted us. He obviously has done it before, and he knew what he was doing. I was about 22 at the time and if the guy had anything but a gun we would have prob attacked him. Make that definatly. The lesson learned was to be a little bit more aware of my surroundings especially when drinking. The fact that I lived in Asbury for a few years made me too comfortable and off my guard.

 

Yes I know, someone is gonna chime in and say yes it's better to have it and not use it then to need it and not have it. Also I think some people might have more instances then I do since barring living in Asbury for a few years I have lived in mostly crime free areas.

[bry@n 195]

My experience was when I was younger. In a bar (go-go joint) with a buddy. There were a few associates/ aquaintances (kinda hard to describe) that got into an issue and one came to me for help. I didn't like the guy but knew the nutjob he was dealing with and just handed a 20 spot for him to get away from me. Needless to say, his actions brought me into it.

 

Enter the bathroom and the nut job was in there. Two sentences later, I have a gun at my head, then a straight razor, then the gun again, then he is telling me to grab the gun. probably like 10 minutes of this going on and I was very clear through the entire thing. Main focus was to get out of the bathroom. His buddy (nut job #2) walk in and they are going back and forth a little, next thing you know NJ#2 starts banging on walls to get himself pumped up and in walks the bouncer. I'm now out of the bathroom but it's not over. I explain this to my buddy who just craps himself and decides we need to leave. While following him and trying to tell him things are just not gonna be that easy, I drop my keys to get a look behind me.

 

Sure enough, they are right behind us. I stop and just sit down, watch my friend walk out the door and watch NJ #1 & 2 go out as well. The bouncer sees something is up and walks over. I let him in on it and he's like ahh (I'm tough, forgetaboudit) I will walk you out. As he walks out, the guy is flat against the door, gun in hand, aimed at whoever exits.

 

I called friends that NJ didn't know, to bring me a firearm (lorcin .380, thought I was bad a**), so I can handle my business. When they walked in, they said nobody was around. I left without issue, gun drawn and locked/cocked.

 

I swore to people that knew us both, that if I ran into him, I wouldn't let there be a chance of it happening again. I got a call 2-3 weeks later that he blew his head off playing russian rollette with his buddy, in his bedroom, infront of his wife and with a .44 revovler.

 

End of story, case closed.

 

While I wouldn't be able to carry because of the bar etc...probably would have been able to have something in the car maybe. I dunno. I was a different person back then and have tried to become a model citizen.

[vladtepes 1,060]

My experience was when I was younger. In a bar (go-go joint) with a buddy. There were a few associates/ aquaintances (kinda hard to describe) that got into an issue and one came to me for help. I didn't like the guy but knew the nutjob he was dealing with and just handed a 20 spot for him to get away from me. Needless to say, his actions brought me into it.

 

Enter the bathroom and the nut job was in there. Two sentences later, I have a gun at my head, then a straight razor, then the gun again, then he is telling me to grab the gun. probably like 10 minutes of this going on and I was very clear through the entire thing. Main focus was to get out of the bathroom. His buddy (nut job #2) walk in and they are going back and forth a little, next thing you know NJ#2 starts banging on walls to get himself pumped up and in walks the bouncer. I'm now out of the bathroom but it's not over. I explain this to my buddy who just craps himself and decides we need to leave. While following him and trying to tell him things are just not gonna be that easy, I drop my keys to get a look behind me.

 

Sure enough, they are right behind us. I stop and just sit down, watch my friend walk out the door and watch NJ #1 & 2 go out as well. The bouncer sees something is up and walks over. I let him in on it and he's like ahh (I'm tough, forgetaboudit) I will walk you out. As he walks out, the guy is flat against the door, gun in hand, aimed at whoever exits.

 

I called friends that NJ didn't know, to bring me a firearm (lorcin .380, thought I was bad a**), so I can handle my business. When they walked in, they said nobody was around. I left without issue, gun drawn and locked/cocked.

 

I swore to people that knew us both, that if I ran into him, I wouldn't let there be a chance of it happening again. I got a call 2-3 weeks later that he blew his head off playing russian rollette with his buddy, in his bedroom, infront of his wife and with a .44 revovler.

 

End of story, case closed.

 

While I wouldn't be able to carry because of the bar etc...probably would have been able to have something in the car maybe. I dunno. I was a different person back then and have tried to become a model citizen.

 

wow.. you just about completely threw your life away.. good thing it all worked out..

[GAPP 11]

I was held up at knife point by two guys when I was 21 (they took me for about $40 but no injuries)... I was assualted by 4 guys a few years after that (dislocated jaw and a messed up hand but I put one of them in the hospital)... and I almost walked in on my house being robbed a few years ago (not really a CCW issue but if I had walked in on them while they were there, it could have been). If I could carry in this state, I would... I carry pretty much everywhere else.

[axeman_g 128]

The reason I got my CCW in Georgia was good enough for me to still want it.

 

Driving home from an afternoon at a playground with my 3yo son at the time. Some jackwagon was intentionally not letting me merge off I85 in Atlanta. I had to slam on my brakes, making everyone behind me slam their brakes and then wait for this a'hole to move on. I get in behind him and give him the "what the f?" hands. He slams his brakes, making me stop short and another car right behind me now, some scared old woman. This guy then backs up almost right into my Troopers bumper (This was 2003 and the Trooper was a 91.) and gets out of his car yelling in some sort of spanglish I dit not comprehend. But I did undestand the wakizashi length knife in his hand. He comes up to my door, starts kicking at the car and swiping at the door. My kid is just gettting aware and is about to freak. OK..... I cant go backward, old lady back there, and someone is now on my right 1/2 up the length of my truck, guard rail on my left. So....Full steam ahead. I push his little slammed toyota right outa the way into the guard rail. Pull right and drive right on through the light. Little old lady followed me. Went straight home, got my boy in the house with his mom, he never was sure why Daddy pushed that mans car, and applied for CCW the next day. I prob would not have pulled it in that episode, but that might not be a knife in his hand the next time.

 

Dont f with my kids. They are the only decent thing I have done in my life.

[Anselmo 87]

Fishing in the dark, late at night, some guy comes up to me asking for money. Sometimes you can just tell someone has ill intentions. I had a knife and mace on me that I didn't pull but had my hands on it, yelled at the guy and got to my car and left. I haven't been back fishing there since and that was about 4 years ago.

 

I don't know anything about CCW training so I don't know when you'd pull defensively just to get someone to get on their merry way or not.

 

What would CCW training tell you to do in that road rage situation or the mugger situation?

[vladtepes 1,060]

The reason I got my CCW in Georgia was good enough for me to still want it.

 

Driving home from an afternoon at a playground with my 3yo son at the time. Some jackwagon was intentionally not letting me merge off I85 in Atlanta. I had to slam on my brakes, making everyone behind me slam their brakes and then wait for this a'hole to move on. I get in behind him and give him the "what the f?" hands. He slams his brakes, making me stop short and another car right behind me now, some scared old woman. This guy then backs up almost right into my Troopers bumper (This was 2003 and the Trooper was a 91.) and gets out of his car yelling in some sort of spanglish I dit not comprehend. But I did undestand the wakizashi length knife in his hand. He comes up to my door, starts kicking at the car and swiping at the door. My kid is just gettting aware and is about to freak. OK..... I cant go backward, old lady back there, and someone is now on my right 1/2 up the length of my truck, guard rail on my left. So....Full steam ahead. I push his little slammed toyota right outa the way into the guard rail. Pull right and drive right on through the light. Little old lady followed me. Went straight home, got my boy in the house with his mom, he never was sure why Daddy pushed that mans car, and applied for CCW the next day. I prob would not have pulled it in that episode, but that might not be a knife in his hand the next time.

 

Dont f with my kids. They are the only decent thing I have done in my life.

 

I would have drawn a weapon on him.. I mean you were lucky to be able to push his car out of the way... I would have been afraid to take the chance that doing that would enrage him that much more.. if in FL to be completely honest.. not only would I have drawn.. but I might have even fired.. some deranged nut case boxing me in swinging a knife at me certainly equates to me as a live real threat to my life..

[axeman_g 128]

The trainer at the class I took, not mandatory in Ga, emphasized and I agree 100%, dont pull your weapon unless the other guy has a weapon, your life or another is in immenent danger, if there are no LEO present and you are 100% certain of the all situation variables. In my mind it basically came down to a mano-y-mano situation only where it is defense of you or loved ones life. In my road rage scenario above, looking back I would have done the same thing I did. I would not have drawn. If he had a gun, I prob would have driven faster.

 

Your comment that sometimes you just know that a person is an adversary...I was at an ATM one night in a shopping center, taking my wife to dinner. It was about 8pm. Guy, all dark clothes, walks towards me at ATM from a shadowed corner on my right. I am left handed. I simply and nonchalantly turned and faced him straight on and pushed my blazer back slightly so my hand was resting on the grip of my S&W M19. He stopped and turned away.... suddenly remembering he left something on the other side of the parking lot. Got my money, card and drove off. I dont know what the guy was up to, he might have been just absent minded, then again maybe not.

[usnmars 136]

I went to an Eagles game last year with my brother in law who is a PA State Trooper. We were leaving and noticed we were being tailed by 3 guys that fit the stereotype of gangbangers. We purposely took a round about route to make sure we were being followed, which we were. We get to the truck and they stop about 50ft away and just stand there watching. My brother in law goes to grab his keys and intentionally pulls his jacket back a little too far to show them that he is carrying. Their response was "shiat he's got a Glock, lets get out of here!" and they ran off. Little did they know it was a S&W . Without a doubt we were going to get carjacked that day. I totally think that if it wasn't for him CCW'ing we would have been in trouble.

[Shane45 807]

I have a few but I'll tell the Hawaii story. We were traveling out to a waterfall on the big Island. This constituted driving on some VERY remote roads. Im talking easily a half hour without seeing 1 person. And these roads were arrow straight! Wish I was on the Busa . Anyway, we had to go through this total shitstain town. Literally it looked like Beruit. Since the roads were arrow straight I could see for miles that no one was behind us. It was late in the day. When we came through the little crap town and on to the falls, I could see we now had someone behind us. I thought this odd. Why would a local townie suddenly have the urge to go to the falls late in the day. And I was POSITIVE no tourist was stopping in this town. So we get to the falls. Its a path that walks around the entire "rainforest/falls" area. Im on alert and probably should have called it quits right there but we drove REALLY far to get here. So we start down the path. Since we are the only bipeds around it is very quiet. I hear the car pull up. I hear all 4 doors close. I now go High Alert! I put my fingers to my lips to indicate be quiet. I move us off the path and into the forest. I hear a bunch of guys RUN past where we moved off the path. I move us back onto the path and go backwards to the entrance and back up to the parking lot. There, is a crappy old beater local car. I didnt even have a knife to flatten one of their tires . We get out of there quick. I am POSITIVE I saved us from harm that day. I HATED not having the means to protect us if discovered trying to escape! We were a good hour at least from any help from anyone...

[axeman_g 128]

Good awareness Shane. sometimes you just get that feeling.

[Malsua 1,422]

You could have probably pulled the coil to cap wire. They probably didn't bother to lock their POS vehicle. Aggressors never figure they'll be victimized.

 

I had some run-ins when I was quite a bit younger, nothing that rose to the level of pulling a CCW piece but then I always ran around with people who were either armed or just plain scary.

 

There was this one time when I was about 18 that me and three friends were walking out of the Carnation Mall. There were two big dudes hassling cars at this spot in the parking lot that most cars had to go through. They walked out in front of the car ahead of me and I'm not quite sure what they said but it looked like he was reaching in and punching or grabbing at something. I told my friends that if they walked out to my car I'm gassing it and going to hit them. There was no doubt in my mind that they were up to no good as there were beers on the ground near them and they were gulping between hassles. I had a POS Plmouth Arrow with a single thrush muffler on it. It sounded about like all those Fartbox civics that were common 5-10 years ago except more poorly tuned, heh.

 

Anyway, sure enough, here comes this guy and he walks in front of my car...BBBBBBBBBBWWWAAAAAAAAAA...his eyes got big as saucers and he just missed a bumper to the knees and sort of rolled down the driver side of the car and flat palmed the back window.

 

Now I realize that I was too young to carry at the time but it was a healthy dose of situational awareness for me that I never forgot. As an adult, were this to occur when I'm in Ohio the next time, there would probably be a dead man in the parking lot and it wouldn't be me.

[Shane45 807]

Thanks Axe. Thought about that Mal but I didnt want to burn time or make noise and give away we backtracked the trail.

[GAPP 11]

Fishing in the dark, late at night, some guy comes up to me asking for money. Sometimes you can just tell someone has ill intentions. I had a knife and mace on me that I didn't pull but had my hands on it, yelled at the guy and got to my car and left. I haven't been back fishing there since and that was about 4 years ago.

 

I don't know anything about CCW training so I don't know when you'd pull defensively just to get someone to get on their merry way or not.

 

What would CCW training tell you to do in that road rage situation or the mugger situation?

A firearm is a tool of last resort, when to pull it is the tricky part. If you pull a firearm too soon, you can be arrested for threatening behavior. If you pull it too late... well, its simply too late. The best thing you can do in that situation is have some awareness and it sounds like you did.

[Ray Ray 3,566]

to answer your question, YES EVERYDAY!

[KpdPipes 388]

I've had to draw my weapon four times not on duty in 25 years. 3 of those times were to intervene when someone else was being assaulted, or was being threatened with a weapon (Blunt Objects all 3 times). The 4th was when someone pulled a knife on me..and promptly dropped it and pissed himself when he realized that he wasnt trying to mug some random fat guy. The doesnt include the couple of times off-duty over the years when i still lived where I work that I ran face to face with some of our shitheads..or found them on my front porch when i got home in the morning, and the sidearm wasnt necessary to resolve the issue.

[Bello 9]

no but when i used to ccw you feel a whole lot better about differant situations

[Maksim 1,504]

How about a need for an international CCW story? =)

 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2005. Was out with the a few people and my professor to a Lenny Kravitz concert right on the beach. Professor's bag was slashed and they were trying for others. could of turned ugly quick.

 

High school days, lived in Elizabeth. Do I need to go on?

 

College, would commute from Newark. car was burglarized within a 30 min timewindow, 1/4 mile from police department by the newark penn station. Add in the countless times I had riff raff eyeing me walking from the train to my car.

 

One of the best things I have done for myself was start taking martial arts (shindo ryu kickboxing) from the age of 13 when I went to Elizabeth Public Schools, where there was an assault almost daily. It taught me to be aware of my surroundings and a higher state of consciousness.

 

I think the CCW would do the same as martial arts training... ever since knowing how to subdue someone quickly, I have been involved in less incidents. Having a CCW, would keep more people out of trouble... just knowing how serious the situation would be have you had to use deadly force.

[vladtepes 1,060]

 

College, would commute from Newark. car was burglarized within a 30 min timewindow, 1/4 mile from police department by the newark penn station. Add in the countless times I had riff raff eyeing me walking from the train to my car.

 

 

that is completely ridiculous..

 

 

 

One of the best things I have done for myself was start taking martial arts (shindo ryu kickboxing) from the age of 13 when I went to Elizabeth Public Schools, where there was an assault almost daily. It taught me to be aware of my surroundings and a higher state of consciousness.

 

I think the CCW would do the same as martial arts training... ever since knowing how to subdue someone quickly, I have been involved in less incidents. Having a CCW, would keep more people out of trouble... just knowing how serious the situation would be have you had to use deadly force.

 

+1 agree completely with the part about the martial arts AND ccw.. I think that a lot of people with ccw will be more likely to walk away from problems as they unfold for the exact reason you touched on.. if something happens.. it is going to get really serious really fast..

[djg0770 481]

that is completely ridiculous..

 

Until you're in Newark on a regular basis you don't realize how prevalent these occurrences are.