I went to sleep on August 28th, 2005 like any other Sunday night. I had no idea how much my life would change over the next week.
I had been following Hurricane Katrina, and the 11pm news was saying that it would make landfall early Monday morning.
I saw video of a dark, rainy and windy New Orleans, and a few cars driving along streets. They were predicting some serious damage, but with all the time to prepare, and the evacuation, I was sure that little would come of it all. Oh well… time for bed.
I was a computer repairman and technology consultant for a small company in Mid Michigan back then, and when I got to work, everything was normal. It was a beautiful sunny day in Michigan- low 70s, slight breeze, just a few clouds. All late August days in Michigan are wonderful, but that day was perfect- I was about as far from the storm as anyone could have been.
I booted up my laptop, and started running through my voicemails. As a certified news addict, one of the first windows that I opened was FoxNews.
Uh Oh. Fit had hit the shan in New Orleans. I stopped listening to the voicemails, and started rolling the live coverage that Fox had on their webpage.
I saw footage of people waving their arms on roof tops. I saw a Superdome jam-packed with people who had no homes to return to. Brown flood water was everywhere.
All day I was glued to my laptop, and it was hard to get any work done. I don’t even know if I opened our office that day. During the day, more levees broke, and more and more flooding took place. The storm was over, but it kept getting worse.
At noon, my dad called and asked if I’d heard about the gas prices.
“No, I haven’t left the office all day- what’s up?”
“They’re saying it’s going to be $5 a gallon by the end of the week, and some stations might even run out! I’m sitting here with all my cans, in line at…”
Uh Oh. My wife and I were young, just married, and just starting out in life.
I thought of my car in the parking lot, with about 1/4 of a tank of gas. I thought of my wife at her college, whom I’d married less than a month before. And I thought of our tiny house with no basement, which we’d just bought. We had maybe a couple hundred dollars in our accounts, and virtually no supplies at home.
Over the next few days, I watched New Orleans slip further and further into chaos and disorder. I never thought this was possible in modern America. Emergency helicopters were being shot at. Gangs were riding around in stolen vehicles, looting businesses and homes, raping women, and killing. On my laptop, I saw videos dead elders in crowded refuge points- these people had not planned on needing medicine for several days, and died from dehydration, heart attacks, and diabetes.
I remember sitting on the top floor of a local old school building, where I was supposed to be preparing their computer lab for the kids returning from summer break. Instead, I watched on my laptop, as a team of SWAT officers tackle an old lady who refused to give up her only means of protection- a small pistol. I saw video of police officers living out of their cars, trying to offer aid where they could.
I watched a video of a cop trying to help someone change a tire, and when someone pointed at a group coming out of a store, the officer drew his S&W and fired a shot into the air. “Drop that stuff!” he yelled. They didn’t drop it, they just ran faster. The officer went back to helping change the tire.
I also saw video of police officers looting a Wal-Mart, right along side criminals. “Do you NEED those Nikes to survive?” a reporter was asking them, as they turned to avoid showing their face.
New Orleans was a hell hole, and it wasn’t getting better. I didn’t understand how this could happen in modern America. Maybe if half the country had been hit with something, but sheesh- a measly coast line gets smashed, and it’s taking a WEEK to get to people… and some people were acting like animals. I would never have expected public order to topple so quickly.
This was my Uh Oh Moment. There on the top floor of an impoverished 150 year old school building, it hit me, and I still remember trying to find cell phone signal against the computer lab’s north wall, so that I could call my wife to tell her that we needed to start budgeting for some survival supplies and a more effective gun- that night.
All I had at the time were some hunting shotguns and .22s. Ammo was easy to get, but I couldn’t believe that 1,000 miles away from New Orleans, even our local Wal-Mart’s shelves were completely empty of gallons of water, and water bottles. Nobody had them, for weeks. Apparently they had all been redirected to help the refugees, and all the current stock had been bought a few hours after the storm. Wow.
This is when I learned that when SHTF (crap hits the fan), the government is not going to be there to make sure I am taken care of. Now that I’m a little older, I actually prefer it that way, but it was quite a large pill to swallow as a 19 year old.
Within a month, we had a good sized store of canned goods, bottled water, and I had even bought my first handgun: a GLOCK 26. I still don’t remember where all the money came from to get this done (like I said, we were pretty hard pressed), but once we decided to do just DO IT, it wasn’t hard to trim some fat on our budget to get this stuff done.
Since then, there have been a few times where I put preparedness on the back-burner. When you’re not watching video of corpses floating down flooded streets, it’s easy to forget how quickly it can happen, and how suddenly an entire department store’s supply of food, water, and ammunition can be swept away by eager buyers or angry looters.
Today, I vow to re-inventory all of my disaster preparedness supplies, and see what I need to buy, and to set aside some money over the next couple months and just MAKE IT HAPPEN.
I vow this in front of all my fellow members of the USCCA, and I hope that if you’re not already prepared for AT LEAST three days of SHTF, you’ll take this vow with me. Please use the speech box in the bottom, right-hand corner of this post to comment about YOUR plans, your Uh-Oh moments, or anything else that you’d like to say.
My biggest piece of Disaster Preparation advice is this: don’t think that you have to go out and spend $200+ (or thousands) getting everything you can think of. You don’t need EVERYTHING to be prepared. Even if you have just one gallon of drinking water stored somewhere… or even just one can of Spam tucked away, you’re already better off than you were.
Just get what you can as you can afford it, and you will be much better for it.
And of course, if you need help with how to go about preparing or exactly what to get, or if you have questions about ‘bugging out’, 72 hour kits, rotating stock, or preparing your home and family for a disaster, (physically and mentally), I URGE you to check out our latest information package:
(members click here for special member info!)
If this wasn’t the biggest time and money saving “how to prepare” guide out there, then we wouldn’t have made it, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Honestly, friend: The USCCA’s Ultimate Buggin’ Out and Stayin’ Alive Crash Course is where you need to start if you are anything less than totally prepared for a disaster or emergency scenario.
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12:20 pm
A few years back, I was on call for emergency store-front board-ups.
My boss called me at 2am and told me to go board up a 7-11 in an edgy area of town.
As I headed out the door, I grabbed my Dan Wesson 357 and strapped it on my hip in plain sight, seeing as how at the time I didn’t have my CCL.
When I got to the 7-11, I found out that some kids had ripped off a drug dealer and run into the store to hide.
The drug dealer had driven past and Machine-gunned the front of the store.
The cops hadn’t arrived yet, and the kids were still inside.
I started screwing plywood over the broken windows and a little while later, the cops finally showed up.
After taking statements, one of the cops walked over and…noticing I was packing…asked if I always carried.
I told him “Only when I get calls in neighborhoods like this.”
He grinned and said”I don’t blame you…if I wasn’t armed, I wouldn’t come around here, either.”
Then he asked me if I thought it would do me any good if the dealer had come back again. I told him that it might not, but the dealer wouldn’t have driven away, because if I couldn’t have hit HIM, I could have at least put a couple of rounds into his engine block and stopped his car long enough to take another shot or two.
Soon after, Texas legalized concealed carry, and I’ve been armed ever since.
I may die…but I won’t go alone.
12:23 pm
My Momment came on September 12,2009.Have you seen what the citizens for liberty did over the weekend. Glen Beck showed the patriotic turn out around America. The major news networks refused to show what we have accomplished. However can you imagine if we had to march for our Second Ammendment rights, and with the help of the National Rifle Association the turnout would have to be in the millions. - I just might see you folks out there. Freedom through Strength
12:27 pm
My Momment came on September 12,2009.Have you seen what the citizens for liberty did over the weekend. Glen Beck showed the patriotic turn out around America. The major news networks refused to show what we have accomplished. However can you imagine if we had to march for our Second Amendment rights, and with the help of the National Rifle Association the turnout would have to be in the millions. - I just might see you folks out there. Freedom through Strength
12:37 pm
I have been hoping for a Million Armed March on Washington for some time to get the attention of those statist, secularist, one -world, big-government enemies-of-freedom that have infected our capitol. If every NRA Member, every Hunter, every CCW Holder marched on Washington at the same time, we would fill every street, park, mall and any open piece of real estate.
12:57 pm
My pre uh-oh moment came as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Three days after the storm I came back to Slidell. There was looting, rapes and alot of various crime.
I already owned a 38 Special which I strapped to my hip after my return to warn any ontakers that this woman would not become a victim without defending myself. I realized after going thru that experience that I needed to practice using my weapon. I started going to a shooting range and discovered that I was a naturaly good shooter and that I really loved the sport. The crime in my area has remained higher than pre Katrina times so I decided to get my concealed weapons permit. I now pack a cute lil Pink and Black Keltec 380 in my purse. Yeah, it’s Pink. LOL And I also upgraded my home defense up to a Glock 17 which I really love but is a lil too big for my purse. I live alone but I don’t live in fear anymore whether I am on the road or in my home. I hope I never have to use any of my guns in defense of myself but if I do, I have the confidence in my ability to get my point across to anyone that tries to confront me in violence or burglary that I will protect myself. I think all women nowadays with the way crime is, need to take preventative measures and learn how to use and carry some kind of defense to prevent them from being another statistic.
3:11 pm
Living in a rural area in northern California is important to have supplies handy for any emergency.
Both my wife and I have CCW permits, She S&W 357/38 Special and I have a Kimber 45. We live in an area that could easily be cut off from any supplies getting in except by air. We could probably live about 2 weeks with what we have. If people need to know what supplies to get, go the local Sheriff Dept for advise.
3:13 pm
I had four scary moments, two involving knives. I survired all but CCW did not exist at the time. As soon as the law allowed, my wife and I took the class and started carrying 24/7. Friends laugh when I carry in what they consider safe places. I ask them if they wear their seatbelts only on what they consider dangerous roads. They stop laughing. Even in my house, I have a gun ON ME at all times. The FBI crime stats report one house invasion every 14 seconds in our USA. What good will my pistol do on my nightstand on the second floor when one breaks through my door while my wife and I are watching NCIS on the lower floor? In the pocket of my pyjama is a little KelTec 380 which will give me a first response while I go for my shotgun or my .45. Be responsible, be safe, be prepared 24/7, in out out of your house or car. My cop brother always told me he was paid to bring out the body bags and try and catch the perps, not to protect every citizen as some liberal dreamers think. Remember: you are your sole guardian.
1:05 pm
Right-On Claude. A gun in the house where you are not is useless! I guess people expect a 1 minute warning from the bad guy(s). Take care, Rick
3:16 pm
I guess that should be obvious. No warning. Thanks! I shall change MY habits too!
5:20 pm
I work in a maximum security mental health unit of the Washington State Dept of Corrections. I have my carry permit and carry anytime I am not going to work. Unfortunately I cannot carry when I go to work, because having a firearm on prison grounds (even the parking lot) is a felony. However, even if I am not carrying a firearm, I ALWAYS at the very least have OC (pepper spray) on me. Some of my wife’s non-gun oriented friends have asked me why I always have OC or a gun. I just tell them that due to the nature of my job, I know EXACTLY what is out there. Not all predators look like predators, and it is astonishing how often we release mentally ill, maximum security inmates straight from a segregation cell to the streets. But when they have maxed out their sentence, we gotta kick ‘em out. So always, always, always carry when legal to do so. There are some truly scary animals roaming our neighborhoods.
6:54 pm
Glen
I understand your situation perfectly.
I live here in Michigan,where on the first of October our governor Jennifer Granholm will release 3000 prisoners
due to budget criteria.
6:34 pm
It’s a shame when you see a scene from Hurricane Katrina and the only thing you take away from the experience is that you need a gun. Maybe you should have thought of ways to help the people.
But, that is the way. Don’t worry about the people, it is someone elses problem–the government. Don’t ask what you can do, but how this might, one day, make me need to shoot someone.
This is the number one problem in America–We have forgot about helping those in need. We only worry about ourselves.
I am from the New Orleans are and experienced Katrina first hand. I did not need a gun. I did what I could to help people.
8:33 pm
Sure….and while you are helping one person, 100 are stealing from you and trying to kill you. I don’t know what part of Katrina you were experiencing, but many people were fighting not to get raped, murdered or have their hard earned property stolen from them. Keep in mind that if you are DEAD, starving, or otherwise incapacitated, you aren’t going to be any good to anyone else. You were lucky.
7:04 am
You need to pull your head out of your *ss. You can have the best intentions of helping people, but the streets are full of creeps just looking to rip you off or do you harm. Your idealism is the kind that will one day get you killed or maimed. Just look at the murder and violent crime statistics for New Orleans, not to mention how crime went up in places like Houston where those “poor people” were sent in an effort to help them survive the aftermath of Katrina. In what other city in the U.S. have you ever heard of people shooting at rescue helicopters? New Orleans is full of worthless, criminal “culture”; you’re just lucky you’re alive today.
1:37 pm
You said that you were from the new Orleans area. I’m betting that the area you were in was well outside the city proper. Rural and country folks do tend to help each other because they all work hard for a living. It’s the scumbags in the cities that are on welfare or just have thievery “jobs” that would cut your throat for a dollar. Helping good folks is great but watch your back (and be armed) for the others.
8:33 pm
I’m gonna go way out on a limb…. I’m bettin’ your a good person, but not exactly one that would support second ammendment rights and/or the NRA.
I am glad you made it out alive.
You can thank the city of Houston, who were “taken in” by the evacuees…. what a “lovely experience” that was!
8:39 pm
On a cold winter night at around 3:00
A.M. my wife and I stopped at a gas station in Desert Center,Ca.The only thing there was the gas station.We were traveling cross country in a new
pickup and camper.As I was gassing up
approximately 25-30 Hells Angels rode up on their motorcycles.I ran to the
camper and strapped on my .357 Mag.&
continued fueling.The motorcyclists
were getting very boisterous and kept making remarks about the cowboy with
the big iron on his hip.Fortunately I
paid for my fuel and departed.From that day on I never leave home unarmed.We live in Florida and both my wife and I both have concealed carry permits.In this day and age I highly recommend everyone be able to protect themselves if the need arises.
11:23 pm
This is not a horror story just a bit of advice.
I am a retired professional, so happens I am also a nightowl (some people are). I walk the pooch at night I shop at night and most of my activities are done at night. I live in Florida (damn sandbar) and I do have a CCW license. Thank goodness I have never had need to use my firearm, but I have a sign on my door that reads. “God Bless Those Who Enter IN Peace” God Help Anyone Else!
6:32 am
Mine happened a few years ago while living in a not so good are in St. Petersburg, Fl. Let me rephrase that, our neiborhood was good but you had too go thru some rough areas to get there. I delivered the news paper in the morning to help with some extra income. I had a prostitute jump into my car in a bad area and told me her pimp just tried to kill her. I was sketchy about her story but there was a hospital less than a mile away and I took her there, he beat her badley and I took my t-shirt off to stop her face from from bleeding. After that I thought what if that was a gang. I would be front page news. I started carrying and got my CWL & now carry everywhere it is legal.
I suggest if u are able to obtain a license, do so. CWL obeys the laws even if they change, Whe will follow them. But the criminal wont. 99% of LEOS are pro-gun for able citizens. I just consider it levaling the playing feild for all the crimals armed illegally……….
9:35 am
In addition to keeping your piece handy, you need to keep your doors locked while driving too. You were a perfect target for a car-jacking.
Your help for this person was commendable, though.
11:53 am
My Uh-Oh moment came in August, 2009. While staying at my mother’s apartment while she was in a nursing home after knee replacement surgery, someone broke into the back window and ransacked her bedroom.
I was at the hospital visiting her and came back to the apartment in shambles, then realized ‘the little….’ stole her .32 S&w out her drawer where she kept it.
At the time, I had lived all over the world and never had a “home invasion”, and neither had she. But living in Washington 10 years made me lax. I’d sold my own Beretta before moving to Washington, figured I’d get one later, and never did.
Anyway, I’m back to my Beretta 9mm and she decided to get a Glock mini (at 77 years, it’s her first semi auto and I’m proud of her!).
1:47 pm
Danica that is a great story. Glad you are wise enough to be armed. My only concern is, as a CCW Instructor, I see many folks without sufficient wrist stength to give the needed resistance to semi-autos when fired in order for the action to work properly. I can get some folks with this problem (mostly small-statured women) to work on a “stiff wrist” but many just cannot and experience a lot of jams. I advise them to switch to a revolver because a jammed semi-auto when you need it is worse than no gun at all. Please be sure she has tried her mini Glock out at the range and that she gets NO jams. At 77 she may well have weak wrists. Bless her that she does want to see to her own safety!
6:19 pm
Great suggestion Captain. I was so excited over getting a semi-auto until my friend let me try his 45. I didn’t have the wrist or hand strength to pull back the slide sufficiently. I tried another of his semi’s and had the same problem. I was disappointed but have stayed with my revolvers and am very happy.
11:13 am
I had my uh-oh moment back in 1983. I was on my may home on my little Honda about 11pm. I was in Melbourne, FL at a light T-ing into Sarno Rd. The bike wouldn’t trip the light, so I sat there. Then a car came screeching to a halt sideways next to me. There were three Hispanics in the front seat seat laughing like banshees.
I took off up the road as fast as it could, and looking back, could see them coming after me. I made a quick turn down my exit as they came past about 80 mph in my lane. I slowly went around the curves till I came to my street, and they spotted me pulling into the driveway. I grabbed a 2×4 and held them off yelling at them. My wife came to the door and I told her to get my gun (a .38 snub). She said NO! The car took off and I ran to get it myself. As we were discussing my encounter, they returned. I took several steps toward them, displaying my partner, and they sped off, never to return.
Since then, I rarely venture outside without being armed.
3:46 pm
She said “NO???????”
The woman needs some motivational training. The first rule for my wife in any kind of situaton like this, is to “get the gun,” then do what needs to be done, such as dial 911, etc.
You need to set her straight.
6:48 pm
My ‘uh-oh’ moment came when I was about 10 years old and out at night fishing with my full blood Cherokee, career Air Force officer dad. He’s been in the Marine Corps in WWII until he was wounded and not allowed to stay. He joined the Army Air Corps and in 1947 stayed with the Air Force when the split came, but he was, until his death in 1980, a warrior to the bone. He was always armed in some fashion or another. This particular night, we were on the banks of the Brazos River in central Texas, enjoying the cool air, lots of jumping fish and tons of mosquitos and I might say, minding our own business. A group of guys stopped, having seen our camp fire and you could tell they’d been drinking. Yelling and throwing beer cans at us, they started running towards us. Two picked up branches on the way. I’ll never forget the size of their eyes when Dad pulled out his government model .45 and dropped the sights on the guy in front. All the cussing and threats in the world wouldn’t remove the wet stains on the pants of the guy Dad was aiming at. It just kept on getting bigger. Dad said, “You’re too young to die so why don’t you just go home?”. They left….fast, and we kept fishing.
I’m sixty now, a retired Marine Corps combat veteran and retired after 15 years as a Deputy. I never go out unarmed. My 17 year old daughter is a natural with a firearm, my two sons are career Marines. Both veterans of the sandbox. I still remember being ten years old and watching the ‘tough guy’ wet himself when he faced a really tough guy,…. my DAD.
6:53 pm
In addition I attended a 4 day defensive pistol training course at Front Sight in Nevada, and a 2 day Appleseed rifle marksmanship workshop. I am practicing to attain Expert marksmanship in the Army qualification exam and am at the expert level currently.
5:23 am
I’ll add to ‘Dad’s’ story that my daily carry varies due to the situation I find myself in. To preface that, my daily carry may be my Kimber Ultra Carry, a CZ-75B, or an accurized CZ-82 in 9×18 Makarov. The CZ-82 is one of my alltime favorites as I have big hands with short fingers and it just fits nice. My BUG is either a Bersa Thunder.380 carried in DA mode, or one of two shrouded hammer .357/.38s. The CZs and the Kimbers have similar handling characteristics, so there is no ‘learning curve’ when I change between pistols. Add to this, a constant effort to keep all shots fired within the ‘grapefruit’ at 15 yards and 350-400 rounds fired weekly.
6:51 pm
When the Virginia Tech shootigs occurred about 2.5 years ago, I went from not owning even a BB gun, to haveing an NC CC permit, three pistols, and three rifles including a Springfield M1A, reloading supplies, reloading equipment, and plenty of commercial, reloaded, and surplus ammo. I pack a 45ACP Springfield XD pistol in an IWB Kydex holster with a spare magazine and a flashlight AT ALL TIMES when I am out of the house. I really don’t trust the government to protect my safety any more after VT and after Katrina.
Therefore I keep about 1 months supplies on hand at all times and enough gasoline to run 2 generators for 2 weeks (40 gallons + what is in three cars that I own).
10:49 pm
Kurt,
I’d add some different sized plastic trash bags of good quality and an assortment of carpet sewing needles. When cut into circular strips, hung up on one end and weighted on the other, the strips can be pulled and stretched quite fine. Then twist them while continuing to strech them out nice and fine. Twisting adds considerable strength. Stretching gives them thinness in cross section. The strips then can be threaded through the carpet needles and make excellent emergency ‘thread’ for suturing gashes and cuts. The bags can do double duty as water jugs. Another use is as fine twine that can be braided into rope or as trip line for snares or fishing line. Let your imagination run wild on this one.
10:10 am
About two years ago I was walking down Center St. in Riverwest, Milwaukee. Not my favorite neighborhood. I was with my girlfriend and we had just left her cousins apartment to head home. My truck was about 4 blocks away and as we were about to hit the second block of our journey I noticed a car parked and running with five passengers. As soon as we passed the car somebody got out and began to follow us. I knew in my gut that this was going to be a mugging. My girlfriend was drunk and stumbling and I was trying to help her walk, we were like injured members of a heard and a target for predators. Fortunately for me I had gone to the range that day with two pistols, a Glock 22 and HK USP40. I was carrying the range bag because I didn’t want to leave it in my truck on our visit. I immediately decided to cross the street at a 45 degree to see if he would follow and also see what his friends in the car would do. He followed and his friends drove past. The set up. My heart began to pound in my chest, I felt the tunnel vision coming. I looked back periodically to assess his distance and that’s when my girlfriend caught on and began to cry. She wanted to run, but she didn’t know the car full of thugs was somewhere ahead and waiting. By this time I had the bag unzipped and in front of me, I had opened the gun case and grasped my Glock 22, which was equipped with a streamlight M6 and illegally loaded since I live in Liberal Wisconsin. We managed to pick up the pace and my girlfriend ran to the truck and jumped in. I decided then to turn around and just posture to let him know that I had my hand on something inside my bag. I didn’t want to invoke a gunfight by pulling it out. As soon as I did this he turned and walked away and his fellow thugs pulled up on the corner and he jumped back in his car. They drove past and mugged me the whole time while I started my truck and kept my other hand on my gun, ready. It turned out to be a safe night, but that was my uh-oh moment when I happened to be prepared. Thank God for my range day. Had I not been prepared to defend myself and my girlfriend, who is now my fiancee, I don’t know what I would have done that night. Probably would have been a victim thanks to Wisconsin’s liberal ways.
11:43 am
My Uh-Oh moment came in the summer of 1962:
BECAUSE I WAS ARMED …
Because I was (illegally, at the time and place), armed with a ‘concealed deadly weapon’, a tragedy was prevented.
I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. I lived there from age eleven until age twenty-eight.
On a warm, humid evening in the summer of 1962, when I was twenty-one years old, I was out on a date with Judy, a young lady about a year younger than I. We had been out to a movie and a snack. Her parents, with whom she still lived, wanted her to be home by midnight. We had every intention of complying with that deadline.
We were on our way to her home. The shortest route from where we had been, to her home, was across Higbee Mill Road, which was, and still is, a narrow rural road running east to west between US Highway 68, Harrodsburg Road, and US Highway 27, Nicholasville Road, in southern Fayette County, Kentucky.
Higbee Mill Road was, and still is, is about the width of a two-car driveway.
We were heading east on Higbee Mill Road between 11:30 and 11:45 PM. I noticed car headlights in my rear view mirror. I thought at the time that it was unusual for any traffic to be on that road late at night, but I was otherwise not concerned.
The other car caught up with us, and for a few miles ‘tailgated’ us, following too closely for safety. I slowed down and moved as closely as safety would permit, to the right edge of the road. The car following us, passed us. I was relieved.
A couple of miles further down the road, we caught up with the same car, which was then moving along very slowly - about five to ten miles per hour.
The driver of the car pulled the car across the road at about a forty-five degree angle, blocking the road. Three young men got out of the car. One was carrying what appeared to be a baseball bat or softball bat. They began jogging toward us.
I quickly realized we were in danger. My first thought was to do a fast U-turn and get away from these men. Due to the length of my car, the narrowness of the road, and the depth of the drainage ditches on both sides, a U-turn was not an option. I pulled my car across the road at a similar angle, and set the parking brake.
I reached under the front seat, and then stepped out of the car with my .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol in my hand. I leaned over the hood of the car in what is known as the “isosceles, over barrier” shooting position.
One of the young men running toward us shouted: “(Expletive)! He’s got a gun! They stopped, turned around, got back in their car, and left in a hurry.
We never saw them again.
Because my being armed was, at the time and place, illegal, we did not report this incident to any law enforcement agency.
No shots were fired, no one was hurt, and Judy was home by midnight.
Today, I live in a state (Ohio) that licenses law-abiding, adequately trained citizens to carry concealed handguns for lawful protection of themselves and their families. I am licensed, and I regularly carry. I rarely leave the house without at least one handgun concealed on my person. Normally the only exceptions are when I need to visit premises where I am prohibited from being armed and it is not feasible to leave the gun locked in the car while visiting the “disarmed victim zone.”
12:18 pm
My story is about my nephew who had to deal with road rage. He was hotly persued by some one on an interstate, so he pulled off the exit with his persuer on his bumper, and pulled into a well lit Hardees parking lot. He saw the man get out of his car, obviously angry and start walking towards his car, so my nephew got out of the car. He made no eye contact but brushed his shirt away from his holstered pistol long enough to make a statement and the covered up and walked into the restaurant. His persuer did an about face and drove off quickly.
8:09 pm
I’m what we educators call a “slow-learner”. My uh-oh moment began with 9/11 when I told my high school students (as we watched the second plane hit the towers) “the world has just changed”. Then I watched the Katrina fiasco from my home in Cameron parish (southwest Louisiana). I worked every evening at my church in Lake Charles helping to feed Katrina refugees until we had to leave for Hurricane Rita. We reurned home six weeks later to live in a camper trailer behind our gutted house for 9 months and finally to live in one bedroom for another 2 months until we sold out and moved. All the while listening to friends tell of burglaries all around our formerly peaceful rural community where I had lived for thirty years w/o even locking my doors at night. And finally after the last 9 months of watching my government morph into something we never dreamed possible…… I finally said “uh-oh!!!!!”
I just finished my cc class and my permit application is underway.
9:13 pm
I remember hearing my grandparents talk about a time they had went to the boat docks down the road from thier house to feed the ducks, they would always go about 11:00 pm because all the ducks were in the parking lot. One night while feeding the ducks they had a guy come up to them demanding money with a knife in his hand, my granddad had just got in the car and had a can of carb cleaner becide the seat,they didnt own a gun (at the time) so he sprayed the perp in the eyes with the cleaner and got away.
he would always tell us that story when we asked why he carried a handgun, I guess it stuck with me, Ive carried sence I was 21.
then one day I was 25 my wife was pregnet with our secon daughter,
She was at the doctor office so I took my oldest daughter to the store with me, while there we were standing in line and my daughter asked for s little debbie snack I told her to grab one off the shelf not 10 feet away when some guy says (I could grab her and be gone before you knew what happend!) with out thinking or hesitation I pulled my Astra 9mm from my side and told him not with his head still on his shoulders! he droped his 40oz beer and ran.
I couldent beleve what had happened! The clerk had already called 911 and all i could think about was getting arrested for branishing a firearm and not being able to pick up my pregnet wife. But the police officer was very nice and just checked my handgun and permits and let me go.but not before telling me if thier were more people like me the city would be a safer place.
12:21 am
Once upon a time way back when I drove a truck to earn a living in the northeast, and after going through a number of strikes I also carried a .38 Colt Commander in a shoulder holster (illegally back then)because I delivered in places like the N.Y. dock area, Chicago, the Detroit steel mills,etc.
I was asked to deliver a new flatbed trailer to Toledo one evening and was running empty down I-75 at twilight when I noticed three guys standing on the bridge that crossed the Interstate at the state line. I was running about 60 when I saw one of them lift a three hole concrete block and I knew there was no way to stop or avoid things. I floored it and picked up enough speed that the block missed me.
It hit the trailer and punched a hole through the brand new oak deck instead.
I was into Ohio before managed to pull off on the shoulder, and I killed the lights, shut it down and worked my way back to the base of the bridge.
I could hear them laughing and carrying on as I worked my way up the embankment. They thought it was pretty funny. One of them kept saying, “I bet we sure scared hell out of him.”
I was laying prone by the time I reached the roadway, and I will never forget .. For some reason I yelled “Halt” and emptied the magazine over their heads. The laughing turned to screams accompanied by the sound of shoeleather slapping concreate.
About a month before that another driver had been decapitated on US 23 when a block went through his windshield.
I drove on into Toledo, went to the police department, told them what had happened and gave them my gun.
They told me to come back in the morning. When I got there I was esorted into the chief’s office. He asked me about things, then gave back my 38 and said, “I’ll bet you put the fear of God in them.”
From then on a 12 gage pump gun loaded with slugs rode with me in plain sight. Once was luck. Never wanted to try it twice.
3:43 pm
This happened around the year 1990. I was an Architectural Draftsman in Houston, Texas. Sometimes I worked at home. I always liked guns. I was one of those guys that wanted a gun just to have one. I figured I’d get around to owning one for home protection sooner or later. I admit it now: that was a sorry excuse for owning a weapon! Sadly, I also used to think like a lot of folks still think: that this is a nice neighborhood; serious crime never happens here! My way of thinking, however, changed one Friday night.
I was single at the time. I was at home that Friday night, doing some architectural drawing in my upstairs bedroom. All lights were off. Suddenly I heard some banging on my back door. I went downstairs to have a look. I peeked through the blinds. I saw two guys were banging on the door. They were yelling stuff like
“COME ON! OPEN UP! LET ME IN!”
Then I heard them try to force the lock. This made me a little nervous, since I didn’t know if they were armed or not. All I had to defend myself was a 36-inch crowbar, as I stood behind the door, waiting. Fortunately I had the forethought to beef up the door frame, lock, and strike plate. They failed to force the lock. I could tell they got frustrated, because various cuss words popped out of them. They left, but not before they relieved themselves outside my back door.
On Saturday, I went “window shopping” at various gun stores. I went to a gun show. I purchased Handguns Magazine. A Structural Engineer friend of mine, who was also a gun collector, suggested I attend a gun show. Fortunately, there was one happening in the George R. Brown Convention Center that weekend. I went. I remember how I felt as I walked around. I was like a chiid in a candy store! I eventually came back to reality, and the real reason I was there.
Not too long after that, I bought my first handgun: a Colt King Cobra, 6-inch .357 Magnum. Then I purchased a shoulder holster for it. Later, in 1995, the Texas Legislature passed the Concealed Carry Law. Since then, I’ve purchased several weapons, including my primary carry weapon, the Glock 21, in .45 ACP.
Now, some folks think the Glock 21 is too big and bulky for concealed carry. I strongly disagree! I have no problems! I go to the range every chance I get. I practice every concealed carry technique I can.
The anti-gun folks don’t get it: pro-gun folks are not looking for an encounter. We try to avoid encounters at all costs. But if we are faced with a dangerous encounter, we will be ready. The key word is “if.”