Crazy stuff happened today- glad i was armed.
I was getting ready to drive up into the hills above the "B" where I live to pattern a new shotgun to make sure i've got the right choke and load combination for the upcoming duck season and couldn't find where i'd placed my pistol, I thought for a moment, "Ah, I'll have my shotgun if i need anything and it's not very far..." But there was a nagging feeling that I needed to get my pistol, I am glad that I did. On the way up to where I shoot in the hills the roads are dirt and really only wide enough in most spots for one car going up and one car going down.
I got to about 2 miles before where I usually do my shotgunning and there was a Ford Bronco going about 5 mph in the middle of the road. I go up shooting in the area about once a week and it's pretty commonly understood that if there's someone behind you who wants to go a little faster, you pull to the side and let them go by. I came up behind the bronco and pulled to the left a little to show that I wanted to pass and then pulled back to following distance. He kept just going slow and not moving over. After a minute I'd pull over to the left and get a little closer to him so he could see me clearly and hopefully speed up a little or pull over to let me pass.
We got to a wider spot in the road and he started to move off to the farther right side of the road and let me pass but when I went to go around him he cranked his wheel back and moved his bronco right where I was accelerating to and slammed on the brakes! I also hit the brakes and since the road was dirt I skidded a little into his bumper with my bumper. I'm in a little crappy toyota 2 wheel drive truck mind you. It didn't do any real damage but a little dent in my bumper. So the skinhead looking guy gets out immediately and I assume it's just to assess the damage or talk to me or whatever and the next thing I know he's opening my driver's side door telling me he's going to kill me/kick my ***** and just about everything else!
He immediately after opening my door reaches in and grabs my collar and starts trying to pull me out of the car. I still have my seatbelt on and i'm hanging on to the steering wheel to keep myself from being torn out onto the road. At this point I'm saying to myself "is this really happening right now? Surely this guy is going to wake up and realize he's being insane!"
We had just driven around a corner on a dirt road up in the mountains and I didn't think putting it into reverse and dumping the clutch would be the best idea... I'd either get pulled out by him and my truck would go over the edge, or i'd lose control of the truck and go over the edge with the truck!
He was getting more and more aggressive and i was getting very scared at this point, probably only 10 or 15 seconds of him trying to pull me out of the car. I know you shouldn't let people get that close to you from the get-go but I assumed he was just wanting to talk about the accident or maybe just tell me how stupid he thought I was or etc.
I realized I had to draw my weapon on this guy or he wasn't going to stop. I was leaning toward the center of the truck, hanging on to the wheel still and he was still trying to pull me out by my neck! I leaned a little farther in and pulled out my gun and pointed it right at him as he backed out of the cab and I sat back up more straight in the car. I told him in a VERY forceful expletive laced way to get back in his car.
The scary thing for me at the time is that this didn't seem to phase him! I am thinking if the roles were reversed and someone had pulled a gun on me or something i would be very apologetic, saying i'm sorry, putting my hands up, backing away, etc. This guy was still about 3 1/2 feet from me just staring at me like he didn't care! The next thing he says to me is "I don't give a @#@% about your @#$#ing gun! I spent the last 12 years in prison for killing a guy and you think i'm afraid of you and your gun?!??"
I honestly thought I'd have to shoot this guy because I was sure he was going to make another attempt at me or try and grab the gun or something. It honestly scared me to death afterwards thinking of how close i'd come to actually being forced to shoot someone.
I cocked the hammer (my gun is DA/SA but I guess just for dramatic effect because it wasn't seeming to bother him that a gun was pointed right at him!) and told him again, very forcefully, to get back into his car. I didn't know if he was on drugs and wasn't affected by the sight of a gun or if he'd been so much into crime and really had killed someone that he was used to having guns pointed at him? I also wondered afterward why he had told that story about being in prison? did he have a death wish and WANT to die? Was he making that part up? it seemed that if he was making it up though he would've said like 10 years or 15 years, not 12 you know?
He slammed my door closed again, and I still had it pointed right at him and he slowly walked back to where his car was but didn't get in so i just kept the sights lined up on him. He then says "Well you wanted to get by me so bad, here's your chance!" Like he wanted me to NOW drive by him?? Why, so his big bronco can push my little crappy truck off the road and down a cliff? So he can follow me and shoot me in the back of the head with the gun that's in his car while i'm driving??
I put the car in reverse and backed slowly to where I could turn around and head back into cell phone service to call the police. I wanted to leave so fast after the door shut and get away that I didn't get a positive match on his license plate, I was pretty sure but apparently not exact.
I dialed 911 as soon as I had a signal, told them the story and they said they don't deal up in that area and that I had to have the highway patrol come help me? So they transferred me and I had to explain the story again and they said they'd send someone up there to the base of the trail where the parking lot is. This is not far from civilization, probably 5 minutes from where I live, but 30 minutes later a sheriff shows up.
He was very nice and took a statement and said he'd wait around to see if the guy came down soon. Nice, but honestly this trail leads to 3 different canyons possibly he could skate down to, he said he'd try and have someone watch those too but I honestly don't think they'll find this guy even with a good vehicle and bad guy description.
Maybe the local PD will surprise me though.
I know I would have been well within my rights to shoot this guy when he was reaching in through my car door at me, and maybe I should have, but it just didn't seem so cut and dry to me at the time. Like if you're in a mall and someone starts shooting up the place, you know you'd probably better take them out. if someone is coming at your family, you'd better shoot. But in this situation i thought maybe he just wanted to act like a tough guy or something or had some excess road rage and I'm glad I didn't have to shoot him, but feel that if he had come after pulling it out and warning him or if he hadn't immediately gotten off of me, I would have had to shoot him and that would've cleared my own conscience of any misunderstandings about it.
I know I took a risk in NOT just shooting him today really when he practically climbs into my car with me but in this situation I don't know if I would've been okay with myself had i just fired first. Does anyone know what I mean when I say this?
It's different when you talk about it on a website "oh if someone's coming after me they're dead!" but when it's you who are the one actually holding the gun in your hand with your finger on the trigger it's different, you want to make sure. I have also, a few years ago before I grew up and got a permit etc, been that guy pulling someone out of their car for something I thought was idiotic.
I think the best scenario came out of this though, I'm safe and didn't have to shoot someone, I am definitely thankful that he backed off just as much as he did when i pulled the gun out. I should have been a better witness for the license plate but honestly just wanted to get out of there and away from this guy.
this just happened today, a tuesday, at like 3:30 pm here in a very low crime area, it goes to show it can happen anyplace at anytime.
I just wanted to tell this story as a reason why we need guns in the hands of good, honest, law-abiding Americans. I know this will never be a stat on some news show about guns actually HELPING people, but hopefully whoever reads this will know I am forever glad that I had a gun today and this can motivate them to always be armed.
Even with my shotgun in its case in the cab with me, that wouldn't have done anything for me at the time. i needed my pistol, loaded and accessible in its holster. Who knows what would've happened, especially on a dirt trail with nobody around, if I hadn't been armed today?