You - you personally - carry a pistol in a concealed holster no matter where you go - jogging, to the movies, etc., driving a van while you’re making deliveries for your businesses.
You enter an area where you stand out like a sore thumb - into a Hasidic Jew community, or a Mennonite community, or an all-seniors community and you’re a young person, or vice versa.
And - unbeknownst to you - this community has had trouble with break-ins, or van drivers pretending to deliver things but actually stealing.
So a neighborhood watch guy or gal stops you on your way out of this community, either accosts you personally or blocks your van so you can’t leave… and asks you a simple question that will prove that you’re not some crook …
But this irritates the hell out of you because it’s a free country, you should be able to go where you want, it’s none of there business… (because you don’t know that the community has had problems in this area just recently.)
So you have two choices, and in this scenario you know the outcome of each:
You tell the officious guy to pound sound, he won’t let you go because this makes him even more suspicious [and mark you he’s not insulting you racially, he’s just asking why you’re in the neighborhood] and things finally escalate to the point where your belligerence causes this guy to lose his temper, he lays hands on you, you feel threatened, pull out your gun and kill him in a righteous shoot.
You answer the guy’s questions, he says, “Oh, I see, well, sorry to have stopped you but we’ve had a lot of trouble around here,” and he backs off, and you go on your way. But you feel a bit emasculated because instead of telling the guy to pound sand, you’ve answered his questions.
Which scenario would you choose?
Would your reaction be different if the person in question had a rifle and was holding it in a casual manner while talking to you? A pistol?
How about this. I let the person know what I’m doing there (visiting a friend/realative, seeing a friend, attending services, making a delivery). The guy demands more information. I politely pull out my cell phone and dial 9-1-1 and explain to the dispatcher I’ve told the person what I’m doing where I am, they are refusing to move out of the way/let me leave.
If while waiting for that portion to come to fruitation, the guy starts getting beligerant or appears to be threatening me, advise him that I do have a valid carry conceal license, and I am carrying, and he needs to go wait in his vehicle for officers to arrive. At that point I call 9-1-1 again letting them know that they guy has threatened me, that I’m a concealed carry holder, I am carrying, I’m staying in my vehicle and have asked the other party to seperate themselves as well until officers arrive.
If not in a vehicle, try to move away from the other subject (not necessarily leave), but if he become confrontational, let him know that I am armed, and have a permit. And again call 9-1-1.
As you can see. I reject your only two alternatives.
This is actually an interesting question and it goes to the complete and utter lack of understanding of how to assess threats on the part of the average slack-jawed, mouth-breathing citizen. A lack of common sense.
Merely being or being present does not constitute a threat in all but a very few cases. An example would be: being present inside my home uninvited at 3:00 AM. Instant threat.
Being present in public space at any hour or being a given race, religion, creed, etc. never constitutes a threat in and of itself.
In the case of public spaces, any citizen has as much right to be in it as any other citizen. Something even cops fail to understand.
One described in the OP – chances of the guy attacking as I’m dialing 9-1-1 (while maintaining situational awarness around me) is highly unlikely becaus I’m doing this before it has escalated.
3am in the morning someone in my house – calling 9-1-1 might not happen until something else has.
This parft is stupid for the scinario’s of being in an old folks home, making a delivery in a van, in a community as you mentioned. And if they were armed when they start asking question? You do as they say and ask that they call 9-1-1 and don’t try and fight them even if you are armed. If it’s in a casual mannor, it’s not a extreme threat.
Every situation is different, and every person will react differently.
I have another post addressing the obscurity of the final statement of the person confronting me being armed.
The op is combining the facts of at least three incedents that have been talked about on the board. The chances of those three things all happening at once slim to none.
And in each of the combinations, or all of them you react differently to the situation.
I still say it’s a .5% chance of it ever happening as the op puts. That your confronted by someone for being someplace, the person is agressive toward you, and they are carrying a gun in a non agressive manor.
Yes you are. What are the chances of you being in any patricular place and any particular time?
Irrelevent to the time and place of confrontation.
Yes it is. But again, what are the odds of somone confonting you? Then think of the percent chance of you being at any given time and place even in a small place like a rural city.
No not really. How many places can you be at one time? In my little city alone there are thousands. Me being at any given point at any given time is microscopic.
This is about YOU being confonted. If you have a concealed carry permit, most likely you will be armed. This isn’t about the person confrunting you having a concealed carry permit. Thus irrelevent in the OP of how you would act.
No it’s not. How many rural area’s have the religious area’s talked about in the op? Probably not many. So you would have to be in a metropolitan area (and certain metropolitan area’s at that). The other would be a gated community where you are delivering – if just a regular neighborhood, you ignore the guy, back your car up and leave a different way (most communities other than gated have multiple ways in.).
Still irrelevent. Ooooh it was a factor in what appears to be a single case in decades. So the chances of that are .0000000001%
Just like you and OP are making up a situation that hasn’t occured . . . . but combining multiples ones into a single event. What are the odds of ALL THREE happening at one time . . . . and in your case throwing in that one of them is a retired cop that was called by real cops to check something out?
Kind of a silly scenario. There are an infinite number of the way this can go down. People react differently and speak differently. If you’re asking about Arbury, I try to avoid confrontation. If I cannot, I fight to the death if I fear for my life. Of course, there were a thousand different ways that situation could have gone down but it’s history. Looking at the video and the prior detainment video of Arbury, I think it’s clear that both parties were idiots.
I have a LTC and I carry everywhere. I’m always much more calm and less likely to engage in confrontation when I’m carrying a gun because I know full well if it escalates that the outcome would be potentially bad. I don’t want to kill anyone that doesn’t attack me and I damn sure don’t want to start a confrontation that may lead to me being forced to kill someone. That said, if my family is in harms way, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll shoot if I feel like it’s the only way out.
