The Baker shooting poll --

[Cccarrer_2]

Responders to the Baker shooting poll, have you ever been in a mugging/life threatening situation?

I consider myself a rational and affable guy, raised in a family in the medical field. I'm not meaning this thread to be a one upping contest or a validation for people's actions, just an honest consensus of life threatining circumstances.

I am 28, male and from a fairly small town in the south (north carolina). A few of my friends are sheriffs/reserve police. All are remarkably liberal and none truly brandish firearms without need. So this is just basic background for me.

I've been mugged before, in town, in daylight. No one stood up for it.
I protected a child from a drunken father and got stabbed in the shoulder and lung.

I don't think i'd have "pistol whipped" or "fired a warning shot at" my assailants, no matter the distance and age. Unarmed, there were no fatalities. Though I do wake up most days with my left side sore and throbbing as a reminder what heroism costs. I'd like to know how many responders to the poll have been in situations like these, truly scared for life, not just of some big guy.

Please be kind in the forum.

*Edit-- i'd have shot.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

Yeah I've been mugged, been beaten up pretty bad, had a knife pulled out on me on two occasions.
Sure, it shakes you up, but I was willing to defend myself instead of handing my shit over.

*Shrug* sure, if I had a weapon I'd definitely have used it in those situations, without a doubt.

 

[crudus]

I have. A (former) friend of mine tried to kill me once. It was actually quite scary. At that point you really aren't thinking "how do I get him to stop while doing the least amount of damage". You are thinking "I need him to stop and that needs to be done in anyway possible with minimal damage to me" (you don't think that exactly but it is the instinctual thought process).

 

[zfactor]

I would have shot once or twice to stop the muggers. They were not armed at the time (only fists), but if they pulled something out (knife, gun, etc) I would have kept firing. Once the first shots rang out, people tend to flee. Except for the guy you hit...

I think 8 shots was a bit excessive. He had .45 hollow point bullets, 2 would have stopped the mugger (the .45 is a round designed to stop someone (cancel their forward momentum). Add in hollow points, and the person has about a half inch hole in their chest). 2 would have worked.

Although people will say "It was the heat of the moment, he was just firing away, trying to save himself". No. He had a lethal weapon, you don't spray a street with death because "ARRGH IM GETTING MUGGED". If you want to carry a firearm, you should know how to use it properly.

 

[Zacharine]

Been the target of two attempted armed robberies (both times with a knife).

On the first time, I managed to disarm my attacker, ran away for a few blocks and called the cops from my cell. I was later invited to the station to give my statement in full as well as for the ID line.

The second time, I didn't manage to disarm the guy quite as easily. I got cut to my arm but in return dislocated his shoulder and put him in a neat hold on the ground - enough for me to call for the officials and wait patiently with him under control. Had I failed at acquiring a solid hold, I'd have run away.

I don't own a gun. I don't carry any weapons with me when I go out. Why?

1. If this kind of stuff happens, I can keep a better hold of the situation if I'm unarmed - 8 years of martial arts helps there. Having a weapon would do very little for me, unless that weapon is a firearm.

2. It is illegal in my country to carry any weapon in a public place.

3. If I had a weapon of any kind and did use during self defence, I might easily cross the line from self-defence to excessive use of force. The worst of which is lethal force.

In both of the attempted robberies, considering the above, things would have ended a lot worse for everyone if I'd had had a weapon. Because when under stress, I don't trust myself enough to be able to judge the proper amount of force required if I have a weapon capable of such stupendous overkill as lethal force. And I happen to agree with the law in that there are appropriate and inappropriate degrees of force - and in my personal mind those who have not proven the maturity and effort to handle lower levels of force should never be given nearly of fully lethal force in the form of weapons.

But even assuming I could carry a gun in a public place, I wouldn't. Because I do not wish to become a murderer and under stress it is just so easy to go for the most lethal option right off the bat.

Yes, killing in self defence is still killing - a despicable act no matter how you put it. Sometimes necessary yes (extremely rarely, if ever, for civilians), but despicable none the less.

An aside: had I been threatened with a gun, I'd have handed my wallet to them and perhaps reminded them that a mere robbery is a lot easier to escape than a murder, so now that they have my wallet it is in their best interest to not shoot me. All the while walking slowly backwards and away.

Why? Because a human life is worth a whole lot more than whatever little cash + couple of thousand max from credit cards he'd have been able to gain that night. This includes his life - I will not become a killer just for some money.

 

[loc978]

I've killed, with a firearm, in self defense... but that wasn't a mugging, it was a combat zone.
Do I blame the guy for firing? No, but I would chide him for panicking. I'm a big believer in firearms training. If he were required to have more training under his belt to have his CCW permit, he might not have panicked and fired off his entire mag. Four of his bullets went wide, and could have easily killed someone who had nothing to do with the mugging.
...that's very bad, in my book.

 

[almostgold]

Been jumped. They didn't take anything though, which was nice. Still got the shit stomped out of my face. And if I had been carrying a weapon, I can gaurantee I would have brought it out (I'm no stranger to firearms either).