So, have you ever had to use/display your weapon?

[fadlan12]

Thank goodness, no. I have been worried that one time I will leave my weapon at home and murphy will rear his ugly head (murphy's law).

[jbirds1210]

[ I honestly think he was a probably psychotic and in need of being institutionalized.

Sir-
I have met you and can't imagine anyone....except someone fitting your above description would pick you to assault. The theory about picking out the sheep seems to go out the window with this failed attempt at your life. Wow......it does not take a genius to become a criminal.
Jason

[G.C.Montgomery]

[ I honestly think he was a probably psychotic and in need of being institutionalized.

Sir-
I have met you and can't imagine anyone....except someone fitting your above description would pick you to assault. The theory about picking out the sheep seems to go out the window with this failed attempt at your life. Wow......it does not take a genius to become a criminal.
Jason

Idunno, may be it's my kind and cuddly demeanor that gets me set up for all the stuff I keep getting into. I do try to be nice to everyone. My friends all say I'm a big teddy bear but a bear all the same. So, I guess the wackos, crooks and general idiots of the world just never notice the claws, fangs and exceeding capacity for violence until it's too late.

[Thane]

My lack of foresight gave me two options that night - kill the dog, or dance with a shopping cart and an aggressive canine and risk getting bitten. Neither option was very appealing.

How about throwing him the cat food?

That's a short-term solution and doesn't eliminate the threat for the next shopper the dog harasses, but you wouldn't have to deal with the police or an emergency room.

Your cat would be annoyed, of course.

- Jim

Honestly, I'm not sure that would have done much. The dog was rather fixated on me, not the bags I was holding.

I've noticed that, when animals are interested in an item you are carrying, their gaze will fixate on that item, deviating to you when you deny them access. The dog may well have been after my purchases, but he didn't act like it. He fixated on my face, and was rather... disconcerting in his unwavering attention towards me, not my bags. If he was after the cat food, he understood that he had to take it from me.

Additionally, his attitude was not as "begging" as most dogs I've run across that were after food. It was more of a territorial behavior. A dog acting territorial on his own turf doesn't bother me. This dog was acting territorial towards one person, on turf that was clearly "neutral ground."

I still have no clue what the dog's problem was.

[seamusTX]

I've seen that kind of behavior. It's scary. Maybe the dog had rabies.

- Jim

[Skiprr]

Sir-
I have met you and can't imagine anyone....except someone fitting your above description would pick you to assault. The theory about picking out the sheep seems to go out the window with this failed attempt at your life. Wow......it does not take a genius to become a criminal.
Jason

Worrisomely, there's also the "machismo syndrome" that comes into play with even (marginally) sane people. There can be a fine line between not looking like a target and looking like a trophy. That happened to me only when I was a teenager and lived in a country where I was, on average, a head taller than the local teenagers. Never happened to me after I got back to the U.S., but it happened a couple of times over the years to friends.

It sometimes happens to guys G.C.'s size, and to guys of conspicuous muscularity or attested fighting skill. It's why actors (I am liberal with the term) like Jean-Claude VanDamme and Steven Seagal have bodyguards. There's always the young gunslinger--figuratively speaking--who wants to prove himself by taking on the established gunfighter. In my limited experience, this typically plays out in two scenarios: either the challenger has one or more friends with him and is either goaded into action or draws courage from his posse; or the bubba has had a few too many, and his thinking is now more firmly connected to his testosterone level than to the neurons in his frontal lobe.

In a pure "machismo" form, not gang-related, these kinds of encounters are seldom life-threatening, but they can be difficult to diffuse. If words and simply leaving won't work, the advent of OC helps. A squirt in the face is as effective as an elbow to the nose, and a lot more defensible.

But for someone to try to swing a brick at G.C. on the street...yeah, clear sign of institutionalizable insanity.

[AV8R]

Family incidents last 15 years or so, in US:

...1 PM, Hwy 114 outside Seymour, Texas. Old pickup, with OK plates and three trashy, glaring, W/M occupants, forced my car off roadway onto shoulder, speeding up and slowing down as I did, trying to keep me off the asphalt. A 12ga. shorty through my window broke the stalemate. Plates called in to TDPS, no action taken by DPS. Motive unknown, but definitely not road rage.

... 3 AM, home. Door of Suburban creaked, I quietly exited out the front door and through courtyard to driveway with 12ga., reconned the block, no joy. Stereo in Suburban removed.

...3 PM, home. Answered very loud knocks at front door (no bell rings). Right hand, holding a .45, was behind my back. Middle-aged W/M asked for "Bill" then left. Home next door was burglarized a few minutes later, front door kicked in.

...1 AM, 20 miles west of Carlsbad, NM. Son and friends were camping when they noticed a car in the distance driving toward the campsite. Some minutes later, five H/Ms arrived, showing knives, and told my son, who was sitting by the campfire with his .45 under his jacket, to "get the __ out of our campsite." Son's friends then emerged from behind the rocks and 4WDs with a 12ga., M-1, M14, and .223, and lots of mags and sidearms. A classic situation.

...10 PM, North Carolina, isolated beach. Daughter and husband were vacationing , stranded on the beach that evening by car trouble. While they were performing emergency repairs, a car with four B/Ms arrived and occupants made comments about the "pretty girlfriend", asking if she would like to ride with them. Son-in-law, who is a rural Tennessee boy, ex-LURP, and professional engineer, walked to the car, and suggested that they either help or leave. They left, to live another day.

...3 PM, North Carolina. Daughter's in-laws stopped at a rest stop on I-95. Two W/Ms followed 'mom' back to the car, but they turned and closed on 'dad' when he became suspicious and walked toward the men. 'Dad' stopped them cold when he stared at them and said, "don't even think about it." A few days later, the two men were arrested for the serial murders of four people at rest stops on I-95 and the theft of their cars.

...10 AM, Granny Glock and her mother arrive at mom's home after shopping, finding the rental apartment behind the main home burglarized by a reported H/M a few minutes before. Could have gotten ugly.

...4 PM, car with two unidentified H/Ms followed son-in-law for a number of blocks through his residential neighborhood in Dallas, and continued behind him into his driveway. Son-in-law, who was returning from the skeet club, stepped out of his truck, loaded two in the Browning, and watched H/Ms reverse course, intentions unknown.

...11 AM, the day before our trip to Dallas last week to visit daughter. Car with three H/Ms parked in front of home next to daughter's, one H/M kicked in front door, injuring the 76-year-old woman recovering from back surgery who was alone in the home. Her screams frightened the intruder away. A ten-year-old girl across the street gave a description to police. (Daughter was away from home at the time, but her two "Staffordshire terriers" were on watch.)

Be careful out there.

[texas297]

I know that I'm not in the minority here but isn't in sad that in this day and age that we've coming to answering an unexpected knock on the front door (especially after dark) with our sidearm readily available.

[kw5kw]

I know that I'm not in the minority here but isn't in sad that in this day and age that we've coming to answering an unexpected knock on the front door (especially after dark) with our sidearm readily available.

Oh no,
That has been going on for a long while.

Think of the pioneer woman, alone while husband is in mountains hunting, or just in the field plowing and she got a very unexpected man on a horse. You think she didn't have a weapon handy... or worse yet an unexpected man walking and I'm saying nothing about ethnicity here because in those days one could have been as bad as any other.

Riding on a steamboat on the Ole' Miss. and your boat gets stopped in mid stream by a log. A log that had been placed there by river pirates. Hope you had your flintlock handy!

Nothing has really changed, just that the reporting of it is so much more real-time than it ever was in the past.

Just like tornado's, there aren't really more tornado's today than there were 50, 75, 150 years ago, just more of them are seen today (more general population plus more storm chasers) and because of modern technology everyone knows about them.

Russ

[cyphur]

I have only had to draw in the house twice, once when my wife blew the secondary breaker and half the apartment went dark. Other time was a strange noise out front around 1am, no issues.

I've put my hand on my pistol a few times, twice with dogs, a few times in parking lots late at night.

[txinvestigator]

I have only had to draw in the house twice, once when my wife blew the secondary breaker and half the apartment went dark. .

I bet that taught her!

[stevie_d_64]

Well now, that just paints a mental picture!

I know...I am soooooo scarred for the rest of the year now...

My question is...

If you are nakid...

Where do you hold yer reloads?

I'm soooooo going to hell for this one...

[hi-power]

I have only had to draw in the house twice, once when my wife blew the secondary breaker and half the apartment went dark. .

I bet that taught her!

Hee-hee!

[stevie_d_64]

I know that I'm not in the minority here but isn't in sad that in this day and age that we've coming to answering an unexpected knock on the front door (especially after dark) with our sidearm readily available.

I would say yes...

But you should not really be sad...Nor should you fear being labeled as paranoid...

You are a prepared individual, that values life, over the threat of harm or death against you or others...