Today I had a little non-incident that could have quickly escalated into something major. Fortunately, it was a non-incident because the guy turned out to be simply a blow hard.
But, even though nothing happened, I personally like to play "what-if." I do that because I believe in the old saying: "your body can't go where your mind hasn't already been." So I like to always try to "go there" in my mind so if something ever DOES happen, I can have some idea of how to handle it, even if that idea is only sub-conscious.
So with that, let me give you the situation and those who want to play along can join in.
Since today was a beautiful day here in North Texas, the wife and I decided to take a motorcycle ride. Eventually we had to stop for gas (by this time we were in Paris, mid-afternoon). I pulled the bike up to a pump with the pump on my left-hand side, with the bike pointing south. To my right at the next pump island, there was a pickup, pointing north. So my bike and the pickup were next to each other, on each other's right-hand side at adjacent pump islands with each of our gas pump's on each of our left hand sides, with our vehicles pointing opposite directions. As I pull up to the pump, I see that there are two guys in the truck, one in the passenger seat, appears to be 20-30 years old, the other guy standing between the pump and the truck pumping gas, appears to be 40-50 years old.
So as I park next to our pump, the wife gets off the back of the bike, and is standing nearby, while I get off and start pumping gas into the bike.
I should say here that while I'm on the bike, I open carry. Otherwise, when I'm NOT on the bike, I don't open carry too much (do some), but I've decided that while I'm on the bike, concealed carry puts me at a tactical disadvantage, so I open carry. Right or wrong, just my personal preference.
Anyway, after a minute or two of me pumping gas, I start to notice some loud talking between these two guys in the truck. The guy in the passenger seat (nearest to me) has his door closed and window rolled up, but the driver has his door open while he's pumping his gas. I can't make out what they're saying to each other, but I do note that it seems to be quite a bit louder than a typical conversation would need to be for them in that situation.
I'm still pumping gas, looking down at the tank so it doesn't splash out. Even though I'm looking down, I'm also glancing out the corner of my eye at the two yahoos doing their loud talking, still not able to make out exactly what they're saying to each other.
Just about this time, out the corner of my eye, I see the passenger looking in my direction and now I do clearly hear him say: "Hey, look at me. I'm Billy Bad Dude 'cuz I have a GUN!"
He's obviously talking about ME, because he's looking in my direction and there's nobody else around. And more importantly, because I'm open carrying, and from our positions and angles, I'm sure it's clearly visible to them. (Fortunately, my wife did not hear the comment.)
So I'm still looking down - well, still have my head down, anyway - but I have stopped pumping gas and am looking at the two yahoos out the corner of my eye. The one doing the mouthing is still in the truck, his door is still closed, and the window still rolled up. The other one is still in his position, appears to still be pumping gas, but is also looking my direction.
Anyway, I immediately decide it's time to leave, so I hang up the gas nozzle, tell the wife to hop on, and we leave - all in a "normal" fashion. I decided to leave simply to take away the opportunity for the hillbilly to have time to muster up the courage to actually get out of his truck and start approaching me. It was far too pretty a day for us on the bike to have to spend the rest of it having to explain to the cops why I ended up having to shoot Jethro.
So anyway, after we're safely down the road a ways, the "what-if's" start coming up. What if he HAD gotten out of the truck? What if he DID approach me, looking for trouble?
So, I decided that IF it had come to that, my reaction would have been to immediately tell my wife to go inside the store NOW, while I simultaneously held out my left hand in a "stop" fashion, while putting my right hand on my pistol (not pull it yet) while loudly yelling "Stop. Back up. Don't come any closer." Then at that point (assuming he did actually stop) I myself would begin to walk backwards toward the store, still with my left hand out and my right hand still on my holstered pistol. That way, if something did happen, the video would clearly show that I was attempting to avoid a confrontation.
Like I said, fortunately, none of that happened (other than the loud mouth comment directed at me from inside the closed pickup). But I like to always be mindful of my options, so usually play the what-if game later.
What do you all say? How do you think you would have handled a similar situation IF it had actually come to pass for you?
<MP(Ret)95B> 