Real life is sranger than you can imagine....

by Harry O-1, Wednesday, November 20, 2013, 16:55 (4026 days ago) @ Byron

Since this is at least partially about me, I would like to add a few comments of my own -- and I am not trying to start a fight.

I thought I had a good reason NOT to carry a cartridge in the chamber. Turns out that it was not a good enough reason. But even if I did have one in the chamber, the situation would have been absolutely no different.

I have been going to this barber for at least 30 years. I have seen kids, young people, middle aged people, and old people waiting for a cut. Some have been nicely dressed, some not so nice. There was absolutely nothing (even in retrospect) that told me this guy was different from the many hundreds of people I have seen in his shop before. If that is a failure of "situational awareness" or "condition white", I still don't know what I could have seen that would have tipped me off.

When I first saw the gun, the guy was pointing it at the barber about 15 feet away from me. He IMMEDIATELY turned towards me an walked briskly to about 6 feet away (he must have thought I was a bigger threat). That is about 3 or 4 quick steps. That also tells me that he was not totally inexperienced. He was close enough so that I could reach out and hand him my wallet and he could reach out and take it. It was NOT close enough to grab the gun or sweep it away while I drew my gun with the other hand. That is a "real life" situation that did not happen. Just like the real life situations I practiced that did not happen.

There are also a lot of assumptions that I could not reach the gun in my left front pocket. I have practiced many times drawing with my left hand, wiping off the holster while it is being drawn, and jacking the slide with my right hand, then shooting left handed. I have practiced with my "weak hand" for years and it is not much weaker than my strong hand. However, I was not going to even try that with a gun pointing at my midsection and a finger firmly on the trigger. All it would have taken was a squeeze (or even a jerk) and I would have been hit. I do have a big midsection.

I also have the book, "No Second Place Winner" along with a bunch of other books (anybody remember Chic Gaylord?). If you notice, he was always drawing from an exposed holster with a full sized gun. He was a police officer and was allowed to carry that way. And he was gifted when it came to speed. I am not. The other problem is that there is an anti-gun District Attorney in town that hates guns and gunowners. Before we had legal concealed carry, he (and prior to him, his boss and mentor) would prosecute any otherwise upstanding citizen who used a gun to defend himself against a legitimate criminal. Even if he did not get a conviction, the defense costs would break the gunowner. Now that we have concealed carry (which he testified against several times), he prosecutes anyone who is spotted with a "concealed" gun as "brandishing a weapon". If it is seen in a place with "No Guns Allowed" stickers, he prosecutes it as a felony. A conviction means that you cannot have any guns of any kind afterward.

I would like to carry something like a Ruger LCR revolver. But, I don't know how I can carry it and NEVER have it seen, but still be able to easily reach it and draw. I sometimes work in the field and often attend professional meetings. Having a coat on at all times (especially in the summer) is out. Leaving my shirt tails hanging out would not work out, either. Frankly, I am at a loss. I am rethinking what I need to do in the future, but I am hearing mostly platitudes rather than something that I can actually do.