Almost the frist draw

A few weeks ago, I was in a situation where I almost drew my pistol in self defense. I would like for you to lend me your time and mind as I share what I learned.

It was easter morning and I was seeing a family member off for a long absence. My parents and I had said our good byes and were looking for a church to end our easter morning. We where having problems finding the church which I had mapped out, then transcribed the directions. It was a hassle and we were doing the typical lost tango. U-turns and slow driving was our dance. It was made a little more difficult because were were in two vechiles. I was in my truck and my parents were in their car.

My typical lost and found algorithm is slow, but comprehensive. I will do a lot of short peaks down a road to see if it is the one i need. I did a short peak down a potential sleepy 2 lane road and realized I was going down the wrong street. I pulled into a driveway one the left hand side of the road to do a 3 point turn. As I was putting it in reverse from point one going to point two, i saw a car coming down the road I had just traveled.

I thought about waiting for the car to pass, but I was in a hurry and flustered from not being able to find my way. Secondly, the car was far enough away I thought i could finish my second point and get straighted out and onto my side of the road before we met. Well i was wrong on the second point and the car had to slow down a good bit to allow me to clear the way. As I straightened out, I saw the car stop behind me and the driver opened the door and start yelling at me. Their were two passengers, both were young and black. They were in a late model Lexus. The driver was also wearing a baggy wife beater. He yelled and waved but did not get out of the car.

Here is what I did: I turned around and flashed him the meanest look i could muster while putting my hand in the position to open the center console and draw my gun. After I flashed him the look, i put the car in gear and and drove off. I drove off quick enough to let the guy know i was leaving, but not quick enough to look like i was running. He also left, and it looked like he left quickly, but honestly I don't know because I only made sure he was not following me.

Normally, if it was just me I probably would not have even bothered with the look, i would have just left as quick as possible, but the problem was that he was stopped between my car and my parents who were also in the process of turning around.

There are a few lessons that I gathered from this experience. One was that real life confrontations will seldom match up to your preconceived notions. I had always imagined the threat coming from the front or the side, never directly from behind. Which if I was unable to run and had to defend myself, would be a tough situation to get out of, because I would be a huge target if i tried to get out on the driver's side.

Another thing i noticed was that I did not make myself as ready to defend as possible. I could have opened and pulled out the pistol in case the young gentleman started firing. I just moved to the ready position, I did not actually make myself ready.

Of course, the worse case situation I was the most unprepared for. If they young man had opened fire, should I have ran, which I was in a great position to do, or should I have attempted to to attack and protect my parents, whom he was in between. I could have used my truck as a battering ram, parked it at an angle and used it as cover, I could have tried to flank him in my truck and then attacked, or i could have tried to exit using my third door as cover to shoot from. The fact is that if he would have started to fire, i would not known what to do. That was the final point that was driven home, the importance of training.

cube