Open carry story

[American1776]

Family vacation in Virginia Beach area. The night before we leave, I stop for gas. In the SUV I have my toddler daughter, my wife, my mom, and my brother in law. I pull in, and I see two cars with 'thugs' inside both idling next to one another. I get out, and i see 4 thugs ( dreads, tats, etc) walking off the highway right toward my vehicle. They all look right at me, continue walking until they see my strong side. As soon as my strong side is toward them, they change direction and walk to the stores off to the side of the pumps. At this point I know that I need to get my family out of there. Chevy bronco pulls up and a non-thug inside says, 'I need a gun like that; I was held up today. And the guy had a gun'' i nod and close the gas tank, get inside the SUV and haul ass out of there.

My intuition TOLD me that today my openly carried Heckler & Koch P7 prevented a very ugly situation. I get the creeps thinking that I had my family with me. I feel grateful that nothing bad happened, and glad that I was openly carrying.

Just thought I'd share this

[Cyclops]

Family vacation in Virginia Beach area. The night before we leave, I stop for gas. In the SUV I have my toddler daughter, my wife, my mom, and my brother in law. I pull in, and I see two cars with 'thugs' inside both idling next to one another. I get out, and i see 4 thugs ( dreads, tats, etc) walking off the highway right toward my vehicle. They all look right at me, continue walking until they see my strong side. As soon as my strong side is toward them, they change direction and walk to the stores off to the side of the pumps. At this point I know that I need to get my family out of there. Chevy bronco pulls up and a non-thug inside says, 'I need a gun like that; I was held up today. And the guy had a gun'' i nod and close the gas tank, get inside the SUV and haul ass out of there.

My intuition TOLD me that today my openly carried Heckler & Koch P7 prevented a very ugly situation. I get the creeps thinking that I had my family with me. I feel grateful that nothing bad happened, and glad that I was openly carrying.

Just thought I'd share this

Good judgement exercised in moving on, but I think it was the facts of the situation and not intuition that supports that your OC paid off.

[IIIIIREPOIIIII]

Glad you made it out of there!

[scruff]

Here's what happened in the bed-wetting hoplophobe imaginary world - you were biased as you profiled four innocent yutes that just looked different than you, and they changed direction to avoid you because you bullied them with your openly-carried gun. For shame!

[American1776]

I will say this: it is times like this where one discovers ones true appreciation for having a pistol. I'm convinced my H&K saved my family from a very unpleasant ordeal.

[jthrelf]

I will say this: it is times like this where one discovers ones true appreciation for having a pistol. I'm convinced my H&K saved my family from a very unpleasant ordeal.

Not to mention the guy carrying it.........

Good job on protecting your family from a potential situation.

[markshere2]

Prejudice!! and scary gun!!!!


Seriously...... Great job protecting your family and yourself!

[DClan]

You done good, 'Nuff said.

[Curmudgeon]

I will say this: it is times like this where one discovers ones true appreciation for having a pistol. I'm convinced my H&K saved my family from a very unpleasant ordeal.

IMHO, and I wasn't there of course, but it wasn't just your OC'd pistol and intuition that played key roles in that scenario. It seems your situational awareness was probably the most vital component of your safety that evening.
You could possibly have simply left in a hurry, or avoided stopping at all, had you been unarmed and assessed the situation for what it was in time to avoid becoming trapped in a bad place at the wrong time.

Even the "bad guys" used their situational awareness to turn away from trouble for them.

I'm not trying to down-play the other elements, I'm trying to suggest you should reflect on the height of your SA and acknowledge the good job you did in that regard.
This situation could easily have escalated into something we'd all be reading about in the paper with a potentially very ugly ending. Instead it quietly ended (quietly but with plenty of adrenaline!)

Well done. As endings go, it doesn't get any better than this.


.

[rwilson452]

I would think if you had been CC things might have gotten a lot closer and might even devolved it CQC.