Close call last night

[06PA636]

Last night while myself and my girlfriend were heading to a birthday party at the library bar on carson, I had a close "incident" you could say. Got off the 6th/7th street ramp and made the left past the mellon arena, and instead of taking the right onto washington due to traffic we drove past the arena and made a right onto the next road (crawford for those on you familier with the area) this turned into Pride street shortly after. There is a double intersection at the pride/colwell street and the pride/our way rd. As i stopped at the intersection of colwell i seen a red suv stopped 25ft in front of me at the ourway intersection. at that moment an african american man approached the suv and began to "wash" his windows the driver became angry from what i seen of his hand guestures and thats when i got worried. The african man then Opened the passanger side door and began arguring with the driver. At that moment i reaching into the glove box and racked the slide of the xd. All my girlfriend seen was me reach of the glovebox, yelling "oh shit" and pulling out a gun. she freaked out and at the same time this was all going on the driver of the suv stompped on the gas and took off since the light thankfully turned green. Right then ours did too and we drove thru both intersections all while staring at the gentleman and keeping my pistol in my lap. As re made our left on forbes and then across the birmingham bridge i calmed down enough to explain to my girlfriend what all happened. All she seen was the african closing the door and thought he just got out of the red suv in front of us. She then went and bitched at me for scaring her with my actions over the whole situation and what not. I myself justified the whole situation since that could have been us at the first intersection not the other guy. What do you guys think?

[evilash]

First you don't have your weapon holstered or even loaded for that matter?

Second, you know uptown is a bad area why not take 279 south to 376 then get off at Smithfield street bridge and drive to station square then up carson?

Third, why even stop at the red light, its best to avoid the situation and just run right through it. Im not advocating the breaking of law, but it is much easier to just go through the light and ask for forgiveness later then put yourself in a situation that you obviously found threatening.

Keep your gun holstered on you or your subject to a ND especially just carrying it in your lap.

Last why doesn't your gf know you carry?

[Evan]

First of all I agree with evilash about the holstered firearm. The glovebox is no place to keep a firearm if you might need it. If you had been the first vehicle in line and needed your gun, the guy who opened the passenger door would have had the advantage when he saw you open the glovebox.

Secondly, it might have been a good idea to warn your girlfriend that you keep a firearm at the ready. It would have at least given her a heads up before you pulled your gun out without warning. And, if you had it holstered, you would not have needed to pull it out in front of her. It would have been at the ready.

My suggestion is to invest in a holster. If you just want to have your gun ready in the car, there are under the seat holsters. I don't know if you have your LTCF, but to carry a loaded weapon in your vehicle, you need this. Any loaded weapon in your car is a concealed weapon.

There are many things to think about before you decide to carry a loaded firearm on your person or in a vehicle. The most important is to make sure that you will have restraint in using it unless absolutely necessary. Somebody opening the door of another vehicle is not cause to use deadly force. Nor is somebody opening the door of your vehicle. There are many threads on this site that you can check out about this topic.

The second is to be sure that, if it IS necessary to use deadly force, you are not inhibited in doing so to the fraction of a second.

Practice using the means to take a life, but practice MORE in NOT using the means.

[bortle]

A gun in the glove compartment is too far away. What if some one opens the passenger side door? Now he's between you and the gun. What if some one opens your door? And we need to see pics of the girlfriend

[cigarmanpa]

My suggestion is to invest in a holster. If you just want to have your gun ready in the car, there are under the seat holsters. I don't know if you have your LTCF, but to carry a loaded weapon in your vehicle, you need this. Any loaded weapon in your car is a concealed weapon.

you need a ltcf to transport a handgun in any vehicle loaded or unloaded with limited exceptions, 'concealed' or not has nothing to do with it, loaded or not has nothing to do with it

[svltrack]

Ummm.. I am stumped on what the close call was here. Maybe your GF kicking your ass later since you did not tell her that you carry? If the guy was trying to open YOUR door then it is a totally different story

[Emptymag]

My responses in bold/red after graying out the irrelevant portion.

Last night while myself and my girlfriend were heading to a birthday party at the library bar on carson, I had a close "incident" you could say. Got off the 6th/7th street ramp and made the left past the mellon arena, and instead of taking the right onto washington due to traffic we drove past the arena and made a right onto the next road (crawford for those on you familier with the area) this turned into Pride street shortly after. There is a double intersection at the pride/colwell street and the pride/our way rd. As i stopped at the intersection of colwell i seen a red suv stopped 25ft in front of me at the ourway intersection. at that moment an african american man approached the suv and began to "wash" his windows the driver became angry from what i seen of his hand guestures and thats when i got worried. The african man then Opened the passanger side door and began arguring with the driver. (HIS doors should have been locked - were YOURS?) At that moment i reaching into the glove box and racked the slide of the xd. (Ugh) All my girlfriend seen was me reach of the glovebox, yelling "oh shit" and pulling out a gun. she freaked out (Go figure. The passenger should have SOME idea as to what it is that you're doing) and at the same time this was all going on the driver of the suv stompped on the gas and took off since the light thankfully turned green. Right then ours did too and we drove thru both intersections all while staring at the gentleman and keeping my pistol in my lap. (Good thing. He may have tried spraying windex on you. I had to say it)As re made our left on forbes and then across the birmingham bridge i calmed down enough to explain to my girlfriend what all happened. All she seen was the african closing the door and thought he just got out of the red suv in front of us. She then went and bitched at me for scaring her with my actions over the whole situation and what not. I myself justified the whole situation since that could have been us at the first intersection not the other guy. (Not if your doors were locked) What do you guys think?

What do I think? Well, based on nothing more than the info as relayed in the OP, I think this describes someone who "carries" a gun "just in case", but has no real idea what to do with it if presented with a situation where the use of a handgun is warranted.

I think that you may put too much reliance on the gun in the glove box as a means of keeping you "safe". As you have witnessed firsthand, the handgun was virtually useless in the situation you experienced. Had it been YOUR vehicle's door that the "window washer" opened, the gun would have been of just as much use if it were locked in a box in the trunk.

Lock your doors. It's a lot easier than having to explain why you felt you had to shoot some vagrant who "just wanted to wash your windshield".

Glad you weren't actually involved in the incident directly, and I hope it opens your eyes to a few important things. (Like not freaking out your GF like that. )

Perhaps by posting what you did, someone else will learn a thing or two as they read the responses.

[cadence2arms]

Last night while myself and my girlfriend were heading to a birthday party at the library bar on carson, I had a close "incident" you could say. Got off the 6th/7th street ramp and made the left past the mellon arena, and instead of taking the right onto washington due to traffic we drove past the arena and made a right onto the next road (crawford for those on you familier with the area) this turned into Pride street shortly after. There is a double intersection at the pride/colwell street and the pride/our way rd. As i stopped at the intersection of colwell i seen a red suv stopped 25ft in front of me at the ourway intersection. at that moment an african american man approached the suv and began to "wash" his windows the driver became angry from what i seen of his hand guestures and thats when i got worried. The african man then Opened the passanger side door and began arguring with the driver. At that moment i reaching into the glove box and racked the slide of the xd. All my girlfriend seen was me reach of the glovebox, yelling "oh shit" and pulling out a gun. she freaked out and at the same time this was all going on the driver of the suv stompped on the gas and took off since the light thankfully turned green. Right then ours did too and we drove thru both intersections all while staring at the gentleman and keeping my pistol in my lap. As re made our left on forbes and then across the birmingham bridge i calmed down enough to explain to my girlfriend what all happened. All she seen was the african closing the door and thought he just got out of the red suv in front of us. She then went and bitched at me for scaring her with my actions over the whole situation and what not. I myself justified the whole situation since that could have been us at the first intersection not the other guy. What do you guys think?

Did he look like this.

Sorry had to do it.

[Connal]

I have to agree, having a gun in your glove box is like having a condom in your sock drawer. If you are in the drawer already, great. But you might need to get to it in time if you are at a bar. That by far is one of the strangest analogies I have ever made. And one other thing, to go with cadence. He wasn't african. He most likely wasn't born in africa. He was an American, who might have been black. I'm going to start asking people to call me european american.

[06PA636]

Well once we got where we were heading the gun of course went into my pants, just driving with it is a bit of a pain in the side(no pun intended) The gun was in the glovebox in my iwb holster. I do have a ltcf. I know running the redlight is a much safer option and i was prepared to do that if the situation was an option. She knows i carry but what got her was the fact she missed what was going on infront of us. She missed the whole dispute between the man and the driver.I was just "oh shit and my racking the slide real quick" yeah i should have taken the 376 ramp but damn mapquest along with the traffic at 7pm. And thankfully I wasn't the poor soul at the wrong place at the wrong time, I was one redlight behind that guy. About the african thing. I didn't wanna say the stereotypical "black" guy. I tried to be slightly politically correct. Gimme a break