Tex1961 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:17 am
So, I have to ask for conversation sake. You’re there, you see this jack wagon. What would you have done. Before you answer, think on it for a few minutes. Really dig and decide truly what you would have done.
Was he an immediate threat...
Was he just exercising his constitutional rights
You may only have minutes to act
Your family might have been there with you.
I would have gotten myself, and my family if they’re with me, the heck out of there. Answering your questions in order:
- potentially, yes.
- yes, but in an inappropriate context.
- get the heck out.
- get all of us out.
Bottom line....it’s your right to walk around with an AR, wearing a tactical vest stuffed with spare mags. But unless you really need a long gun at
that moment, it’s a really
REALLY stupid idea. Context is everything in social interactions, and going to the market is a form of social interaction. When you laugh at what a friend is telling you, are you laughing because he just told you a funny joke, or are you laughing because he told you that his mother just died? Laughing in both instances—a seemingly harmless expression—but the context makes your laughter into two diametrically opposed things.....mirthful fellowship on one hand, and vicious cruelty on the other hand. Context is
EVERYTHING, and one has to be autistic to not know this and to act accordingly. The word we use to describe something that is contextually
correct is "
appropriateness". What this fool did was absolutely inappropriate. And by the way, this guy's AR was slung to the front of his body. (It’s an AR pistol.)
- CLICK TO EMBIGGEN
You want to open carry? Fine, go ahead. It’s your right.
I open carry sometimes. So do most cops, most of the time, and nobody blinks an eye....except for the occasional precious snowflake at Starbucks. But a holstered pistol is one thing. If you see the cop carrying his pistol in his hand, it means another thing entirely. But if you see a cop all tacticaled up and carrying an AR on front of his body—slung or not—you have to have water on the brain not to realize that there is a threat present, and to not get yourself out of harm's way.
This bonehead drives up to a Walmart, just days after a mass shooting at another Walmart, jocks up and enters the store, and then exhibits behavior that qualifies as bizarre. You’d have to be brain dead not to see him as at least a
potential threat. We are always at risk of forgetting that our LTC is not a Batman license, and there is a fine line between defending one's self, loved ones, or innocent third parties, and unjustifiable homicide. You have to ask yourself, what would a
cop do in this situation, but even then,
you might not have the same "Good Samaritan" protections under the law that a cop has. (Yes, I know, the Good Samaritan laws are for a different context, but bear with me as I use it for an analog.)
Here’s what
I would do....
- remove myself/loved ones from danger.
- call 911 while evading/escaping.
- be a good witness in so far as I can do so without exposing myself unnecessarily.
- LAST RESORT, draw my gun if we're unable to escape further and he shoulders the rifle, and light him up if he aims it at me or mine.
And all of that depends on my keeping my wits about me in the moment. I’ve been shot at once by someone who didn’t know I was there, but I’ve never been in combat or an active shooter situation. So literally
EVERYTHING in that list is purely speculation. The primary value of it is to get/keep me thinking about possible courses of action, and maintaining situational awareness.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
