A Christmas Nitemare

This is something that happened to me a couple of years after I bought my S&W 6906 pre-ban gun handgun. It was my first pistol and I bought when I knew the ban would pass. I got my CCW and started carrying when I went fishing and almost everywhere.

In 2001 around Christmas time, I as doing some work around my dad's house and needed to get some stuff at Home Depot, as I walked out the door my dad said "Got your gun?", I said yep, won't leave home with out it. (My dad then made some remark about wishing I would leave home, but that’s a different story).

Anyway, I carried at that time using a belly band that I could slide around under my left arm and it provided a cross draw holster. With a T shirt on, I could have my outer garment undone almost all the way down; I could pull my gun out in 1 sec no problem.

I parked my Pontiac TransAm on the front row of the parking lot. It was very clean and well, looked expensive. As I walked in I noticed a man leaning against one of the columns, he got my attention but that was about it. I was not in the store long as they did not have what I wanted so, I headed to my car. As I passed the pillar I noticed this man still standing there and this time he was moving and walking behind me. I kept my head cocked sideways so I could hear his footsteps and tell if he was advancing or not. It was clear he was following me. I pretended to look for my keys by patting my pants and shirt pockets, however I was actually concealing the fact that I pulled the safety off of my S&W under my shirt, something I had practiced doing.

When I got to my car I used the alarm feature to set off several hongs of my horn. Then BG was steal heading for me, at this point my right arm was already on the gun and, it was coming out of the holster but I paused, and turned my weak side too him. At this point he was 5ft from me. I held up my left hand, looked him in the eye and told him, "You take one more step and you will die". What happened next scared me, I noticed his eyes look to the right, and he put his hands up and slowly shook his head and started walking back. He was alerting someone behind me to back off. Knowing I had someone behind me I spun around and looked at this guy as he was walking quickly away into the dark, and the same time backing away from the other intruder, but keeping him in view.

I got in my car and I debated calling the police, but being my first incident, I figured these guys would be long gone. Then I looked up as I started my car. The first BG had gone back and leaned against the pillar and was smoking a cigarette. I was a little upset now. I got out walked right towards the guy, looked him in the eyes, I could tell he was now afraid, went inside and asked the first cashier to call security up front code “NOW”.

Security came up and I told them what had happened, he asked how many men and I said 2. As we walked towards my car I spotted them running across the parking lot and a small older model Honda car coming to get them. As they got in and squealed the tires on the way out we both realized there were 4 guys in the car rather than just the 2.

The store security informed me that have a LEO they hire around Christmas and when he got there he would let him know what happened. He joked and said “They are never around when you need them.” I felt comfortable with that so I left.

If this BG had done anything other than comply and walk away, the decision on what to do next had already been made.

Now I keep my gun on me at all times. Even if I am going somewhere like a home repair store to make a quick pickup… I will be armed.

This experience also taught me that the police can not protect me. Only I can do that.

Now, I just need to learn how to be a more responsible CCW carrier.