By Talmadge
Like most first time concealed carriers, I was still getting used to the idea of having a piece of metal strapped to my hip. At the time I was rocking a M&P compact with 180 grain HST. I still wasn’t quite used to the idea of having a gun on me, and I felt like a pariah in civilized society. Of course, every day without fail, I would put my gun faithfully following the rules of Ayoob Massad to carry all the time. Of course I began to think I was paranoid, but one day changed all that . . .
I lived in Philadelphia at the time, and was going out for my regular afternoon walk with my dog. My fiancé decided to keep me company for the hell of it, so it was nice to have her along. On our way back to our apartment, I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
I looked across the street and saw the biggest dude I’ve ever seen in my life. He honestly must of been 6’5” and damn near 300 lbs. of pure muscle. Like some NFL player on steroids. Now, I’m a pretty big dude myself at 6 feet and 210 lbs. and solid. This guy, however, made me look like an anorexic cheerleader. And he made it very obvious that he was specifically looking at us. In fact his head turned as we crossed the street and kept looking straight at us before deciding to cross the street and follow us.
At that point, my fiancé and I started walking very fast, trying to get to our apartment which was only about 40 feet away. The psychotic mutant stalker was right behind us and closing. My fiancé and I live in an apartment where you need to walk down an alley to get to the door. We knew things were really going FUBAR when he followed us down that alley.
At that point, our apartment door was only about 10 feet away so I had my fiancé go to the door and let herself in. I stayed to cover her, I turned around in the alley and looked the stalker dead in his eyes. He was about 15 feet away from me, stopped in his tracks and looked me back, straight in the eye. I could feel time stop as I was careful not to let tunnel vision take over.
I adjusted my stance so I would be able to reach my weapon quickly and deliver two shots to his chest if he attacked me or drew a gun. I never stopped looking at him. In those few moments you could hear the gears turning in his head. Then there was that moment in his eyes where he realized he was about to make an acute failure in the victim selection process.
My 6’5 tall, 300 lb. problem looked at me a few seconds more, then turned around and walked back out the alley. I could feel my heart racing and it became quite clear at that moment why I carry a gun. For you race baiters out there, yes he was black. And guess what…I’m black too. It didn’t make a difference to him, there was no “brotherly love”. My being black didn’t magically exempt me or prevent him from him wanting to makee victims of my fiancé and me.
This man had evil in his heart and he was ready to hurt us. So for all you noobs out there in the gun world who keep hearing “there is no need for a gun” or “you are just paranoid,” The people who say that live in a la-la land world of make believe. They have no clue how fast things can go bad, or just don’t care.
Keep carrying and stay safe.