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Manjeet Sidhu (courtesy cbc.ca)

“Manjeet Sidhu knew it was bad when the man pressing the sawed-off shotgun to the back of his head shoved him through the open front door and into the house where he was delivering a pizza,” cbc.com reports with world-class understatement. “Two women were in the house. They hadĀ ropeĀ and wanted to tie him up.Ā Sidhu said there was no way that he was going to sit down and get tied up. So, he dropped the pizza box and went for the shotgun.” Right answer! Result?

The men grappled face to face,Ā both with two hands on the shotgun, at one point the .410 blasting a load into the ceiling. Sidhu said he was holding his own ā€” until someone got their arm around his neck and allegedly started to choke him out.

He recalled going down, sliding into unconsciousness, believing that he was dying.

“I think I’m dead,” he said.

“But I think God help me and, after that, opened my eyes.”

SidhuĀ said heĀ opened his eyes to find the man allegedly pointing the shotgun at him. Again, he said he managed to get his hands on the weapon and the fight continued.

This time, he managed to get a hand on the inside doorknob. He opened the door a crack, still holding off the shotgun with one hand.

“The girl crying don’t shoot, don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” he said.

Sidhu managed to get out the front door and said he ran onto Taylor Street screaming for help. He managed to flag down a passing police officer.

Arrests followed . . .

If and when your life is in danger, when you face an imminent, credible threat of grievous bodily harm or death, your survival depends on understanding a simple paradigm: you are in a fight with a gun, not a gunfight.

In other words, aĀ gun is no more or less than a tool you use to fight for your life. It shouldn’t be your central focus. Your central focus must be escaping or eliminating the threat. You must do anything and everything you can to achieve that goal.

That’s no easy task.

First, you have to overcome aĀ natural tendencyĀ to fallĀ into a state of denial. No, not California. The little voice inside your head that says “this isn’t happening. If I do what he says, I’ll be OK.” Wrong. It is happening and there’s no guaranteeĀ that compliance will stop anĀ attack from going from bad to fatal.

Never mind all that talk about bad guys/spree killers being cowards who fold at the first sign of serious resistance. You have to assumeĀ the bad guy’s ready for a fight to the death. Are you?

Are you mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially prepared/willingĀ to doĀ whatever it takes to survive?Ā And by whatever, I mean whatever. If you can’t bring your gun into play, do something. Something violent. Hit, kick, punch, grab, stab, pound, anything. Maybe all at the same time. If you can get your gun, do so. If you can’t, keep fighting.Ā 

Yes, you might get shot, perhaps even with your own gun. Yes, you might get stabbed. Or beaten to death. Or raped or tortured and then shot, stabbed or beaten to death. But that could happen anyway. That’s theĀ reality of a deadly threat. Yes, even a “simple” robbery.

You may have to wait for an opportunity to attack. You may not get anĀ opportunity to attack. ButĀ always look for your chance to attack and then fight like hell. No matter what gun you carry, whether its available or not, your combat mindset is your first, best and last weapon. Be prepared to use it.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. “Never mind all that talk about bad guys/spree killers being cowards who fold at the first sign of serious resistance. You have to assume the bad guyā€™s ready for a fight to the death. Are you?”

    Hard truth, Robert. But another hard truth is that many targets, people from middle-class backgrounds in particular, of this kind of violence have never been in a real fight in their entire life. Hell, a great many people have never really had someone get really, really mad at them. Criminals know this and choose their targets carefully. The internet is a very instructive tool in this respect. There are great Youtuber videos of violent encounters that show thugs approaching victims who appear to be vulnerable and then get knocked cold by some old guy, teenaged kid, or apparently weak woman who knows how to throw a hard punch.

  2. Some basic situational awareness would be helpful as well. An ounce of prevention and all that. Additionally, being aware of your surroundings may aid you in formulating an escape route during the fight, or perhaps an environmental advantage you could use.

    • It’s interesting that you said this. I have to admit for a very long time my “situational awareness” absolutely sucked. It just wasn’t something I even thought about, even in situations where I really should have been more observant. But, once I started reading commentary about situational awareness on TTAG I slowly started paying better attention to my surroundings. Once you start doing that another reality begins to appear. Late night parking lots, like at a WalMart or Burger joint are inner-city hunting grounds. If you pay attention you’ll begin to notice the predators. They’ve always been out there . . . watching, and waiting. It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily after you, not that night anyway, but they’re out there looking for opportunities which may or may not involve an attack on someone. Parking or walking someplace late at night, even in my own upscale neighborhood, will never be the same again.

  3. Next question, was he working for an outfit that maintains a strict ban on resisting/defending yourself from robbers? I’d love to see him sue somebody that would fire him for refusing to be tied up.

    • Well, here is the thing, he was in Saskatoon, Canada when this went down and we all know about Canadian carry laws or lack thereof. My question is, what the heck is a guy named Manjeet doing in Saskatoon in the first place??

      • By his name and his head covering, I’d say he is Sikh. Lots and lots of them in Canada. And historically, fierce fighters.

      • He is undoubtedly Sikh and Indian. As part of the supposed British Empire (nominally) there are very loose immigration laws from one former British country to another and many Indians take advantage of this to emigrate to Canada.

        While often mistaken for Muslims because of the turbans they wear the Sikh are not Muslim and are very fine and ethical people, on the whole, but they don’t take shit from anyone.

        • “I am Sikh and tired of being called a muslim. We are the 7/11 guys, not the 9/11 guys!”

      • Every Sikh American I know is a fierce patriot and a believer in individual freedom. Their mindset is completely different from Muslims despite some geographical roots. Truly a “religion of peace” – but they have no problem defending themselves and their own when they need to.

        It’s a shame Sikhs often get confused with Muslims. I have never met a Sikh who wasn’t a solid dude all around, hard worker, and full believer in live and let live.

        I’m generalizing, of course – but that’s just been my life experience.

        • Arkansas kurt, I see what you did there…. Was that you idea of a Sikh joke?

          Seriously, glad this man is ok.

          Having delivered both pizza and mail, it can be a scary world out there.

          Think you all know how the USPS and guns thing goes. So carrying then was not an option conducive to continued employment.

          Only real problem I had was one you might have all heard about. And that was the 2001 Anthrax attacks. My office was directly impacted. One of our customers died in Oxford, CT and investigators found traces of Anthrax on equipment on our loading dock.

          We had the CDC giving us Cipro like it was Halloween candy.

          My USPS days are long behind me, but I learned firsthand that big bad things can and do happen. And you have to roll with it.

  4. This is a huge danger for people who deliver pizza. People wait until late in your shift and then call up an order with the specific intent to ambush you.

    To make matters worse most large chains don’t allow you to carry any sort of weapon at all, not even a knife.

    • I delivered ‘za during highschool, and only was successfully robbed once. Guy had a revolver and the visible chambers were all empty – but then I got the crucial view – the hammer cocked. I was livid, but I couldn’t risk the other guys getting shot with the one bullet that POS may have had. Someone did try to grab me once on delivery in a 3 story with no lights (not unusual in the neighborhood). They don’t let you carry knives or guns, but they do let you carry flashlights. My personal rig was a 6D Maglite – with NiCads. I was on the landing for 2 (order on 3 ‘natch) when someone grabbed me from behind. I swung that club, connected, then GTFO there in rapid fashion. Cops said they’d go look for him if he was injured enough to call an ambulance, otherwise, perhaps he learned something. .

      • I quit on day three when a high school kid at the Papa John’s I was working at got fired for having a T-Ball/Softball bat, in a bat bag, in the trunk of his car.

        This place delivered to the rough parts of the city and I figured I could always find another temporary $14/hour job that wouldn’t get me killed. A month later one of the drivers for that place was ambushed and stabbed repeatedly. They didn’t even announce the robbery. Just stab, stab, stab til she went down and then they robbed her. She was lucky to survive. IIRC she was then fired for taking too much time off to heal up, but she was going to quit anyway after what happened.

        • My tour of duty was long ago, things were a bit different – statistically more dangerous, but there was a sort of “code” that if you followed, you pretty much had no worries. At least on deliveries. I delivered to all sorsta sketchy muthas, from weed dealers to ballers, to mid-level distros. Not to mention the thieves. Most were just folks.

          I was nice to people regardless of themselves, and they usually threw me a good tip in return for the civility. Nowadays – the racial nonsense has been ratcheted to the point where they just might beat you for being white. As happens a lot, and is quickly moved to the back page of the local paper.

  5. Just a guy working for a living and a criminal deciding to take what is not his. This is Democrats solution to economic inequality. Not happy with your income take it from others. Not happy with police, we’ll give you room to destroy. Its not you, but the police that are holding your American Dream back. Your an illegal immigrant, no problem we’ve created cities just for you. You don’t like white people, no problem we’ll take their guns to make it easier for you to take.

    Should have been a 2 second DGU and ended – I mean stopped threat.

    • I think they were aiming to take a bit more than his money. He offered it to them, after all. They wanted him for some other reason. Probably some kind of sick game they wanted to play.

  6. This happened in Canada, so the whole carry a concealed weapon thing is off the table. Too bad, otherwise it seems like a nice place.

  7. “Never mind all that talk about bad guys/spree killers being cowards who fold at the first sign of serious resistance.”

    My impression is that the average violent criminal has a very different mentality than the average spree killer. To start with, the criminal wants to live and not get caught, while the spree killer likely is ready to die if not actively seeking death.

    Assuming both react the same way to counterforce is a bad idea.

  8. Situational awareness and proactive planning are your friends. The other thing is jobs like pizza delivery guy are statistically more likely to get you on the wrong end of a gun than say plumbing or HVAC repair. Apples and oranges but that job and being the guy behind the counter at the stop and rob don’t pay enough for the risk involved.

  9. Yep fight like hell. I’ve never been held up by a gun but I’ve been attacked. On the subway(EL) in Chiraq.And I kicked his azz. My wife taught self-defense years ago to a bunch of goofy white women(YWCA). Most of the silly twits were afraid to strike some raptist” I’ll just let him rape me and he’ll leave me OK”. Situational awareness for sure.

    • I saw a YouTube video recently (sorry, no link) of a subway attack. Perp was harassing a girl and the guy across the aisle reached over and yanked his pants down to his ankles! When the perp tuned around the guy decked him. Good times.

      • Wait a minute. Did the perp pull his own pants down to his ankles? Did the concerned bystander pull his own pants down to his ankles (in an effort to get the perp’s attention)? Or did the concerned bystander pull the perp’s pants down to his ankles?

        For whatever reason, the first time that I read your response, I read it as the concerned bystander pulled his own pants down to his ankles in order to throw the perp off of his game.

  10. Or run like hell. I will never forget a news broadcast in St. Louis decades ago. The were was a guy going around killing and robbing people with a sawed off shotgun. He would just walk right to them, pull the shotgun, give them both barrels, killing them, and they take what they had. There was not even a description of him.

    The cops caught a break when a potential victim escaped unharmed. He was an elderly black gentleman who just simply ran immediately when the guy pulled the shotgun out. The BG fired, but amazingly, did not hit him. The local TV station interviewed him and asked him why he thought he survived his interaction with the killer and others didn’t. He said, “Lot of folks see a gun, they freeze. The neighborhood I grew up in, we learned, ‘You see a gun, you run.'”

    BGs may be ruthless, but that does not make them good gunfighters. For an untrained person, a handgun, or something like a sawed off shotgun, fired without good aim is only good at very close distances.

  11. Silly man, all you need to do is dial 911 and let trained professionals handle it. And don’t call your attacker ugly names.

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