A TTAG commentator (who wishes to remain anonymous) emailed RF the following account of a near-defensive gun use (DGU):
“Most people leave their work at the office. But for personal protection specialists, that is not always an option. We live in a world where protective tactics are a necessary part of reality. Today, I was confronted with a situation that proved this to be true . . .
Earlier today, I was harassed and verbally assaulted by a man who thought that I stole ‘his’ parking space. As I sat in my car, I watched him walk towards me with all of the warning signs of escalating violence. I locked my doors and rolled up the windows.
Sure enough, his first action (amidst yelling and cursing) was to try to open my door. “Come out or I’ll make you come out,” he yelled as he pounded on my window. I told him calmly that I was going to leave; and leave I did. There was no escalation on my part, no one was hurt, no property was damaged, societal order was not interrupted, and the public was blithely unaware of what just happened.
In my car I had a .38 on my ankle, a 9mm on my hip, a knife in my pocket, an asp, a large can of mace, and mostly importantly the training and the willingness to legally and ethically use whatever force may have been necessary to stop the threat. Far more often than not though, the only force we need – as protection specialists AND as civilians – is the strength to avoid temptation, de-escalate the threat with words, make sure others are safe and walk away.