Today...Guns Flashed in Convenience Store Parking Lot....What Would Other Freepers Have Done?

self | 11-08-02 | wardaddy

[wardaddy]

This happened to me today. It rattled me, I'm not going to lie. I used to think I didn't rattle too easy but I found myself in a percieved hairy situation today and would like to know how other FReepers would have handled this.

This morning about 11 AM, I was on my way to visit my wife and our newborn son(#2) who was born last night at the hospital in midtown Nashville.

I decided to stop at a 7-11 style store near the hospital to pick up some drinks and stuff for my wife. Upon entering my parking lot, I chose to park my Suburban next to a Dark Green Yukon with "pimped-out" rims and whatnot. I didn't think a lot about it at the time except to think it was either bangers or a pro-athlete except that the car was backed in rather than the usual parking of nose first. As I got out of my car right next to the Yukon, I noticed 3 large "baggy urban clothed" young black males in the car with tinted windows in the back. It set off some mild alarms but not too much. I deal with bangers in my businesses frequently.

Anyhow, as I turned to close my door, I happen to look down right into the driver's lap where in one hand was a cell phone and the other hand cradled an open-bolt Mac-10 style machine pistol....the bolt was open and I could see by the brass that it was indeed loaded. I turned away by then very very alarmed and my thoughts racing...as I did , I noticed the passenger in front had a Sig or Glock cradled in his hand as well. I did my very best to appear that I had not noticed since I was to be sure in easy fire range thru the open window. I wasn't sure whther the Mac was selective fire or semi-auto.

I immediately made the decision to go ahead and enter the store not sure whether they were planning to hit the place or what in the hell but I sure did not want to spook them. A Yukon full of bangers sitting back asswards in front of an urban convenience store with guns in their laps in broad daylight was sort of overwhelming.....kind of like Neil Young's Powderfinger "it sure don't look like they are here to deliver the mail"....

I got in the store and immediately told the store clerk (an Indian of course who could barely understand a damn thing I said).....he stammered about a bit and I yelled at him to lock the "GD" door now damn it!...he complied and I took his phone to call the cops. I asked him if he had a gun to which he expressed befuddlement. I damn sure wished I had had one about then. I called 9-11 and told them what I'd seen. The dispatcher was quite nice and asked for a description and a tag #. I complied.

As we were waiting for the cops, another young black man in a red hooded sweatshirt came up and spoke to the driver and the driver got out with his gun under his coat and the new guy took over driving and the original driver got in and they pulled off about 10 seconds before the cops arrived. When the cops arrived, I ran out into the lot and told the cop which direction they headed and he thanked me and radioed the other units and told me he was on it and screeched off. I went back inside to try to chill out the clerk who by then had called his relatives and was sort of freaked out by me as much as anything I suppose.

Now, I've lived all over the damn world, been shot accidentally, been shot at on purpose and done a fair amount of living. The danger I immediately felt by the circumstances made me feel quite vulnerable. I simply was not sure what was going down but it sure didn't feel too good. I mean ....how many folks sit in front of 7-11s brandishing fairly serious handweapons in public in a parked car in the middle of the day?

I knew I was not about to walk past those guys again to get back in my car with the driver's window open and me a perfect target if I had spooked them if they thought I'd made them.

What kind of idiot's show their guns in public in that manner? I don't think these were CCW fellows.....

Anyhow. That's my story. Glancing down at that Cobray style pistol rattled me a bit.....It was damned surreal. I thought for a second that after all these years and rebuilding my life, I might just get clipped in some crossfire by some chickensh!t gangbangers over some bad dope deal or grudge.....it didn't seem fair. Does it ever?

The cops were pretty prompt to their credit.

I don't like calling the cops over anything to do with guns or RKBA but this situation just had a real bad feeling to it.

Any fellow FReepers care to lecture me on the right way to have handled it or just maybe I should have minded my own business ...feel free to fire away.

[wardaddy]

Today...my common sense outweighed my feverent RKBA motivations.

And before you flame back with the race card, I will confess that had it been a group of white guys from the set of Resevoir Dogs sitting their fondling their guns I would have felt just as alarmed.

These were not deer hunters, or range guys. They looked like bangers with guns in their laps backed into a parking spot in front of a 7-11.

Once I saw them and their guns, there was no way I was going back by their open window....that would have been utter idiocy ...FMCDH notwithstanding.

[Travis McGee]

WOW! Let me read the thread so I don't aks answered questions.

I will say that a "Big Mac Attack" at ten feet can ruin your WHOLE DAY.

[piasa]

Looks like you did the right thing to me; the guys weren't just some rabbit or squirrel hunters stopping to pick up a bag of ice, and the guy sitting in a lot with the gun on his lap and looking lioke he was waiting for someone isn't the manner of your typical NRA member.

By going into the convenience store and telling the clerk to lock it up you did the right thing, too; it beats leaving the clerk dumb and vulnerable to what appeared to be imminent trouble. Both of you could have exited the place out the back if it had looked like the men were going to head for the store, or gotten under cover to wait for the cops. If you had got back in your car and took off before going into the store, you would definitely have gotten their attention and they might have trailed you.

Either way, you now see the wisdom of keeping yourself armed and the clerk may consider it now, too.

[Travis McGee]

You have that dream too?

[Jagdgewehr]

Why are you advocating and proactively summoning the police to violate the constitutional rights of free citizens?

The free citizens were considered nefarious by outward appearence.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

You did well! I probably would have gone though an exagerrated pantomime of discovering I'd forgotten my wallet to get back in my car and get the hell out of there. But the path you chose may well have saved that clerk's life. You were nobler than I would have been.

Some thoughts:

1) Locking the door wouldn't have kept them out. They could have easily broken through or shot through the door to gain entry. You and the clerk needed to get out of sight pronto after locking the door.

2) Calling the cops was the right thing to do, but the (presumed) bad guys might've been listening in on a scanner. This would've accounted for their departure just before the cops arrived. Shrug. Don't know any better way of doing things than the way you did.

3) Get a carry permit and carry. You're a sitting duck in situations like this. Ditto for your wife. It goes without saying that you should also get training and practice regularly.

4) The perps (if that's what they were) could have cut the phone wires to the store. So keep your cell phone on you at all times. Try the landline first, though... in many parts of the country dialing 911 gets you the highway patrol or some other lame thing. The landline's ID will also tell the emergency folks precisely where you are... no depending on you to remember the location accurately.

5) What happened later? Did the cops get these guys? Did they ever call you for follow-up?

[healey22]

You were indeed brave to walk into that store, you indeed may have prevented the robbery of that store and possible murder of that store clerk. It appears they were getting ready to rob it and had the car backed in for easy escape. Maybe, they changed their mind when they observed you entering the store. I was once robbed my two black men in a scenario similiar to this. I would never want to have an experience like that again. Two weeks later they did the same thing and tried to kill their victim with a gun they stole from my house, except their victim had a bigger gun and hit one of them.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

So... you witnessed this and didn't offer your help to the cops?

[RightOnline]

"Then they could have gotten your plate number and found out where you live, putting you, your wife and new baby in harms way, for no good reason."

Bullshit. You've been watching too many bad movies. You would have a better chance of being hit by lightning while being eaten by a shark than being the "victim" of such a wild-brained scenario.

He did better than good.

[yarddog]

After reading your latter post where you made it plain that it wasn't possible to get back in your vehicle without it being obvious that you had seen something, I now agree that you did exactly the right thing.

When I was in college I worked weekends at a filling station on the night shift. One night around 11:00PM a Florida Highway patrolman pulled into the station, skidded to a stop and jumped out with his revolver drawn. He asked if I was ok and when I said yes, he walked all around the station, especially the back then came back and told me someone had seen two armed bros around 100yds behind the station. He stayed awhile then left.

Never heard anything else about it.

[MissAmericanPie]

I was driving to my son's elementary school to pick him up, down a long two lane road that runs by a golf course. There was only one other car coming towards me and no cars behind me.

I noticed in my rear view mirror, as I was pulling up to the stop sign, that this car was turning around in the middle of the road but of course nothing registered. I pulled into the horse shoe drive at the front of the school and pulled between a car with grand parents waiting for the bell, and a lady waiting, I rolled my window down and kicked back for the wait. All of a sudden the car was just there, right beside me. There wasn't a foots distance between our side mirrors.

Five hispanic men, most likely illegal, had the look, were eyeing me like wolves eyeing a lamb chop. The driver and the one riding shot gun were giving me the unblinking stare I never want to see again. One of the passengers in the back seat was leaning forward earnestly talking his head off.

I'm thinking, "what?, gang initiation killing"? I slid my hand into my purse and pulled out my 9mm and released the safety. As the one in the back seat was frantically pleading my case, I'm making my plans as calmly as standing in front of a grocery aisle deciding which detergent to buy.

If that passenger window comes down kill shotgun first, then the driver, then the three in the back seat. Nine bullets, five passangers four double taps, shotgun will be sure kill, double tap remainder. The talker saved us all a bad scene because they slowly pulled away and drove off.

The grandpa in the car behind me came up to my window and said, "If they come back I'm too old to help you but I did get their tag number and I will call the police". Sometimes you just do what you can do and hope things go your way. In both our cases they went fine. Congratulations on being a Papa for the second time.

[Travis McGee]

Good grief, what moronic comments.

Are you familiar with the MAC-10? I am VERY familiar with it. VERY. If the bolt is back and a mag is inserted (as Wardaddy saw it was) that sucker is in the shoot right now mode. NOBODY carries an open bolt slam gun like that unless they are getting ready to fire RIGHT NOW.

MACs are no longer made because it's a joke to convert them to full auto. A MAC with the bolt back over a loaded mag ten feet from me on a convenience store parking lot would get me to do a Carl Lewis jump over the nearest wall or hedge without a nanosecond of pondering my options.

[Shooter 2.5]

You did very well. I was reading and evaluating at the same time and I can't think of anything you could have done differently.

Turn around and go back in your car and you could have been shot right there.

Not go in the store and the storeowner could have been robbed and shot.

I am waiting for the joker on this forum to have another thread explain where they were sitting in their car, minding their own business with their CCW guns, when some snitch turned them in. LOL.

[goodnesswins]

"This situation is a gun grabbers wet dream: "Oh my gosh, he had a GUN! In his hand! It was big and scary and it had bullets! Oh, gosh, if only the Government could come and take away all those big bad scary guns, we wouldn't have to see them anymore!" By the way, I always carry a gun with me, so do me a favor and don't call the police on me, all right? Then again, I'm white, so you probably won't."

Yeah...do you and your buddies back up to 7-11's, then sit around with your guns for all to see.....MOST gun owners are responsible....would be interesting to know if the guns wardaddy saw were "legal," if you get my drift. (If they weren't, it's just more ammo for gun owners AGAINST the gun grabbers....)

[FreedomPoster]

Y'all need to read this one. Enjoyed our range trip last weekend, glad you had fun, too.

[Mustang]

Even if you "were" carrying, you did the right thing.

Now, If I was with you...I would've tossed a grenade in their "pimped-out" Yukon....only kidding.

"A mans'gotta know his limitations"....again, you did good!

Mustang sends w/ Best FReegards to you, your wife and second son

[paul51]

Sounds damn good to me. Not sure I would have entered the store in fear that one might be in there weapon out. Once in, and assuming no one with weapon drawn, would have dragged the cleark out the back door and ran like hell. And that's if I'm carrying! Any update from LEO?

[CPOSharky]

This situation is a gun grabbers wet dream: "Oh my gosh, he had a GUN! In his hand!

You forgot the sarcasm tags right?

By the way, I always carry a gun with me, so do me a favor and don't call the police on me, all right?

Brandishing in a parking lot rates a 911 call.

[Bobby777]

there were about 50-75 witnesses ... I'm sure most of them local residents ... it was right in front of the bar seating ... thanks for your concern for my safety ...

[LBGA]

You did the right thing, and with tremendous cool! You could have saved some lives today, and I hope the police ffound them.

To those who are giving you a bad time about reporting citizens with guns, not many law-abiding citizens sit in a parking lot with guns out on their laps. If they had a legitimate reason to have them, I'm sure they will be able to explain that to the police.

And congratulations on baby #4. :-)