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.

[Viva Le Dissention]

Um, I'm not sure when this turned into a gun grabbers forum, but I don't like where this is going. It's pretty tough when you have to fight with conservatives for gun rights.

So a guy was carrying a gun? So what? That's part of life. People don't get to not carry guns just because you don't like the looks of them.

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.

[Arkinsaw]

I probably wouldn't have walked into the store. But you are alive so there you are.

[SunnyUsa]

"I think you need sensitivity training"

ROFL!!! Yea, this smells of racial profiling to me! ;)

[pgobrien]

You survived....RULE ONE! I would have made a speedy egress from the AO and called the cops with Lic #....you did just dandy....get to live with wife and child.
A

[lodwick]

Good grief - sounds like you did all that you could do given the cirumstances. Good clear thinking there.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I agree that you handled yourself very well. Pretending not to notice was the key moment, IMHO. The thing is, even in the days of the Wild West, people reported anything unusual to the sheriff. A group of heavilly armed strangers rding by that stikes you as odd and possibly dangerous, it was your duty as a citizen to inform the law. There was a man who once conspired to take over the nation by force, stockpiling weapons one time in the early 1800s, if my high school history studies aren't too fuzzy. It's a darn good thing people reported on him.

[error99]

A-w-w-w-w this kind of crap happens to me everyday... NOT !

When analyzing what I could-a should-a would-a done
in a situation, I find it helpful to think in the extremes.

On the one hand you could have blocked them in and confronted them and possibly gone "rambo" on the dudes.
(not wise at all unless you have a death wish)

On the other hand you could have gotten back in your vehicle and driven away without saying anything, and not getting involved.
(a wussy chicken-shit response that could get someone killed)

All in all I would say your actual response was pretty spot-on.

[wardaddy]

First I thought maybe UC cops but the Mac killed that notion. Secondly, I was already out of the car with the door shut. Their backs were to the store. They did not have a good view.

Had I panicked and got back in my car I might have spooked them...plus my door was like 3 feet from the Mac-guy's open window.

THERE WAS NO F_ING WAY I WAS GONNA PASS THAT PLANE OF EXPOSURE AGAIN......besides should I have just run off and left the clerk to his or her fate?....let me tell ya...a lot of sh!te runs thru yer head....I was on my way to see my wife and baby....I wasn't exactly of the mindset for a gun battle..lol

[yarddog]

I am not an expert on the Mac 10 but the fact the bolt was locked back indicates it was a full auto gun which fires from an open bolt.

I probably would have done the same thing you did but it was probably not the best option. The person who suggested you get back in the vehicle and leave, then phone was imo giving the best advice.

[umgud]

I have a ccw and usually carry, but I'd probably done the same as you. I can understand your feeling of vulnerability, when faced with the choice of getting back in your rig and being a sitting duck while starting up and pulling out. This would surely have alerted them. OTOH, they're kinda stupid to back up to the store with their license plate showing.

[wardaddy]

4 kids...2 girls ...2 boys

[Redcloak]

First, congrats on that baby boy. We'll be expecting pictures!

Second, good move continuing into the store like nothing was wrong. Had you spun around and headed back into your car, the gobblins would have known that you'd made them. Of course, they'd have had to abort the robbery they were likely planning; and they probably would have capped off a couple of rounds at you in frustration!

What you did will not harm the right to keep and bear arms at all. These were not law-abiding members of the unorganised militia. These were goblins who do not have any right to keep and bear arms.

In hindsight, you should have alerted at the sight of any vehicle, pimped-out or otherwise, backed into a 7-11. "Apu" should have spotted them too. I know a lot of people who consider it impolite to back in like that. It looks too much like they're planning on making a quick get-away. Goblins, however, must put function ahead of form and back-in almost every time.

Also in hindsight, you should apply for and get a CCW. It might not have made any difference in this case, but you would have had more options at your disposal. At least you wouldn't have had that "nekkid" feeling I'm guessing you had.

[wardaddy]

Nashville is fairly tame actually....I mean it's not as bad as Memphis or Atlanta

[wardaddy]

Thanks.

[wardaddy]

Thanks....I'm still sort of bugged out.

[wardaddy]

LOL

[wardaddy]

It really scared my wife...she got all teary.

[wardaddy]

Thanks

[Lokibob]

You did well.

The rest of the story, tho. Did the LEA's come back and get your Name Addy etc?

[lelio]

My first thought was that if there's more than 2 people they probably aren't going to rob the convience store. But why park backwards for a quick getaway then? Why did they have their door open so that people could see them? What if one if them wanted to prove he was "a man" and shoot you or your truck? A million questions...
Can you call the cops and find out what happened? Dollars to doughnuts these guys were never caught.