I'll admit, this one scared me. It just goes to show you NEVER know.
This story happened to me about 4 hour ago. It really bothered me and the more I replayed it the more it bugged me. All of this happened VERY quickly. I'll be as detailed as possible, but remember this all happened in about 5 seconds.
I was out riding my motorcycle with my buddy Chris downtown. We stopped and grabbed some dinner, it was about 7pm when we started to head back home. There was a football game in town today so there were some people still lingering in the streets after the game. As we turned out of the parking deck we headed north towards an intersection which was about 1/10 mile ahead of us. There was very little traffic except for a bus coming in our direction in the opposite lane.
We started to accelerate slowly and all of a sudden I see a guy, mid/late 20's, waving his arms and screaming STOP! He runs out into the street right in front of the bus (this happened at a crosswalk at the intersection) The bus slams on his brakes and had to swerve into the other lane to avoid nailing him. He continues screaming STOP STOP STOP while waving his arms wildly over his head. I notice this and I immediately assume he's drunk yelling at someone behind me because he's looking in my direction. I had NO idea who this guy was, and I was positive he didn't know me. He gets directly in my path and stops. Staring directly at me he is flailing his arms and screaming STOP at the top of his lungs. I was already going slow, maybe 10mph, so I slowed down to avoid hitting this guy. As I slow to almost a complete stop he starts running at me. He wasn't saying anything, he just had a drunken look on his face and he was headed in my direction. It was at this time I notice 3 of his friends approaching in a half-trot, and one more of his buddies staying on the corner staring in my direction.
All in one motion I applied the brakes, hit the kill switch with my right thumb (I couldn't remember if i was in gear or not, so I didn't want to risk letting go, popping the clutch and dropping the bike - that would not be good if i needed to make a quick getaway), straddled the bike and stood up. My left hand immediately covered my Ruger that I keep at 9o'clock. At this time the guy immediately stops dead in his tracks, and his friends start screaming "he's drunk, he's drunk, we've been drinking all day watching football, he's drunk etc, etc". I literally didn't open my mouth once, I just stood there for a second, covering my pistol. I never swept my sweatshirt, I never had to draw - no one ever saw a gun at all...I just had my hand covering the pistol and I was ready. His buddies grab him and continue to cross the street, they all just looked like they were shocked that I had a pistol. I didn't say a word, they all scurried away repeating (yelling) "man he's drunk, that's all, he's been drinking all day watching football".
By this time the light had turned red, so since they were walking away I didn't feel like it was necessary to run the light. As the light turned green we pulled away and headed home.
I'll admit, it was unsettling. I think what bothered me the most was not knowing what his intentions were. The first thought I had was he was about to throw a haymaker at me and try to knock me off my bike. I didn't know if he liked my bike so much maybe he thought he needed to take it for a ride? It really wasn't until I noticed 4 of them approaching me that I started to think that this could be REALLY bad. When you're on a bike you are NOT in a position to engage someone in a fight. You will get knocked over, and you will probably end up on the bottom of a 200 degree engine while someone is stomping your face in.
After that I started to second guess myself. I thought - Maybe he just wanted a closer look? Maybe he was going to complement me. I started feeling very guilty then wondered if I'd overreacted by reaching for my pistol.
I asked my buddy Chris if he thought I'd overreacted and he immediately said he had reached for his Glock at the exact same time. He felt that I'd done EXACTLY what anyone should have done. Chris said he assumed I knew them the way they came running at me, he thought they were buddies from work or something, because there is no way a stranger would do that. Once they got closer and I reacted, he realized that I didn't know them, Chris said he also thought the guy was about to clobber me.
I relayed the story to my brother and this was his insight: Have you ever seen a bike you thought was so cool you were willing to run out in traffic to get a closer look at it? Obviously the answer is NO. Have you ever drank too much, then wanted to hit someone so bad that you'd be willing to run out in traffic to get a cheap-shot? Well, I never have, but I could see that happening! He concluded that the guy probably saw us pulling out of the garage and was going to try to try to punk the "tough-guy bikers" in front of his buddies. (just to clarify we are in no way tough guy bikers haha)
I have replayed the incident a thousand times in my head. It all happened so fast - I just reacted. I didn't want to be a victim and my bike get stolen by some drunken punks...but I also didn't want to have to draw my pistol and shoot anyone!
I think the main lesson I learned is to NEVER stop. If I would have been going a little faster, or had a little more room to maneuver I would have kept going...but he had me pinned in and I didn't want to wreck and injure both of us.
What do you guys think? did I overreact? I know it's hard to tell b/c no one was there, but any feedback is appreciated!
This story happened to me about 4 hour ago. It really bothered me and the more I replayed it the more it bugged me. All of this happened VERY quickly. I'll be as detailed as possible, but remember this all happened in about 5 seconds.
I was out riding my motorcycle with my buddy Chris downtown. We stopped and grabbed some dinner, it was about 7pm when we started to head back home. There was a football game in town today so there were some people still lingering in the streets after the game. As we turned out of the parking deck we headed north towards an intersection which was about 1/10 mile ahead of us. There was very little traffic except for a bus coming in our direction in the opposite lane.
We started to accelerate slowly and all of a sudden I see a guy, mid/late 20's, waving his arms and screaming STOP! He runs out into the street right in front of the bus (this happened at a crosswalk at the intersection) The bus slams on his brakes and had to swerve into the other lane to avoid nailing him. He continues screaming STOP STOP STOP while waving his arms wildly over his head. I notice this and I immediately assume he's drunk yelling at someone behind me because he's looking in my direction. I had NO idea who this guy was, and I was positive he didn't know me. He gets directly in my path and stops. Staring directly at me he is flailing his arms and screaming STOP at the top of his lungs. I was already going slow, maybe 10mph, so I slowed down to avoid hitting this guy. As I slow to almost a complete stop he starts running at me. He wasn't saying anything, he just had a drunken look on his face and he was headed in my direction. It was at this time I notice 3 of his friends approaching in a half-trot, and one more of his buddies staying on the corner staring in my direction.
All in one motion I applied the brakes, hit the kill switch with my right thumb (I couldn't remember if i was in gear or not, so I didn't want to risk letting go, popping the clutch and dropping the bike - that would not be good if i needed to make a quick getaway), straddled the bike and stood up. My left hand immediately covered my Ruger that I keep at 9o'clock. At this time the guy immediately stops dead in his tracks, and his friends start screaming "he's drunk, he's drunk, we've been drinking all day watching football, he's drunk etc, etc". I literally didn't open my mouth once, I just stood there for a second, covering my pistol. I never swept my sweatshirt, I never had to draw - no one ever saw a gun at all...I just had my hand covering the pistol and I was ready. His buddies grab him and continue to cross the street, they all just looked like they were shocked that I had a pistol. I didn't say a word, they all scurried away repeating (yelling) "man he's drunk, that's all, he's been drinking all day watching football".
By this time the light had turned red, so since they were walking away I didn't feel like it was necessary to run the light. As the light turned green we pulled away and headed home.
I'll admit, it was unsettling. I think what bothered me the most was not knowing what his intentions were. The first thought I had was he was about to throw a haymaker at me and try to knock me off my bike. I didn't know if he liked my bike so much maybe he thought he needed to take it for a ride? It really wasn't until I noticed 4 of them approaching me that I started to think that this could be REALLY bad. When you're on a bike you are NOT in a position to engage someone in a fight. You will get knocked over, and you will probably end up on the bottom of a 200 degree engine while someone is stomping your face in.
After that I started to second guess myself. I thought - Maybe he just wanted a closer look? Maybe he was going to complement me. I started feeling very guilty then wondered if I'd overreacted by reaching for my pistol.
I asked my buddy Chris if he thought I'd overreacted and he immediately said he had reached for his Glock at the exact same time. He felt that I'd done EXACTLY what anyone should have done. Chris said he assumed I knew them the way they came running at me, he thought they were buddies from work or something, because there is no way a stranger would do that. Once they got closer and I reacted, he realized that I didn't know them, Chris said he also thought the guy was about to clobber me.
I relayed the story to my brother and this was his insight: Have you ever seen a bike you thought was so cool you were willing to run out in traffic to get a closer look at it? Obviously the answer is NO. Have you ever drank too much, then wanted to hit someone so bad that you'd be willing to run out in traffic to get a cheap-shot? Well, I never have, but I could see that happening! He concluded that the guy probably saw us pulling out of the garage and was going to try to try to punk the "tough-guy bikers" in front of his buddies. (just to clarify we are in no way tough guy bikers haha)
I have replayed the incident a thousand times in my head. It all happened so fast - I just reacted. I didn't want to be a victim and my bike get stolen by some drunken punks...but I also didn't want to have to draw my pistol and shoot anyone!
I think the main lesson I learned is to NEVER stop. If I would have been going a little faster, or had a little more room to maneuver I would have kept going...but he had me pinned in and I didn't want to wreck and injure both of us.
What do you guys think? did I overreact? I know it's hard to tell b/c no one was there, but any feedback is appreciated!