Scenario: At the 7-11

[acparmed]

Ok guys let's try this one. I had some experience with this exact thing. I will post what actually happened after I hear some of your solutions.

It is late at night close to midnight. You drive up to your local 7-11 for some smokes, soda or whatever. You are alone. As you exit your vehicle, you observe 2 men exiting the store with their backs to you, guns in hands, they have obviously just robbed the store. They are 15 feet in front of you and there is one other car in the lot. You notice another male in that car waiting for his friends.
You are, of course, armed with your favorite handgun.
What do you do?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Bud White]

Well i would try to make myself as un noticable as possible also trying to get my pistol otu with out it being seen .. im not a cop not my job to stop them..

If they turn and see me and start moving there weapons my way i would then present my own while telling them to drop there weapons ...

If they complie no problem and if they ran away without shooting at me no problem either try to get the plate # of the Getaway car for the cop...



Now if they Fire on me of course i will return fire.

[Bumper]

I have to agree, I would not confront them. I would, however, try to get their license number and a good description of them and their car. At this point I think it would be more important to get in the store and see if anyone was hurt (or worse) and get a call to 911 so police could be looking for them. I would also try to keep an eye on the direction they went....

[Scott]

As others have said, get small and be an "expert witness". Draw and be prepared to act if threatened. Once they are in the vehicle grab some paper and start writing everything I can notice about the situation. Once they are on their way go in and see if anyone needs aid.

I'd probably try to look preoccupied with something in my car acting like I'm not paying attention to the BGs. They may threaten me if I appear to be staring at them.

-Scott-

[FortyFive]

Bud White and Bunper have said it all, call 911 and wait. I would stand by my car in the light so the boys in blue can see me clearly. If the people leaving are good guys being forced from the store and retreating to safety that is another consideration. Set tight wait for the blue wave!!!

[rocky]

yep observe and report. Get as many details as possible of suspects and vehicle. Most of all we aware of your surroundings and ready to move away.

[F350]

OK….I don’t notice them until I am exiting my vehicle; assuming I pulled in forward to the store I would draw, keeping the gun close to my body while backing away to get to the back of the vehicle and to the far side, putting something solid between me and them. Then like others have said observe and be prepared to report, once they have left call 911 and go in the store to render any needed aid.

[ExSoldier]

No variations from the response presented by Bumper. I like the line of another poster: "Get small and become an expert witness." That was classic.

One thing is for sure, you can't say they "OBVIOUSLY just robbed the store," because you can't KNOW that..... you can only assume it. A worse case would be to walk into a situation where the counter help is under the gun of a "customer." Do you draw and scream "DROP IT?"

What if the counter guy has been selling crack to the neighborhood kids and the "customer" is an undercover narc making the arrest? It's an unlikely scenario, but it HAS happened.

[KC135]

Drive out. Drop a dime.

[clubsoda22]

here comes the disadvantage of my vehicle selection. I drive an old cop car, so, depending on how serious these guys are, i'm drawing fire. I'm going hammer down and getting out of the parking lot.

[Euclidean]

I don't mean to sound like a smartass, but I wouldn't be out at a convenience store alone near midnight unless it was some kind of weird emergency or I was traveling.

And no, a sudden hankering for Dr. Pepper is not an emergency. An emergency involves blood.

Whatever it is, it can wait till 8 AM the next day when the stores are full of people and the sun is shining.

Awareness and Avoidance people.

I'm not saying I'm never out late at night, but seldom am I out late alone and seldom am I in an unfamiliar place. The few times I've had to travel at these unsavory hours, I made... preparations.

[acparmed]

OK guys here's the scenario and what actually happened.
This happened back in the mid '70's in LA before everyone (anyone) had cell phones. I rolled into the parking lot and as I exited my car I noticed a male sitting in a car to my left about 3 spaces over with the engine running. My quick thought was someone is inside buying a pack of ciggs or a beer.
I had just closed my car door when these two upstanding innocent citizens, (victims of their environment) exited the store with their back to me and guns in hand yelling at the clerk to stay on the floor. I had my S&W mod 686 in the car (as Illegal as carrying it in LA). I retreated around the rear of my car to the passenger side, opened the door and grabbed the magnum and stayed as low as possible hoping they would ignore me. They did.
As they pulled out of the lot the clerk came out of the store and shouted that he had just been robbed. I told him to call the police and I would see if I could follow them to where they were going. Staying a respectful distance back they didn't notice me. They didn't drive fast or recklessly. I followed them to a house about 2 miles from the store where they got out of the car and entered the house.
I went to the nearest payphone, less than a block away and telephone the police and explained what had happened. In about 3 minutes I had four LAPD black and whites at my phone booth. I directed them to the house where they were able to apprehend all three suspects and the cash. Their guns were still in the car and I was able to identify all three, the clerk was able to ID the 2 in the store.
All three were convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 3 to 5 years in San Quentin State Prison.

Very good job everyone in your response to this scenario. I'm glad to see that we don't have any Rambo Wannabes here.

Thanks for your participation.

[clubsoda22]

Very good job everyone in your response to this scenario. I'm glad to see that we don't have any Rambo Wannabes here.

::Ties bandana:: YAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!! ::Machine gun fire::

[rfurtkamp]

here comes the disadvantage of my vehicle selection. I drive an old cop car, so, depending on how serious these guys are, i'm drawing fire. I'm going hammer down and getting out of the parking lot.

Ditto here - I drive the last of the old Caprices. It gets remarkably good gas mileage, is black and largely inconspicuous, and goes really, really fast with a trunk that holds enough ammo to wage war on Bolivia.

However, I'm going to be a target driving up if the idiots don't think.

Normally I'd draw and get ready, but I have to assume that the clerk has already hit the silent switch and cops are on their way. I don't want to be one of the three guys with guns in their hands when the cops arrive on a hot scene because I'm not going to get the benefit of the doubt.

[Scott]

Ditto here - I drive the last of the old Caprices. It gets remarkably good gas mileage, is black and largely inconspicuous, and goes really, really fast with a trunk that holds enough ammo to wage war on Bolivia.

However, I'm going to be a target driving up if the idiots don't think.

Normally I'd draw and get ready, but I have to assume that the clerk has already hit the silent switch and cops are on their way. I don't want to be one of the three guys with guns in their hands when the cops arrive on a hot scene because I'm not going to get the benefit of the doubt.

Now why are you picking on Bolivia? I've been there and the people are really nice.

I agree that I don't want to be a guy standing around with a gun in hand when the police show up.

-Scott-