Last night I had a two hour class in tactical shooting, shoot from the draw, situation awareness, moving and approaching targets.
Great class.
Today my wife and I are going into Sam's Club for some shopping at 2:30 PM.
Nice neighborhood, sunny day, lots of people and no shady charcters to be found.
My wife heads into the store and I go about twenty feet to my right to get a cart. A lot of people around.
As I get to the cart with myback to the entrance I feel a very strong bump and an arm snakes quickly around my weak side, around my neck and a voice says "Gimme all your money".
Whoa, my weak side is trapped by a big guy and as I am going into the FBI sweep to my weapon the voice start to laugh.
It is my veterinarian, about 4 inches taller and twenty pound heavier than I am, laughing his butt off.
He says "Man, you should have seen the look on your face!"
He gives me a big bear hug and as he is pulling away I pull his hand across my strong side and say to him "Yeah, that was really close."
He instantly realized I was armed and his laugh was a little weak. He turned to his wife and son and said "I guess I really scared him." (saving a little face)
I don't think he will pull that again.
I shudder to think what might have happened had it been at eight in the evening and the entrance was not so busy.
Taught him a lesson and also let me know that even in a friendly venue you must always be on your game.
Your vet is a lucky man that things ended with some chuckles rather than some "other" way. I'm not too sure I would have pulled his hand across your concealed firearm. I'm also not too sure I would call Sam's Club a friendly venue. My situational awerness is always peaked at places like Sam's Club and Walmart.
Did your vet know previous to this incident that you carry? Perhaps he would not have pulled a prank like this had he known. (I'm not condoning telling everyone, just a thought.)
You had no reason to suspect that it was your Vet and reasonably thought you were being mugged, if I am reading your story correctly. I will say, that in this case, everything worked out for the best.
I would, if I were you, use this as a learning expirience and look at what you could do better and consider how and what you carry as well. Nothing test equipment, and it's placement, like the real thing. This is about as close as you can get to the real thing. In fact, I believe you thought it was the real thing.
Just because you were caught "flatfooted" doesn't mean you can't respond. It just means you have a lot of obstacles to overcome. I'll let you in on a little secret. You are always caught "flatfooted". Your gun is not a "Good Luck" charm used to ward off evil, don't carry it like it's a Rabbit's Foot.
In fact my very first thought was for me if this had been me the person unknown to me would have found himself stabbed in the upper thigh or face. Period. In front of his wife and kid, which then would be no joke at all for anyone.
I would not have gone for my gun as a primary, and I always carry a knife...gun or no gun.
Then I skip forward to the last page and boom I see your post.
BTW, for those who do not carry a knife or are physically unable to deploy same from concealment at all if even quickly there is a second and just as functional method.
Using the edge of your shoe heel (not the entirety/flat of your sole) lift your good/strong leg as high as is possible and then very quickly with God's fury stomp your heel down and into the top bridge of the foot at the person holding you from behind. Either foot does not matter. Just be sure to get the foot good and solid and I mean stomp down like your life depends on it...because it does.
Below is a picture of a human foot in skeletal and muscle make up
Crush, smash, and break their foot using the thickest most dense part of your own foot and shoe design which is the heel.
A BG with one foot is a BG who cannot stand muchless follow nor chase you further. And the pain would be excruciating regardless of how much larger in muscular size/build the BG might be.
If the top of the foot is not available or possible to aim for then secondarily go for the toes, big toe being preferable as it is what is used to provide balance and direction when standing or running.
Feet and foot bones are small, many, and relatively easy to break.
I started learning a martial art way too late in life, when the exercises and demos were a bit much for me to risk injury. And regret having to quit after about 2 years of diligent effort.
Still, I think anyone who carries needs to also at least learn something about hand to hand stuff if only to be able to make space and time for running, or for the draw. Breaking a someone's finger (another set of small and vulnerable bones as the foot) can be pretty effective. Suggest folks look into "small circle"
techniques.
In my younger and more adventurous days I found myself involved in a multi person brawl inside of a club ('The Dome' in D.C.) and from behind a person grabbed me at the neck same as the OP described, only this dude was attempting to put me into a full nelson choke hold.
I have no idea who he was or what his overall intent might have been though I suspect it wasn't to be joking around, and I didn't have my knife on me (I've been carrying knives for defense since age 8 when my mom suggested doing so for getting back and forth to school amongst the neighborhood) as they had security out front to hand scan people coming in.
So I did and applied exactly this foot stomp as I describe above (which my mom taught me as a kid) and I jammed the heel edge of my boot down and DEEEEP into unknown persons foot top. Only I immediately repeated the same maneuver using my opposite foot this time catching dudes toes. I lost my balance as did he and we fell backward me on top of him. He hit the tile floor hard and further injured himself. He was immobilized at that point and I landed on top of him, unscathed.
I got up and left Mr. Nelson there on the floor.
End of story.
Foot stomp works.
I have a personal rule in that I always at the end of my day 1) make it home and 2) under my own power, and per the street and life survival rules laid down to me ages ago by my then iron strap tough mom...By any means effective and necessary.
Sound like a bad joke coming from good intentions. I think these things happen, not saying it's right, but it's something we have to keep in mind. Glad it was just a joke and not something serious.
I've got as good of a sense of humor as the next person, but that is just not funny even if the vet thought it was a joke. I probably would have spun arounf and planted an elbow in his eye socket, or his throat depending on his height.
I'd be looking for a new vet about now:frown:
+1 Biker... Anyone can be caught off guard. Situational Awareness only goes so far when in condition yellow, and no one can walk around in condition orange or red all the time.
Just because you are caught off guard does not mean you are out of the fight. Your brain has to be your most formidable weapon. Your gun is just a tool, it is not some magical shield that wards off evil.
You have to train to overcome surprise. Just thinking about what you plan on doing or running scenarios in your head is not enough to let you over come the adversary. You have to train and practice your moves and your counter attack.
Everyone was lucky all the way around in that incident and thankfully so.
Thanks for posting too. I think we all walked away with a little information from that report.
Completely off topic, but you stated that you took a class on "tactical shooting" the night before the situation, I would love to hear about a decent local class. My schedule/homelife is not conducive to travel at this time and you peaked my curiosity.
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