Recently in Self-Defense Category

I've been driving by Ghost Town Burgers for years now going to and from Austin Rifle Club, but have never eaten there until this weekend.

The burgers are great, and the staff was friendly.

The only turn off was the big ol' 51% sign that you can't see until you go to order your food. It's a pretty big area, like an old west town, so I'm not sure if it would be legal to carry on the rest of the property or not.

So, good burgers, but I probably won't go back unless I'm in the mood to have a few beers. I don't blame the establishment at all, just our stupid laws. To me, it's not worth going around without my secondary self-defense tool (primary self-defense tool is between your ears) or opening myself up to some kind of legal troubles.

Last night was the first time since I began carrying that I thought I might have to use my gun.

We were coming out of a sporting goods store at about 8:45 pm, and started making our way to the car.

I see a person walking parallel to the front of the store on an intercept course for us. It's about 50 degrees, and this person has the hoodie up, zipped, and both hands shoved in pockets. I didn't think it was really that cold, and if you had just gotten out of your car you probably wouldn't bother with all that when the front door is not that far away.

About that time I decided if this person just got out of their car they are taking a very circuitous course to get into the store, and I hadn't seen a car pull in from that area when we got outside the store.

We get a little farther and this person is still going east-west and not north-south to use a football analogy.

Then things just clicked.

I remember thinking, I might have to shoot this guy, and that I really didn't want to.

I took a very aggressive posture, turned and looked him in the eye. Just like that, he went north-south and started making a course for the store's front door. I got bar.c into the car, all the while scanning the area, and shut him in the car. I circled around so I could get a better look at the wife (who shall now be known on the blog as far.c) and baz.c, scanning all the while.

We got in the car and far.c says "it's like having my own personal bodyguard."

She hadn't seen the guy in the hoodie and thought I was being a dork or something.

I will say it's entirely possible that I misread the situation, and I might be a little touchy since being through all those scenarios last weekend, but it's interesting that it wasn't until I got aggressive that things changed.

I'm happy with my response. The only thing I would have done differently was bring a flashlight. 100 lumens in the eyes would have been a great non-lethal next step.