By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters
Existing data indicate that most instances of defensive gun use consists of drawing the gun or otherwise making it known to the person that is threatening you. The idea is that it convinces them not to pursue the matter further and they hightail it for some place less hostile, so to speak.
What should you do if this happens? Call the police, and do so immediately. The first thing you should do in case of any defensive encounter is call the cops. Bear in mind that this isn’t legal advice, but just a discussion of an idea.
There are two reasons why you should do so.
First, there is a dangerous person out there and the sooner they are dealt with by the proper authorities, the better. This can ultimately help a person who has lost their way get some help, or at least be inspired to do so, and can also get a person who is a danger to the public into contact with authorities.
The second reason, and this is a bit more pressing, is that calling the police puts you in charge of the narrative. There is an objective reality to things that happen, but there’s no way anyone is going to know it. In the absence of audio and video footage of the event, all that police and prosecutors have to go on is what they are told.
Therefore, they had better hear a version favorable to you, and they need to hear it early and often. This isn’t to say that you should lie (which is a crime) but more that they need to hear your version of events first.
The person that was trying to mug you? That you had to pull a gun on in order to get them to leave? They will not be forthcoming with the fact that they were threatening you, and if they call the police first they will not say “I was trying to beat this guy up and take his wallet, and he pulled a gun on me!” Instead, they will say “this guy just pulled a gun on me!”
A prime example is currently in the news, that of Siwatu-Salama Ra of Detroit, Mich. Ra, according to the Detroit Metro Times, is currently serving a two-year sentence after being convicted of felony firearms charges, which in Michigan carry a two-year mandatory minimum sentence. She had just become pregnant with her second child at the time of her incarceration last year, and will give birth – behind bars – in a matter of weeks from the time of this writing.
Ra had engaged in a personal dispute in 2017. A niece had a fight with a friend, and Ra declared said friend persona non grata in her home. When the friend showed up on July 16 of 2017, Ra told her to leave. The friend’s mother arrived, engaged in a verbal altercation with Ra, and then followed it up by ramming Ra’s car – with Ra’s two-year-old daughter inside at the time – and then tried to run over Ra’s mother. Ra retrieved a handgun from the glovebox, which was unloaded, and scared the woman off.
The woman who rammed her car and then tried to run over Ra’s mother called the police right away, and said Ra was waving a gun around at her. Ra didn’t contact authorities until hours later.
The Detroit PD investigated Ra as the aggressor because Ra wasn’t the one who called them. She will give birth behind bars because of it.
This isn’t to say it’s her fault for not doing so; if anything, it should have been investigated much more fully. Granted, this case also has a lot more implications, some far more onerous than merely controlling the narrative but that is for another time and place. Besides, other outlets have covered it so we won’t be getting into it.
There are other examples, of course, but what can we take away from this? First, personal disputes can easily boil over; you don’t know who may be a completely unhinged lunatic. Second, police and prosecutors act on what they are told. Since they weren’t there, they can’t really know exactly what happened.
Therefore, the first thing you should do in the wake of a defensive encounter is call the police so they have your version of events first.
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Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.