NC:Warning Shot Works for Open Carrier Outside of Asheville

Gun Watch ^ | 19 November, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Warning shots are always controversial.   I generally caution against them, but I keep finding instances where they are used to good effect.  Here is one that was related on the opencarry.org North Carolina forum by tiggy1190.  It occurred in Buncombe County, NC:

Forced to pull, and discharge outside of Asheville.

I wont go into all the details, but long story short. Drunk, and drugged up moron threatens me with a knife, then a gun, and advances towards me. I never saw the weapon, but his hands were behind his back the whole time. I knew I was just in taking a shot, but there were at least 30-50 onlookers standing behind him. I have a .40 Storm, and had 180g FMJ's in it that day due to working in the woods around bears. I had an overwhelming fear of over penetration, so I gave a warning shot to the ground just in front of him. He retreated like a scalded cat. So far the BCSD has been extremely positive, and supportive through all this. They said I made the right choice. I feel the same. Sadly, some of my chest pounding family seems to think I should have shot him irregardless. 

(snip)

Just waiting on the SD to finish analyzing my weapon before they return it. All, but one officer that night supported me when the asked if I had a CCHP, and I stated "no, I OC".

Not only was the warning shot effective, but the Sheriff Deputies reinforced the decision.   It took 18 days for tiggy1190 to have his firearm returned.  That may seem long, given Sheriff Clarke of Milwaukee County's advice, but it is positively speedy compared to most places.   It is not unusual for the return of a firearm to take months or years, and to be fought over in the courts.

Chock one up for the good guy!

Met with the BCSD yesterday morning, and was given back my weapon, magazine, bullets, the spent shell casing, and a thank you. I was asked if I wanted to carry it out in the bag, or holster it. So I put the magazine in, racked one, and walked out holstered. Now I gotta go to court soon to testify.

Police attitudes are becoming even more favorable toward armed citizens.  Tiggy1190 did not have a permission slip from the state in order to carry his personal defense firearm.  Notice that the Sheriff Department had no problem with him loading his firearm and holstering it before he left.   It is, after all, normal for them.

If you are involved in a shooting, it is going to take up some of your  time, even if everything works out pretty well, as it did in this case.   Using a firearm in self defense is a serious business.  

 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.    Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

There are exceptions to all policies. The open carrier in this story is a combat vet who served in Iraq.

[mrmeyer]

Did the suspect get away or was he taken into custody.?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Vets are often trained to be more cautious than civilian shooters, ironically. I suppose this couldn’t hurt as long as one were ready to make the next one in earnest in a split second if need be. Good that the fellow was only drunk out of his gourd. If on some drugs, the bullet wouldn’t have fazed him.

[V_TWIN]

Warning shots are bad juju in Fla.

[V_TWIN]

I stand corrected, apparently our SYG law has been amended to include warning shots.

[GOJPN]

The warning shot should be carefully aimed at the center mass.

[xrmusn]

The warning shot should be carefully aimed at the center mass.
= = = = = = = = = = = =

That is correct.

A ‘warning’ is “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME”.

A 2nd ‘warning’ may be the advancing ‘fool’ getting a glimpse of your weapon.

All bets are off if he/she continues at you in a ‘life threatening’ manner.

(Everything is ‘life threatening’ when it comes to someone want to ‘harm’ you).

“Yes, Officer, I did fear for my life and well being. I would not have shot him if I didn’t think he was going to do bodily harm”.

[SaraJohnson]

The article says the self defender has to testify in court and I assume that means they nabbed the bad guy.

[SaraJohnson]

The only reason he did not take out the bad guy was that there was a crowd of innocent people behind him and the self defender did not want to risk hitting an innocent by stander.

He sure is fortunate that the bad guy backed off with a warning shot and that the warning shot did not ricochet. I think he did the right thing, given all the bystanders he faced. His training as an Iraq vet helped out in this situation.

[Pollster1]

I have a .40 Storm, and had 180g FMJ's in it that day due to working in the woods around bears.

I prefer lighter loads (especially frangible) so that overpenetration is less of an issue, particularly for inside the home. It looks like the vet had no real choice here. For bears, he'd want the heavy load, and I wouldn't expect him to carry a "woods" magazine and a separate "town" magazine.