Posted on 04/14/2015 5:29:39 PM PDT by TNoldman
May question is raised after I saw News Reports of a girl being raped by 4 guys while others on the beach watched.
I am 80 and generally carry a 1911 concealed. What if I come on a similar situation? I would call 911... then what?
Try to get others involved to stop the attack? Shooting an attacker might be excessive.. also I may be in the midst of a mob.
I would like to see some discussion.
Warning shots are a no no and you might end up needing the ammo.
I would leave the immediate vicinity and call the police. People are just too crazy and there’s no telling what some bystander would do to you if he heard you calling the police. The same thing with any other public disturbance where people are more likely to be recording an unfolding tragedy on their cell phones rather than calling the police. It’s sad that people are like this now.
Were It me I would call the cops, loudly announce the cops have been called, and only use my weapon as a last resort.
I don’t want to be offensive but even a younger man with quick reflexes and a commanding presence would have trouble controlling a mob of drunken feral humans with nothing but 7 bullets. Sure the ferals in front of you don’t want to get shot but that doesn’t mean their friends are coming up behind you. Think a group that will gang rape an unconscious girl would think twice about beating you? Think you can take a beating from a group of drunken ferals? I don’t and can’t.
A big issue is how clear cut it all is, if you go in tentatively because you aren’t completely sure of what is taking place, then that big crowd could turn on you and put you in the hurt.
If I was 100% sure that I was watching a rape, then I would do my big crowd control thing and go in loud and theatrically, and make eye contact with some in the crowd and loudly call them to come help me protect this girl, if I was losing the crowd or it looked like I was going to be swarmed by the bad guys then I would puff up even more, pump three rounds into the sand and then make it clear who the first three guys to die would be, and be ready to shoot them instantly.
You have to have some pretty good charisma to keep a crowd under control, and you very well may face some charges for those actions.
Crowds are very dangerous and unpredictable and you have to be the type that can take over and control their attention and reshape their attention and focus quickly, or you won’t prevail.
It is entirely possible to run into a crowd situation where you just can’t have any effect, and just have to try to get help, but even then you can start yelling for allies on the fringe of the crowd to mount a charge into the center.
A crowd of college kids is going to have a lot of good guys in it, and many others will come to their senses and want to help, if they can hear someone appealing to their saner self, and who is ready to lead them to running off the bad guys.
I keep hearing the “no warning shots” but I do not agree. There are times when it is appropriate. Probably should be called “attention getting shots” instead tho.
It might not be...depends on whose daughter is being raped.
.Shooting an attacker might be excessive..<<
No it’s not
Frank: Well when I see 5 weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards, that’s my policy.
Chief: That was a Shakespeare in the park production of Julius Caesar moron.
At 80 there is not much you can do without getting yourself killed.
Your only option is to call the cops.
Never, ever fire a warning shot. If you shot the assailant(s), when the cops arrive say you would like to speak with an attorney and say nothing else.
Thanks for your opinion. Mine is different.
If that would be the case, Hillary best turn the Mystery Machine around and not campaign in your state at all.
God Bless you, at 80 years old, and thinking about what to do if you witness such a terrible occurrence!!
I think the best thing is to get to a safe area and call the police.
If you try to intervene you could end up a victim yourself, armed or not. If no one in the crowd is helping the girl, they will not help you, should you be attacked. If said thugs take the gun from you things would get much worse very quickly!!
I doubt it - a 1911 is too big a gun fire an 80 year old to carry who believes they are frail.
I figure you're trying to create an argument for "nothing can be done" and making people imagine they are equally overwhelmed, weak and frightened.
After all, what the hell are you carrying around that hand-cannon for if you won't let everyone know you'll fire it when they are raping an unconscious girl?
Bah.
They also say it endangers others, often far away.
Imagine being prosecuted for firing warning shots, causing a stampede in which members of the mob were hurt or killed. I wouldn't care as these were all participants because they didn't stop it but the state will take a different view especially if a protected class is involved.
In this case it is the report of the gun as much as the bullets, that will cause the crowd to scatter and the attackers to disperse. However, risk is involved, because unless you have some cover close at hand, others may be armed as well and see you as the aggressor.
You must assume that the rapists are armed.
While you may legally use lethal force to prevent a felony, in practical terms you would be using lethal force to prevent an attack against you by the attackers and possibly their confederates. If they are so aggressive that they will charge a man with a gun, lethal force is definitely necessary.
Even if everything goes according to plan, with the attackers dispersing and the girl safe, the police will have been summoned with a “shots fired” alert, so *they* become the biggest threat to your well being at that point.
The bottom line is to act, but act intelligently to protect yourself as you are protecting the girl, and realize that as soon as you discharge a round, the situation will become very fluid.
I have actually been there and done that. Well not exactly the same but making the perps aware that I was armed had a magic affect on them.
I didn’t fire the gun, actually didn’t even get it completely out before they realized what I was doing. Still them knowing I had a gun was the important thing. That is why firing an attention getting shot is sometimes the right thing to do.
Sometimes it is not. That is why we use judgement.
>>Frank: Well when I see 5 weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards, that’s my policy.
Chief: That was a Shakespeare in the park production of Julius Caesar moron.<<
OMG I remember that SO well! I am LOL unbelievably!
All anybody had to do was yell at those aholes to stop and then take that girl away. I would have done it with no problem. Those kids are just opportunists who saw nobody would stop them from being who they are.
At the risk of being socially unacceptable I will say that when I was in college and at spring break at the S Fla beaches and Pananma City there were no Amish and there was a lot of drinking and carrying on but no gunfire and raping girls in beach chairs. Sorry but it is what it is.
Shouting one of four rapists is extreme. If it were my daughter under that mess, feel free to shoot them all.
Better yet, yell “FIRE”. It gets a lot more attention.
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