I’d have my hand on the gun, but I would fire until I saw a gun.
A dude getting out of the car though… that’s suspicious.
Not to discount what you are saying and with the understanding that Grants reply has some merit, but if “I” am following you then you know damn well what you did because it takes a lot for “ME” to get so fed up with you that I interrupt my “important shit to do” list to make sure you know you are an asshole.
Also if you have done something significant enough to require me to get out of my car and confront you, then you have also done enough for me to involve law enforcement who is going to meet me wherever
“we” finally end up. I don’t need to get out of my car to make sure you know you are an asshole.
By the way when I say “you” I don’t mean “you” specifically, I’m sure you drive just fine.
And just so people don’t think I’m Captain Road Rage, I don’t think I have actually followed anyone home or anything like that. I have rolled up next to people at a red light to let them know they are in fact an inconsiderate asshole, but even that takes a lot of really bad driving for me to do it.
No seriously - didn’t you hold a guy at gun point a few years back because he walked on your lawn? Didn’t you post about it on ARFcom?
My sincere apologies if it wasn’t you.
I hear ya man. If it was me in particular then I would totally expect an ass woopin lol.
I said from the beginning, just be CAREFUL. Drive safe. There is no need to “Follow” anyone in the first place.
I know first hand. About 5 years ago I was driving down Fiske Blvd. in Rockledge Fla. I was driving with my best friend (Cowboy, a 57lb Pit) in the left lane. A car just in front to my right, decides he doesnt need to use a signal as he WHIPS over to my lane
I braked hard and my dog lost his balance and his head slammed into the windshield…shattering the middle of the right side. I was LIVID
I yanked the wheel to the right and got up next to what appeared to be a bunch of “Goth” kids with patchy facial hair and black homo accesories around their wrists accompanied by scars from “cutting” themselves most likely due to fathers hating them for how they dress or music whatever.
I get next to him and explain “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!” You just cut me off!!" Pull over so I can get your information etc. He tells me to “Fuck myself” Oh…Okay. Then he turns off into a neighborhood. I follow.
Through this neighborhood all over the place speeding and chasing, I finally caught a break when he was trapped behind a stopped motorhome and he turned around, I didnt have enough room so I put it in reverse an floored it, slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel, I didnt have enough momentum to swing it around so Im stopped sideways in the middle of the street.
I get out of my truck and RUN towards his car, just before I get to his car he tries opening his door and I use ALL of my momentum to slam it closed, I reach in grab his keys and hold them, Oh I forgot, I was on the phone with dispatch the whole time, the lady yelling at me to not follow. I left the phone in my truck when I exited.
The kids were SHITTING in their pants when I reached the door, about 30 seconds later Cops came SCREECHING to a stop.
I almost went to jail, the cop told me “If anyone is going to jail its you”
It was a wakup call. I used to be horrible about traffic. I guarantee the kid will pay attention when he drives now.
If I saw ME running up to that car the way I did…I would have shot me. It would probably have been justified too
I’ve gone so far as to have gotten out of my truck while in line at a freakin’ Starbucks drive-thru to yell at the so-emo-his-grass-cuts-itself angstry idiot teenager behind me, who had decided to lean on his horn to express his impatience with life in general in spite of the fact that I clearly had no way to move.
I hate it when folks use their car horns for anything besides emergencies or a quick “hey, heads-up, doofus” tap at stop lights. Like, Blues Brothers/Illinois Nazis kinda hate, and I was not having a good day to begin with either (hence the reason I was at Starbucks, to procure a tasty treat so I could eat away my mental anguish; no, it didn’t work).
Big smile on my face, yelling things like “Whatsamatta, I thought you were attempting to establish a dialogue with me!” at his closed window. Poor Ichabod-Crane-looking candy-ass was practically in his passenger seat…
After which, I was struck with the more sensible realization of just how stupid that was.
Not the act itself (I heat emos; screw that guy), but that I didn’t really think to take a look at what sort of fool I was gonna check. Utterly failed to execute the first “O” in my OODA loop, in that instance; lots of bad nastyness can come down as a result of not thinking somethng like that through, since not every assclown driver or car-horn = everyday comms device moron is automatically gonna be an emo.
I thought that gunpoint/lawn thing was an article somebody put up within the last year…
EDIT: BCm and I are getting vehicularly pissed off by the same sort of people…
Last year a guy decided to go the speed limit -10 gust after a curve in the highway. I slowed down as much as I could but got too close for the meathead’s likings. He break checked me twice. The first time I actually thought he was having trouble in front of him. The second time, I could see the entire undercarriage of his vehicle. Shortly after, we were stopped at a light. I ignored him completely. I put my right turn signal on to turn and when he saw that, so did he. The guy made the right and pulled over to “chat”. I pulled next to him and he started screaming at me. I exited my vehicle (bad idea now that I think about it) and literally made the guy cry.
After my 2 minute rant, he followed me to my station. He saw that I was a police officer and called the state police and told them that I had ran him off the road and “scared him”. Needless to say, he left out the part about break checking and such.
It didn’t go well for me in the Chief’s office the next day but he heard my side of the story and I didn’t get reprimanded.
A few months ago LittleLebowski & myself were on the way to USTC from NOVA, and while we were driving thru a particularly…upscale urban area we were given verbal greetings and salutations from a carload of Beverly Hills type individuals.
They were all driving aggressively, but we didn’t wish to be drawn into any sort of confrontation, so I just disengaged and let them hoot/holler/carry on down the street.
Not very macho or manly, but there’s my “road rage” tale of wonder.
Ya man I used to be really bad. as I get older I have calmed down alot. A friend and I were talking the other day about how his wife broke her horn, I was like "What? I cant even remember the last time I USED my horn haha.
Another time coming from A1A in cocoa beach waiting in the turn lane, a orange mustang full of teenage girls were next to another car of teenage girls talking and laughing, talking so much that they didnt even ACKNOWLEDGE the light turning green.
So when FINALLY they start to move, (driving) they are STILL having their stupid ass conversation, oblivious to their obligation to traffic behind them, after about 200 yards or so the speed limit changes (35 to 55) and they are still going slow and talking, I gun it and get on her ass to let her know there ARE other people with an agenda.
With my headlights shining into the rear window, I can see the dumb girls turn around, look at me, then turn to the other car an talking “Oh he cant move! lets block him in so he cant go around! but lets slow down too!” When this happened, the top of my steering wheel started to bend down along with the sound of cracking plastic.
I held it in, about a mile later, I whipped into the shoulder on the right and got next to the stupid cunts. They werent laughing now as I called them things I would be ashamed of if my mother heard me.
As I gunned it past them, I deployed my Boss’s brand new ice cold mountain dew he had been waiting for for over 30 minutes out the window.
It made contact with the bumper of the orange mustang and exploded into a beautiful and instantly self gratifying flower of liquid mixed with ice and plastic.
When I got to the house, it was worth getting bitched out because taco bell “Forgot” his drink
Not so much road rage but, road anger.Up here in the PNW, mostly where I am. We have a common occurrence of opposing vehicles stopping so they can chat. Most times they know each other and this usually only happens on the more rural roads. But it has happened on main roadways and even the state highway system. At first upon moving here from L.A., I did a WTF and was angry, but now I accept the fact that if they aren’t causing issue then fine. Now when I pull up behind I will give a quick honk so they know of my presence and they will move on or pull around to let me pass. Only once has someone gave me the social finger that I had to exit my vehicle, address him while presenting my tin. He very quickly apologized and expedited his leaving the area.
As some of you have noted, you would point your gun at YOU if you approached your vehicle.
If some of you guys get out of your vehicle and approach me, I already have my gun out and am pointing it at the door panel. As you come up to the window, I will point it at you and tell you to get back in your vehicle. If you walk back to your car, I am already calling 911 and turning your ass in (got your plate number, etc) and will be viewed as the victim. If you go for your gun, I already have the drop on you and you will lose this fight. I will then call 911 and (again) be the victim in the incident.
Just something to ponder the next time you think about getting out of your car to pick a fight (as you might just get someone like me). 
C4
If you are referring to the instance where I had several people at gunpoint at 1am who were hiding from police in my back yard then that was me. It was also when I used to live in a very crime prone area and I held them until police arrived and arrested them.
But I think there is a clear distinction between a gang of homies ducking down in your back yard in the middle of the night and somebody who strolls over your property line and didn’t do anything else.
Is that the instance you are referring to?
And that is why if we come to that line, I just call and wait for the police. If it ain’t big enough for the police to take over, it ain’t big enough for me to get out of the car and ramp up the situation. I can call someone an asshole from inside my car, I’ve had practice.
Grant, I agree. I wouldnt blame you and that is your right to protect yourself.
I hope I am not being taken as if Im “Proud” of the stuff I stated. Im not. Not only could someone have gotten seriously hurt, but worse.
Do I regret doing any of it? No. Im not. I learned very good lessons form those situations and like I said, Im older now and I have more logic. I am “aware” of my actions and take responsibility.
No I understand, I am just making sure that people are aware that not everyone out there is a sheep with no gun. Things can turn out very bad very quick.
For the record, my sweet, friendly five foot, five inch, 110LBS wife has a road anger problem and has been known to flip people off, honk the horn and follow people. I advise her that she is writing checks that she cannot cash.
C4
I had a weird episode 5 yrs ago on returning home from a company X-mas party. It was little after 11pm on the freeway in the far left lane going 7-8 mph over the posted limit there was some traffic on the free way but it was fairly light enough room to pass on the right if you wanted to. Left the party absolutely no event just plain every day trip back to the house with my wife in the truck with us talking about the lousy food at the party. Halfway home on the freeway following behind a car and with the correct distance the car in front of me. I get bumped from behind WTF I move to the right center lane to let the person pass I was also going to give them a piece of my mind for bumping me on the freeway.
Did they pass me no instead the car pulls in right behind me again and then bumps me from behind again. This time I don’t know what the hell is going on I don’t know if there is one drunk person male , female or a car load of gangbangers wanting to kill me and my wife just out of the blue. I had accelerated some when I moved into the center lane and now was passing the car I was following behind in the left lane. Soon as I cleared that person I swapped back into the left lane at started to slow down to prevent the car from being-able to pull behind me again now the car that was bumping me got pined in between me and a slower moving car in the center lane . I could now see the car it appeared to be a white Toyota Camry still couldn’t see the driver or if there were any passengers in the car. The white camry then bumped the car in the center lane that had boxed it up against. The driver must have freaked out they didn’t change lanes the just started slowing way down. At the same time I started to speed up again, The car that was behind me seeing all of this most have said the hell with this. I don’t know exactly when it happened but either they had pulled off or they slowed way down and my tail was know open again. Sure enough looking out the rear view mirror here comes the white camry coming up behind me and coming fast. Now I was going north bound on the free way and we were coming up to the interchange to go west and east. The left lane merges to the west bound traffic which is what I have to go down any way.
By this time I am piissssssedddd off big time. And I be damned this person was not going to bump me again going through a turn. I that point I don’t give a damn if you watch Nascar I got something for you. I told the wife to hold the wheel through the turn. I was not going to shoot unless I knew for sure the camry was going to hit us but the camry was trying to close the distance to bump us when I hung my upper body through the drivers side window and I had my pistol in left hand sighting up on the driver-side windshield in the turn. Then they had a change of heart when they saw the pistol pointed at them. As soon as we came out of the turn the camry accelerated and changed all the way to the fair right lane trying to get away at top speed my wife [YELL’S OUT ITS A GIRL] as the camry passes us on the passenger side At witch point I stand on the gas so I can get side by side to the car to see exactly who. Sure enough there was a white brunet early to mid thirties crouched down in the drivers seat trying to hide no one else was in the car.
Still to this day I have no clue who or why it happened.
The best that I or my friends can speculate was that either she drunk/high on something or that she thought I was an Ex BF or something.
No, it was a guy that you had proned out on your grass with a gun pointed at him - he turned out to be a surveyor cutting through your yard.
My bad if it wasn’t you.
Ummm no.
I have had surveyors, meter checkers, telephone workers and guys cutting brush back from power lines on my property on more than a few occasions. It isn’t hard to recognize them for what they are and as they aren’t doing anything like trying to gain access to my home I generally don’t point guns at these people.
I think you would actually get arrested pretty quickly doing things like that. I’m also a bit amazed that you thought I had actually done something like that before and you haven’t given me any shit about it so far. I’m actually kind of glad you brought it up so I could straighten that out. I don’t mind being judged for the things I do, especially if done deliberately, but I’d hate to be judged for something I didn’t do.
Oh sorry bro, thought this was you:
I avoid any confrontation when possible. When carrying a firearm IMHO you really have to take the high road whenever possible. It can go bad quickly, and at the end of the day it’s just not worth it over some punks bad driving.