They took his gun...

[Glock513]

Hello all. I received a weird call from a previous client. He's a young guy, 21 yrs old. Just got his CCW recently. (NRA Basic Pistol class is just the BASICS in gun safety. A LOT more Defensive/tactical training is needed, but hey, what do I know ).Apparently, he's hanging out with a pair of ignorant/low-life friends at THEIR house. They invite some other guy over. This "friend" of his friends decides that he wants to rob everybody, including his "friends" who invited him over the house , so he draws a gun. My client chose NOT to keep a round in the chamber (I know, makes NO SENSE to carry a technically unloaded gun ), and even if he had, he said that he had no time to draw and shoot quick and accurate enough. The bad already had the drop on them . So this "friend of a friend" robs everybody, for the money on their persons, he also finds his gun on him after searching everybody and takes his brand new Glock 22.
He called to ask me for suggestions of FFL dealers to buy a replacement gun in the near future. What??!! I felt a alot of mixed emotions as he spoke.

That guy leaves. Everybody calls 911 to report the robbery. The story doesn't add up to me, seems fishy. Maybe A LOT more to it than he chose to tell me. Not sure what his friends are into, or him for that matter. It's the 1st time, directly, speaking to a person who was robbed for cash and their gun.
He also told me that he immediately broke his friendship with those guys and is no longer going to visit or hang with those guys because they are trouble. Seems like a genuinely good hearted kid, hopefully he gets his life straight and finds better friends ... while he still has a clean criminal record and is still ALIVE.
This whole conservation and explanation of how his whole night went was pretty bizarre and interesting at the same time, just thought I'd share it with you.

[Javelin Man]

He should have stuck around a while so when the robber comes back to split the dole with the two 'friends' that invited him over, he could have at least gotten his Glock back.

[Tweed Ring]

Always avoid the Iron Triangle of Trouble, i.e. bad people, bad places, and bad things. Always. Always. Always. The time to leave is before the situation goes sideways.

People are never too you to learn this immutable fact: failure to avoid any or all of the above will get someone hurt (physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, etc.) and get someone into the system.

[Sevens]

It is an interesting story.

I would keep a lot of distance between myself and him, his "friends" and their "friends" and I would chalk it up as a loss, and someone else's project, and would focus my efforts elsewhere.

[Aesinsp]

I'd at least try to send him towards a used gun instead of new..
As far as carrying unchambered, I will admit to doing that at first. It was a lack of confidence thing for me.
Now I realize that I can carry a handgun and not end up with a ND, as long as I practice safe gun handling.

[Bombarde32]

The encouraging prospect is that since they are all "friends", the owners/renters should have no difficulty identifying the perp to the police. I don't see why the stolen Glock won't be back in a jiffy, unless it's kept as evidence...

[MyWifeSaidYes]

I cannot help but to think illegal drugs are somehow involved.

As far as "what would you do in this situation" goes, I agree that one simply shouldn't get themselves into this situation.

IF drugs were not involved, and IF the robber was actually a 'friend', then I agree that identifying him should be easy. It would then just be a matter of finding him.

If the armed 'good guy' had no other training than CHL/NRA Basic Pistol, I would not recommend doing anything different if the opportunity to draw and fire did not present itself.

This reinforces the point that firearms are not 'magic wands of self-defense' but simply tools. If you can't employ the tool, it can't help you.

So why do we want to carry? Simple, if you don't HAVE the tool when the opportunity to employ it DOES arise...

[rg920]

I like the comment about "The Triangle of Trouble", I may just use that...

As for how the whole thing played out, on the plus side no one got shot. The gun should be traceable as long as it's reported stolen. I think I would do a serious re-evaluation of those I associate with.

To the young fellow that got robbed, get yourself more training and remember, keep the gun unloaded until ready to use, that means if you are carrying for personal protection, the gun is ready to use and should be loaded.

Hope it all works out.

[Tweed Ring]

I do volunteer work with ex-offenders. Each one who has avoided one or more of the components of the Iron Triangle of Trouble, has stayed out of the system.

Conversely, everyone who ignores the advice tends to go back into the system.

Some of it may be age, and some of it may be intelligence.

[deanimator]

Some of it may be age, and some of it may be intelligence.

It used to be that if you didn't transcend a certain threshold of intelligence, you usually didn't get old enough to be a problem for other people. Now we protect them to the point where we encumber and endanger people of normal intelligence.

On several occasions, I've told people, "14,000 years ago, you would have wandered away from the campfire as a child and been eaten by something before you could pass your defective genes along..."

[BriKuz]

"14,000 years ago, you would have wandered away from the campfire as a child and been eaten by something before you could pass your defective genes along..."

Truth! I find it hilarious that some humans are so conceited as to think that they can destroy this planet... Utter rubbish! We can destroy it for US (and many other species) we can ignore the rules of nature for a long time... but sooner or later, Nature will get hers...

[Brian D.]

The scenario Joe (Glock513) describes happens quite a bit in the big cities, it seems to me. Choosing friends carefully, don't know if that's just innate, or a skill sort of gleaned from one's parent(s). I think more the latter. In any event, it's one thing to casually spend time mingling with folks out and about, but another to start "running with" them.

This also makes me think of something Joe could appreciate: In my CHL class all those years ago, we had a young African-American (or black if you don't mind the term us 50 something white dudes still think it's okay to use ) guy maybe 22 or so. He dressed a little "ghetto" and without talking to him someone could get the idea he was maybe a little shady. But during breaks we all had a chance to chat and that wasn't the case at all. He dressed the way he did so that he wouldn't be harassed by the hoodlum types in his neighborhood, which he was hoping to move from soon. But he drew the line at that and wouldn't hang out with some of them at all. That's pretty smart. Good kid, I made a point of staying in touch with him for a while. Got his carry license and moved in to a better part of town when finances allowed. Last I knew he was leaving Cincinnati for a new job and woman.

[Glock513]

I agree with you. Growing up in big cities, there's alot of options for "friends", unlike a small town where everybody knows everybody. And in some low income neighborhoods, it's easy to get caught up with the wrong crowd, whether inner city or trailer parks, etc. When I was young, at one point, I hung with the wrong crowd. After maturing and getting a better understanding of life, I realized that my "friends" were really not my friends, they were just people I knew, not good people that I could depend on, etc. I put them in my rear view mirror and my life improved immediately. Hopefully my previous client does the same. He seems like a good kid, some hangs with the wrong crowd. Hopefully he learns. But convincing a kid to do something is HARD. it's not telling your daughter not to talk to the "punk/bad boy" with all the tattoos, bad butt bike, the guy who breaks all the rules and is exciting, instead choose the boring intelligent kid who NEVER misses class. Guess what, as soon as the parents are sleep, you'll hear a bike outside , life sucks! Hopefully they grow up and learn better.

The scenario Joe (Glock513) describes happens quite a bit in the big cities, it seems to me. Choosing friends carefully, don't know if that's just innate, or a skill sort of gleaned from one's parent(s). I think more the latter. In any event, it's one thing to casually spend time mingling with folks out and about, but another to start "running with" them.

This also makes me think of something Joe could appreciate: In my CHL class all those years ago, we had a young African-American (or black if you don't mind the term us 50 something white dudes still think it's okay to use ) guy maybe 22 or so. He dressed a little "ghetto" and without talking to him someone could get the idea he was maybe a little shady. But during breaks we all had a chance to chat and that wasn't the case at all. He dressed the way he did so that he wouldn't be harassed by the hoodlum types in his neighborhood, which he was hoping to move from soon. But he drew the line at that and wouldn't hang out with some of them at all. That's pretty smart. Good kid, I made a point of staying in touch with him for a while. Got his carry license and moved in to a better part of town when finances allowed. Last I knew he was leaving Cincinnati for a new job and woman.

[farblue]

Always avoid the Iron Triangle of Trouble, i.e. bad people, bad places, and bad things. Always. Always. Always. The time to leave is before the situation goes sideways.

People are never too you to learn this immutable fact: failure to avoid any or all of the above will get someone hurt (physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, etc.) and get someone into the system.

Excellent point. There was a time, many moons ago, when I would occasionally hang out with a few folks that could be best described as somewhat "sketchy".

Looking back on those times, I've come to realize that I was either lucky, or someone was watching out for me.

These days, I'm a little more careful about the company I keep. Just a little.

[Tweed Ring]

I have distilled years of dealing with the perpetual criminal class into those three prohibitions. Bad people, and/or bad places, and/or bad things = can mean bad trouble.

Some of our older factory trained felons, who visit our volunteer group, may eventually accept this bit of wisdom.

Some of our younger factory trained felons, who visit our volunteer group, still want to eschew calling 911 and settle perceived or real grievances with fists, feet, ball bats, etc. Some of them do not see the wisdom of leaving a situation/friends/venue before something goes sideways.

Case in point: guy is on parole and has an 11:00 PM curfew. He runs out of cigarettes at 11:30 PM. There are a lot of ways to deal with that problem, but simply running out to the store, and being seen upon his unhappy parole officer is not the best solution.

Case in point: guys gets out of prison, and wants to continue a relationship with his paramour. He has no place to take his lady love for privacy (she lives with her mom) so they break into an empty house and get caught by the police.

Case in point: guy wants to get off drugs, but still maintains his relationship with his drug using pals. One evening, they come to his house with the idea of everyone getting high. He demurs, so they rob him and beat him so badly that he is now disabled.

Some people can make good decisions - conversely, some people cannot so decide.