My sin was not in going unarmed but in failing to pay adequate
attention to my immediate environment. What can I say, it had been
a long day and I was tired and not in a good frame of mind to resist
the temptation to get lost in thought about whatever I was daydreaming
about at the time. I was surprised from behind, quietly. Perhaps
if I took some more ninjutsu classes, I'd learn an effective defense
against this maneuver, but the defense that I did come up with
(running away as fast as I could while screaming at the top of my
lungs) worked in that particular situation, so I was lucky. However,
drawing down on the fellow after he had rested his barrel on my
temple would have been suicidal--far more so than what I actually
did. I recognized the pistol by feel, because it felt exactly like
my own Glock 19.
The sad thing is that after I reached back to remove the miscreant's
hand from my collar, discovered his automatic pistol (with my hand),
and made my instant decision, I didn't even give the rascal any time
to ask for my wallet. As a result, the only thing they could write down
on the police report describing the offense was "brandishing firearm".
Something to think about the next time you research police crime stats.
And I certainly hope you didn't mean to tar me with that "pro individual
freedom yet anti RKBA" brush. When I was going on about the evils of
flying lead pellets, I was under no delusion that "gun control" laws
are of any use in minimizing such evils. My own opinion is that decent
human beings are in no short supply, and that the more of them are
well armed, the less trouble we can expect from those human beings
who fall well below the minimum standards of decency.
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ http://www.pobox.com/~arkuat/