Why I carry a handgun for protection, Vol. 20

So that if I and my loved ones are being obviously targeted for a mugging or worse, just like a friend of ours (we'll call him Moby Clarke, as that's his username over at the Forum) thought was imminent the other day, I will have an effective means immediately at hand to defend myself and my family.

In this case, just the sight of a holstered pistol was apparently enough of a deterrent to stop some street thugs in their tracks and cause them to seriously rethink their nefarious plans.

Let's let Moby recount the story in his own words:

"I was carrying openly while out picking up posters from our garage sale. I parked on the corner of Lowery and Penn Aves N and got out with my 5 year old daughter. Approaching us on Lowery were 2, well, uh, potentially not well-intentioned individuals. They slowed down as they got to my car and kind of "hung out" for a moment, without letting their eyes leave us. I had them in view the entire time, while carrying on a pleasant conversation with my daughter. I am left handed, hence, my carry gun, the remarkably outstanding, accurate, and did I mention, large, P7, was not immediately visible to them. We were about 45 feet from them as we reached the corner. While my daughter grabbed the signs, I casually turned about 115 degrees. I paused, making sure they saw my gun, silhouetted nicely against a white shirt, and rested my hand, innocently enough, on the pistol as I continued to make small talk with my daughter.

Their demeanor changed dramatically and an animated conversation took place between them. One said, in not-quite-a-whisper-end-of-exchange-way, "Damn, that is a big gun, Nxxxxr! I'm out." As I led my daughter around a large column on the sidewalk to keep the distance manageable if things got hinky, they were on the move in their original direction. As they passed, we were now on the street side of my car, one remarked, "Evenin' officer" with eyes straight ahead. The other guy had his head bowed.

Now, I am not the brightest bulb in the drawer, but I have a small suspicion that my openly carried firearm may have refocused these particular gentlemen’s intentions. Thoughts?"

We certainly do have thoughts.

What a frightening incident to have happen to a person. Kudos to you, Moby, both for showing such good situational awareness (always highly recommended when open carrying) and for being so well-prepared to defend your daughter as well as yourself from what was almost certainly an aborted robbery attempt. We're glad everyone is currently safe, sound and unmolested. Would that still be the case had Moby been perceived as a softer target by these "gentlemen"?

Maybe, but we highly doubt it. Moby is a calm, reasonable individual, and if he reports that he was about to be assaulted, we tend to believe him.

This type of defensive gun usage, in which a firearm either worn openly or produced in response to a threat stops a crime from being committed, is estimated to happen roughly 2 million times a year, according to Professor John Lott of the University of Maryland, the go-to scholar for these types of studies.

Lott also reports that these sorts of non-violent crime-averting uses of a legally carried firearm almost never get reported to law enforcement and the media simply because the gun isn't fired and no one is injured or arrested, and thus aren't included with the number of times a legally owned and carried firearm is discharged in self-defense, seriously undercounting the actual number of times a firearm is successfully used to protect oneself against a threat.

This incident further convinces us that law-abiding citizens such as ourselves need to be just as prepared for trouble as Moby fortunately was last weekend, as one never knows when and where some unprovoked mayhem by some cold-blooded criminals may come our way.