According to this report, the victim of an armed robbery shared her story with Indianapolis’ RTV6 because she wants to help other people. “If one person listens to this and decides to look an extra time over their shoulder or be a little extra vigilant . . . then it’s worth it.” Hey! I’ve got an idea! What about recommending that people carry a firearm?

A similar mugging at knifepoint set me on my journey from gun control advocate to gun rights advocate. Looking into my assailant’s dead eyes convinced me that I needed a way to deal with people who’d kill me without a second thought. And that any government that prevented me from arming-up to defend myself wasn’t working in my best interest.

Same thing happen to you? Ever been robbed?

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61 COMMENTS

  1. In 1982, a man tried to steal my car in the middle of the night. I confronted him, sure he would run away when I pointed the shotgun at him. Instead, he came toward me with threats of rape and murder. I shot him. Here’s the full story, if you are interested: https://thepriceofliberty.org/the-man-i-might-have-killed/

    There have been a few other close calls. https://thepriceofliberty.org/2014/01/21/unreported-the-crime-that-didnt-happen/ But I was fully armed each time and I believe that made all the difference. I do not leave home unarmed, for any reason.

    • “In 1982, a man tried to steal my car in the middle of the night. I confronted him, sure he would run away when I pointed the shotgun at him.”

      Not robbery.

      • So? The first incident wasn’t technically “robbery,” but the difference is merely semantics, not intent.

        The other incidents would have been robbery, mugging, whatever you like to call it… except that I was armed and they were bright enough to run away.

      • Attempted burglary becomes a attempted robbery when the would-be thief resorts to violence or threats of violence to get what he wants. So technically she wasn’t robbed but that’s only because she had the means to stop it.

        • Since we’re being technical, burglary is the “breaking and entering into the dwelling place of another with intent to commit a felony therein.” Originally it included “at night,” but I don’t think any statutes still have that. Many statutes prohibit the breaking and entering into other places.

          Point being the felony therein doesn’t have to be any form of stealing.

    • Exactly that, MamaLiberty.

      And if left to the likes of Shannon and Mike you’d be left to rely on pleas, peeing, or throwing up… because DGUs are a ‘myth’ and you’re just going to shoot yourself (in their books at least). Wankers.

  2. Richmond va 430 am may 2010. I had just gotten off work and was walking from my car to my apartment. Two guys pulled a butcher knife on me. They made the mistake of doing it when about 30 feet from me and advancing. I pulled a Sig 2340 in .357 sig out and by the time I was drawn they had turned tail and ran. I was in the guard then but had very little pistol training and had just gotten my CHP.

    • “Do wives and girlfriends count?”

      That’s the screwing you got for the screwing you got… 😉

      • The difference between free sex and sex you pay for is the sex you pay for is a lot cheaper.

        From a Playboy joke page about 20 years ago.

      • Oooo yea, I’ve been robbed blind. They not only took my money, they took my freedom!

  5. Personally no, I have however stopped a robbery turned armed robbery at a gas station before.

    Was 25 at the time, no concealed license. Was hanging out with friends across the road from a gas station in our small town, dead middle of summer probably 11:30 pm. Across the road I see a guy at the station, leaned on a post facing the parking lot to the store. He’s wearing aviator sunglasses and an old Starter jacket, the kind popular in the early 90s. If this wasn’t enough to trigger suspicion (yet I was the only one to notice) he’s fidgety. He moves away from the post every time a customer comes in or out, and keeps carefully glancing back into the store that closes shortly at 12. I point the guy out to my friends when he finally goes in the store. I grab my XD9 from my cars console and cross the road to the store out of view of its front door right after I tell them to call the police.

    As I peer into the front door he has an arm full of powdered sugar mini donuts (I kid you not) and the other hand has a large, cheap knife. Obviously he’s demanding cash, and lottery tickets I would find out later.

    I open the door, aiming at the guy screaming at him to drop the knife. He’s only 20 ft away give or take so I stand in the partial open door figured it would put a good barrier between us should he rush me as he would have to pull the door open towards him instead of just barreling through it.

    We stand off for probably a minute before the cop arrives. The cop and I wrestle the guy to the ground, and my knees in the back of his neck as he gets cuffed. Off to jail he goes.

    All said and done I was oddly calm during the incident. The adrenaline dump, or whatever it was, came after it was over. Never had to fire a shot, but I like to think I made a difference.

  6. Yep. 5 times actually. But never by force or by confrontation. In the middle of the night or when I wasn’t there.

      • Oh jesus christ man. Give it up. This isn’t a fucking courtroom. In common usage, 99% of people out there will take “robbery” to mean “having your shit stolen”. Most of us, walking into our houses to find our TV and other valuables missing will not exclaim “I’ve been burgled!” but rather “I’ve been robbed!”. Words can have technical definitions dramatically different from their commonly-used definitions. This doesn’t make them wrong. It just makes you an idiot with poor reading comprehension that can’t determine context. In engineering-speak “normal” means orthogonal to (at 90* to). Does this mean mean everyone else who uses the word to mean “not weird” is wrong? No of course not.

      • Robbery: (noun) the action of robbing a person or place.
        [Google definition by use of “define: robbery”]

        Rob: (verb) to take something from (someone) by unlawful force or threat of violence; steal from.
        http://www.dictionary.com/browse/rob

        I’ve never been robbed during a confrontation. But I have had my place robbed (when I wasn’t there).

      • Try not being a weasel-sniffing dick, semantically parsing and nitpicking things down until you find something small enough to claim victory over, just for ten or fifteen minutes. See how it feels.

  7. In November of 1995. I got jumped by 6 to 8 wannabe gang bangers, with pipes, chains and steel toed boots. Cops said it was a robbery. I don’t think it was. Anyhow spend the night in the hospital. 14 stiches on the back of my head, lots of broken ribs, and a messed up face. Doctors said I was lucky to be alive and not a veggy. 2 years later I joined the corps at 18

  8. Got mugged by a man in broad daylight one time. Before concealed carry licenses, no weapon.

    Helped stop a gas station robbery. Three friends and I pulled into a station where we knew the owner. Two thugs had the owner cornered in the office. When we walked in the thugs made nice and left. The owner didn’t even want to call the cops.

    • Haha Rick you beat me to it! I was going to say every other Friday and every mid-April…. all jokes aside no I have never been robbed. May have been close a few times though. Situational awareness and not looking like an easy victim go a long way, armed or not.

  10. In my youth, I was the victim of a home (apartment) invasion. I woke up in bed with a pillow over my face and a robber on my chest. I was tied up, scary threats were made, the two of them spent some time looking for and taking valuables, and I was left unharmed. The big city cops were professional, but were annoyed at being bothered late at night with my BS (in their eyes) story.

    Lesson’s learned: Don’t sleep with a window open on the ground floor (it WAS hot that night). Don’t live alone without a dog. Hiding smaller valuables on the premises can work. I had a goodly amount of camera equip. that they missed.

  11. My barracks room was broken into, two separate instances with my bicycle being destroyed as well (MCBH / Dirty Mackie barracks (Mackie hall), can’t have anything nice.

    When you come to grips with the fact that food costs $200-300, you keep a look out and load fast because you literally have a shopping cart full of money and no one is going to come running to your aid if a hoodlum decides he wants that trash.

    • Shopping cart full of groceries. VERY interesting observation. I shop only for myself and I can’t get out of Walmart for less than $50-$75 per week. I have frequently been stuck in the check-out line behind a family that forks out $300 or more for their swag.

      In most cases a $300 haul of groceries is more money than you would get by stealing a debit card and forcing the guy to pull cash from his account! And it seems highly unlikely that the local 5-0 detectives are going to spend a lot of time investigating your grocery bandit unless someone gets hurt.

      Food for thought (pun intended).

  12. Well attempted robbery. Thirty some years ago I was grabbed from behind on a Chicago EL stairway. I smashed homie against a wall and chased him up the stairs. And he had 3 partners in crime. They ran when I yelled “call the cops” to the idiot agent sitting inside a booth. I was totally unarmed but fearless. Kinda’ bizarre gangboy would attack a 210pound weightlifter but whatever. I see folks shot,raped and robbed on the news all the time. Oh it was a bloody Easter in Chiraq too. Temperature soaring over 80…

  13. Other than all of the time by US federal, state, and municipal governments, once, by some police in Baja Sur.

  14. Not a robbery…. but I stopped a guy who followed my girlfriend at the time back to our apartment intent on taking something from her. He wanted to rape her.
    She was working as a bartender in Tampa and he was pestering her all night. He got thrown out when he asked her to show him her chest. He waited for her to leave. She had no idea he was behind her.
    She came in and was watching TV when he broke the sliding door. I woke up and grabbed my 357. she started screaming which woke up the neighbor across the hall. She was 77 years old and she came out with a 12 gauge. He started to rethink his life when I pulled the hammer back. And made a mess of his pants when she cycled the gauge.
    Fortunately no one was harmed. Cops were there in a few min and he was arrested. Turns out he had an extensive background with the police. Not a fun night. But at least the rental office replaced the sliding door for free.

  15. Nope. Had a couple of guys in New Orleans who would have liked to kill me, but they were not inclined to try due to the circumstances, meaning the other people who were present.

  16. Fresh from my progressive indoctrination/college experience, I didn’t lock my doors when driving through a shady, largely minority neighborhood for work because then I would be a racist. At a stoplight, a guy jumps in the passenger seat faster than I could react. Violence was not stated but was definitely implied. After directing me to drive to a more secluded area, he got the contents of my wallet but did not take the car. I can only assume he didn’t know how to drive stick shift and was happy with the money. I chalk it up as an extremely fortunate life lesson.

  18. No, not a robbery, but a case of road rage caused a man to get out of his car and point his shot gun at my mother and me. This was two o’clock in the afternoon, in what was then one of Dallas’ finer neighborhoods, and he was originally mad at someone else.

    I am currently giving a 21 year old friend some unsolicited friendly advice from a female perspective on buying her first gun. She survived an attempted assault. Her father wants to be involved. When I was ready to buy my first gun, my husband gave me a lot of advice. Took him three days to realize there was a great deal of difference in his hand size, compared to mine. After that, he kept quiet, I bought a gun which I was comfortable. He knew the caliber, but not the manufacturer. It got even, it bit him numerous times. Drew blood.

    Told my friend not to let her father pick out a gun for her. Pay for it, yes, but she needs to pick out her gun.

  20. Several robbery attempts on me were all thwarted by the presentation of my weapon over the years, included a home invasion attempt last summer during which my dining room window was smashed. My scary black rifle, a Ruger AR-556, made for an instant 180. It’s amazing how fast an intruder will run away when confronted by a gun.

  21. Mugged once, when I was walking my German Shepherd Dog off lead and he was a couple of hundred feet away from me doing his business. I wasn’t paying attention, smoking a cigarette, and got jumped from behind.

    My dog came running and attacked the mugger so badly, well, I don’t think that he ever regained the full use of that arm.

    Play stupid games, get your arm ripped off.

  23. I missed a turn and ended up in one of the very worst areas of Atlanta. While stopped at a traffic light, an “urban youth” ran up, knife in hand, demanding I give up my car and my wallet.

    At that time my “car gun” was an AMT .50AE and it was resting beside me wedged beside the console. I pulled it out and introduced it to the vermin. I dunno but I think he heard his mama calling or something, because he turned pale as a ghost and ran like hell. No shots fired either!

  25. Someone thought they were going to rob me once. No weapons involved. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know I was an experienced martial artist. I was in my garage working on something and this guy just walked on in and demanded something, anything. I had no idea who he was. He wanted something to make himself “feel good about himself”
    What he had done was go to a strip club the night before, drunk, and let some floozy rub on him. He ended up blowing his whole paycheck thinking he was going to get laid. After sobering up in the morning and realizing how bad he screwed up and all his money was gone, he thought he’d come to my house, strong-arm me and have me pay for his night before mistakes. He asked what I had for him. I looked him right square in the eye and told him “I’m not giving you a god damn thing” (confidence) I still didn’t have a clue who he was, only someone thought they were going to rob me.
    Eventually I figured out who he was, but I had not seen him since he was a youngster and now it was ten years later.
    He’s lucky he’s walking and talking today as I could have just as easily taken a crowbar and shattered his skull. Had I started brawling the guy, I would have finished him off and I wouldn’t have lost 2 seconds of sleep over it.

  26. Yes. Armed robbery, burglary and a really pathetic home invasion.

    Living in bad neighborhoods is exciting, I’ll say that for them.

  27. where do these guys come from. Taking my shit without authorization is a robery. Play with the words is just another PC bullshit thing. Sounds like we have some Clitons on board. They just want to argue!. dimwits, everyone is a professor. I guess its O.K. if I say watch your six or is it backside?

    • ” Play with the words is just another PC bullshit thing.”

      Good reply, I dislike this kind of crap more and more. Probably a paid troll. Never saw the pseudonym before.

  29. I have been robbed twice at gun point while I was working at two different restaurants. To me the second amendment is not about 3 gun. Nor is it about collecting the next new “thing.” If you have the money for that then more power to you. I carry a gun everywhere I go.

  30. Almost robbery. Walking down the street in broad daylight. A couple of middle-aged white guys and a stunningly attractive woman were going to lunch. Black guy does a 180 and starts coming up behind us, closing the gap pretty fast. My friend and I exchange this-isn’t-going-to-go-well glances when, suddenly, Mr. bad-ass executes another 180 and heads back up the street. My friend had pulled his knife out and made sure the approaching guy got a good view of the blade. So, was the guy going to spare-change us, ask for a donation to a charity, or try a full fledged mugging? Who cares? The lesson I took from that is that when The Really Bad Thing warning bells start going off it’s not a good idea to let the badness get close.

  31. Never robbed in person, had an apartment broken into in college and some minor stuff stolen. I’ve been assaulted twice, both times I got lucky and escaped with minor injuries. Those instances led me to carry a weapon at all times and take up martial arts.

  32. Situational awareness…I preach this to my wife all the time. She won’t carry even after a weird experience which was either an attempted robbery or attempted car jacking. Too much of a tree hugging liberal pacifist.

  33. 1983 or 84, delivering pizzas for Dominos. The apartment I went to went silent as soon as I knocked. On my way back to my car, a punk with a knife demanded the pizza. Not the money, an anchovy pizza! I told him I wasn’t fighting him for a fish pie, shoved it in his hands (blocking the knife as I did so) and left. Cops did nothing, of course.
    Three Friday nights in a row, I tossed a brick through the front window. Then I made an anonymous call to the landlord, claiming the apartment occupants were drug dealers and were ripping people off; that I’d heard the apartment was going to be shot up and firebombed.

    Tenant’s rights be damned, their shit was in the parking lot the next day and they were evicted. I’m sorry their damage deposit didn’t cover the broken glass, but hey, Mr. Landlord – don’t rent to criminals.

  34. Attempted robbery last August at my business I own.
    Late night closing and I was alone. I’m sure these guys cased me out by driving by a few times and seeing it was just me by myself.
    Blocked my car from behind and 2 guys jumped out. Already had my hand on my pistol when I saw headlights in the parking lot.
    Exited my car with pistol drawn. Pistol beats metal pipe this time. They jumped back in and left.

  35. I’ve had a few close calls. I have pulled a weapon three times and only presented a weapon twice. Every other time I’ve been in a “situation” confidence, aggressive body language, and aggressive regular language have been enough. I’m not a big guy, and, I think, people are always surprised when I stand up to them.

    The closest I’ve ever come to shooting someone had nothing to do with property or even me. My spider-sense was tingling and I stepped outside to find my neighbor and her trashy boyfriend in middle of a “domestic disturbance.” The boyfriend was trying to intimidate me. I got my neighbor to stand behind me. Then the boyfriend started to approach me. If he hadn’t stopped approaching me when I told him to, I was going to grab my rifle (which was just out of sight because that’s where I kept it) and shoot.

    Another time, some kid tried to break into my house around 3:00 on a Friday night. I never felt threatened because the kid was intoxicated and more confused than anything else. 911 was called, and the police still haven’t shown up. This was years ago.

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