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In reply to the discussion: The NRA is a Republican ancillary organization. [View all]X_Digger
(18,585 posts)I used to service network equipment in COs (central offices) for a telecom company all over Texas, Louisiana, and sometimes Oklahoma. I went into every kind of neighborhood, town, and city, and stretches of deserted scrub in between.
After having my truck broken into twice, and being mugged at gun point then getting my head almost cracked by the junkie's buddy, I decided to carry a pistol.
As I said to someone else a couple of years ago..
[div class='excerpt']Last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, I was in Galveston trying to get phone service back up for residents. As I was ferrying ~$10k worth of network testing gear from my rig to the switch around dusk, I was approached by a 20-25 year old guy asking for money.
I offered him a bottle of water and an energy bar (I keep those in my truck too, am I afraid of dying of thirst/hunger?). He became agitated and again demanded money. He got close enough that I could see that he had a mouth full of mostly black stumps instead of teeth, and continued to follow me as I went around my truck to the open driver's door.
As I reached into the center console of my truck for a bottle of water, he pulled a knife from his overcoat (an overcoat in September in Texas- yah, nothing at all odd about that) and took a step toward me. By that time I'd unholstered my pistol, put the open truck door between us, and told him to piss off. He took another step toward me, I raised my pistol and pointed it at his chest. He looked down, then turned and ran. I got on the company radio, and an hour later, a DPS officer came by to check on me. He took my statement and left.
You know what really pissed me off at the time? That I'd offered the guy a bottle of water and something to eat. I've been approached many times by some rather stinky characters (Texas heat and homelessness / vagrancy tends to mix into a rather odoriferous combination.) Most were just panhandlers- the kind that you see with cardboard signs (my favorite was one that read 'why lie? want beer') or a bouquet of flowers weaving in and out of traffic at stop lights. I usually have a dollar for them if they make it to my truck before the light changes. So yeah, I was pissed that I offered to help this guy and he turns around and pulls a knife on me.
Shit, if he'd asked nicely, I would have gotten on the radio and asked for a pick-up from the Texas City FD / Galveston PD / TX natl guard who had a crisis response center about ten minutes away.