Encounter Defusal

At the last Collexion I started talking firearms with a visitor from another Hackerspace. This particular gathering had a Ruby meeting in it that was showing a loud presentation, and it was still pretty hot in the building, so we stepped outside to continue talking without disturbing anyone.

This hackerspace (like most), is run on a shoestring budget, which means low rent in not-so-great neighborhoods, so I was happy to be open carrying while we talked.

While we chatted there were many people walking to and fro on the sidewalk, but two saw us and approached. I was leaning against the corner of the building with my fellow hacker standing opposite me, they approached on my 9 o'clock, and I didn't turn my body toward them, not feeling the need to reveal I was carrying.

One white female, blonde and short, holding wires and a cell phone, who appeared to be in the early stages of tweaker-dom. One black male, tall with a Gilligan hat, who seemed to exude "dazed and confused." He wasn't particularly threatening in any way.

She got within 15 feet and both pleadingly and disjointedly explained that she was stuck across town, and her cell phone was dead, and she needed to charge it, but she only had a car charger, so if we have cars, could she charge her battery in one of them?

While the story had WTF written all over it, her body language and the situation reeked of JDFR long before the story began.

She looked pleadingly at my friend, who parried. "Sorry, I took the bus." He didn't. Then she looked at me, and seemed to notice her story had not penetrated, but still waited for an answer. "We're not interested."

This was the important part, I showed her that I did not trust her, and it was up to her to decide how this was going to end. She could either shrug her shoulders and walk away sullenly, which would probably precipitate me second guessing myself and feeling bad for a bit, or she could get indignant and get aggressive. She chose to get aggressive, but fortunately, did so while retreating.

At first she seemed confused, then as she started walking away, she started to yell at me for being so rude and refusing to help her poor stranded self. Her friend ambled along as she got further away and louder and angrier, yelling how God was going to strike my ugly ass down, and she wasn't going to be sad when I was struck down. Just before she disappeared behind another building she seemed to run out of things to say, but kept glaring at me. I took advantage of the lull to tell her to have a nice day.

After thinking about this, I realized that if she had chosen to advance toward me, I would have had to face her, back up, yell at her to back off, and put my hand on my gun. This was a sobering thought after the situation had already defused in an amusing way. It's a pretty crappy option to consider, but the only one crappier is doing the same with the only place to put your hand being your swinging cod.

Read more about my experiences open carrying here!