Money quote:
When I got home, I began to reflect on what had happened, and more disturbingly what could have happened. I am in contact with the LGBT unit of the police department to file a report. But I’ve thought a lot about the turning point of the situation — the fact that one of them thought that I might have a gun. None of them said, “There’s a law against antigay hate crimes!†That wasn’t the deterrent. It was the possibility that I might have had a gun that saved my life Friday night.
H/T CATO via Balko
Interesting first-person account. Something about the writer instantly identified him to the street toughs as LGBT.
I’m not queer, but I have been to the tough survival school called SERE, and was not only a graduate, but a class leader who set a modern record for getting the class though the school with the fewest “capture points” against the class members. I CAN speak to survival in various environments.
The writer needs to re-examine his dress and manner, seriously. It jumps off the page of his report that something in that manner or nature tipped off these street thugs to his LGBT status.
That person needs to change whatever tipped off the street thugs. Yes, really. That’s not an issue for LGBT identity, that’s an issue for his SURVIVAL. If he can’t tell the difference, a gun probably won’t save him.
BTW, you’d better have a very good plan AND plenty of current training on your weapon if you try to stand off 8 thugs. If even two of them were armed, as they likely would be in MY city, waving that gun isn’t going to get the job done, he’ll have to shoot it, and he’ll have to shoot it very fast and very accurately. Pig-pile is low-tech, but it DOES carry the fight when the numbers are uneven enough.
No, survival schools ALL tell you that the fight you don’t get into is one you’ve won, and may be the ONLY one you will win for sure.
D’oh! Let me guess – I forgot the “/” in my closing blockquote tag. Sorry!