Ricky’s life was changed forever simply because he made a foolish mistake with his firearm. It could happen to you just as easy.
Ricky was driving home from spending an evening at a bar. As he drove down the road, another vehicle started aggressively tailgating him in a harassing manner. Ricky, getting extremely irritated, tapped his brakes in an effort to have the tailgater back off. This just escalated the situation prompting the tailgater to pull up along side of Ricky’s vehicle. By this time threatening language was being traded back and forth.
At the next traffic signal, the tailgater had Ricky so worked up that he spit on the tailgater’s car. The law regards an action like this as assault. The tailgater furiously responds back with “what exactly he is going to do” to Ricky. In his infinite wisdom, Ricky brandishes his firearm in a threatening manner as a mitigation tactic.
Before I go further, let’s look at some other facts.
- Ricky is the president of a multimillion dollar corporation.
- It was late enough that there were no other vehicles on the road.
- Ricky was most likely targeted because of who he was. They were hoping to get him to slip up and take the bait.
Upon brandishing his firearm, the tailgater speeds off. Ricky arrives at home to five squad cars in his driveway. He was arrested and was charged with assault and a felony charge for his use of a firearm in an unlawful manner.
The prosecutor was seeking 7 years of prison.
After tens of thousands of dollars in legal costs, Ricky was sentenced to five years in prison.
So, looking back, was losing his cool worth it? Would it had escalated to the point it got if Ricky just kept is mouth shut?
But, here is the biggest take-away. All Ricky had to do was simply turn right at that red light, rather than sitting there and staying all caught up in the conflict. Something so simple could have produced such an entirely different outcome.
Carrying a firearm must be the mighty humbler, not the enabler. It is to be the ultimate pacifier, the conflict avoider, not an ego booster. Hopefully, if you are carrying, you are of the conflict avoidance mindset. Who would have thought that conflict avoidance could be as simple as turning right on red.
Be Safe,
Joe Shahoud
Joe Shahoud is the owner and lead instructor at Safe Family Defense LLC, a firearms training academy that serves the greater Columbia, SC area specializing in pistol, concealed weapons permits, and general education in personal safety.
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