Let’s talk about the defensive use of a handgun

(Via Guns.com)

First, the video:

Now then…

Based solely on this video and my knowledge of NC law, Bradly Turner and his wife both need to spend some time in jail.  While we don’t see the driving incident that started this, that makes no difference.  No matter what it was, even if it was illegal, he has no justification under the law for what he’s done.  At most, he should have called 911, followed just long enough to have gotten a license plate and then, as the cops say, he should have “been a good witness”.  I have been in this situation and that’s what I did.  That’s all you can do, legally.  This isn’t Dodge City on Saturday night in some blasted movie.

Instead, he was an ass, and an armed one at that.  Thanks so much for giving gun owners a nice black eye right when we don’t need it, jerk.

In what we see, I can see simple assault, assault and battery, assault by pointing a gun, assault with a deadly weapon, and maybe even charges of aiding and abetting for his wife.  From what we’re told happened after the video ends, the list gets longer and much more entertaining for the Turners.  I hope they’re held to account for each and every charge they’ve been hit (and that list doesn’t match mine, lucky for them) with except that stupid “going armed to the terror of the public”.  Can’t we get that damn Jim Crow POS off the books?

People, if you’re going to carry a gun for protection, there are two very important things you need to do.  First, know the laws in your state.  I don’t know if the Turners do or don’t know the laws in NC, but they pretty much blew them all off.

Second, leave you temper at home, or better yet, just lose it altogether.  You can not have a temper if you carry.  Period.

And thinking on it, there is a third thing–get training.  In particular, get self-defense training geared to concealed carry holders in the state you reside in.  Training that covers the law, training that covers what you should and should not do if you’re forced to defend yourselves.

Mr. Turner, you’re lucky you didn’t get seriously hurt and that you didn’t seriously hurt someone else.  Those young men used just about enough force to end the threat to them and no more.  What if they had been armed themselves?  What if they had decided that your threat was serious enough that it warranted deadly force?  What if during the process your wife had bailed out of the truck with yet another gun?

Yeah, it might very well have devolved into Dodge City on a Saturday night.

You, sir, are way luckier than you deserve to be.