My Self Defense Story (Reposted)

 I had originally posted this back in January of last year and I thought it was worthy of repost due to the subject matter.

I got this idea from ""Mysterious Blogger"(LOL), a fellow blogger that Hangs out at his blog at 75 Million Pissed Off Patriots,   he had another blog that had to "vanish" due to butthurt lefties so he totally revamped himself.  Don't research him, just enjoy the blog, it is a good blog and on my blogroll.  He had talked about his self defense story.  The first time I had to "display" a gun to frighten off a potential Threat was in the early 90's.  I was a manager at Domino's Pizza in a town the next county over where I live at now.  A bit of background, when I got out of the service in 1991, I got a job with Kawneer as a door fabricator.  You look at the bottom center of the door, if it is a metal door, usually with glass and what not, but it will have a label that looks kinda like this:

I kept my license plate from my first F150, I snagged the logo during a break.  Well anyway, I was working Kawneer and there was a job slowdown and the entire 2nd shift was laid off.  I was pissed, we did 2 times the work as first shift, but they were union and we were not, we got the axe.  Well I had started working at Domino's Pizza as a driver and was offered a management job.  I got transferred to the store in another county because they needed an assistant manager and off I went.  Well shortly after I got there someone broke into my 1991 F150 and stole my Springfield govt model .45.  I had used it in single stack competitions in Europe.  I was pissed off, that was a good 45 and I still know the serial number.  Well for months afterward I had visions of walking out of the store and seeing the other end of my .45.  I had bought the 45 and my Ruger P89 at the Nellingen Rod and Gun Club in Germany.  Well since then I had a habit of keeping my P89 in the store with me, yes it was in violation of Company policy but I didn't care.  Well one day I had just closed the store and there was a tapping on the glass and there was one of my drivers. he was still in uniform his name was "Gus", well "Gus" was a driver that was drawing disability from the VA for having mental issues. The Store manager had hired him, we were hard up for drivers and he seemed to be ok.   well I let him in and locked the door as he came into the store while I went back to the office to close out the daily report and count the till.  Well when I sat down, I habitually took the Ruger off the desk and sat on it with the butt sticking out.  Well the driver "Gus" came into the office as I was finishing the paperwork for the day and started counting the money to go into the moneybag.  Well "Gus" was talking needing money to buy "some company" if you know what I mean, apparently he knew of a person that sold affection by the hour.  Well he was talking about getting money and visiting her, while I was counting down.  He commented that he was broke and needed some money and I commented while I was counting,"Man I can't help you, I am broke until payday."  He then pointed to the cash I was counting down and commented"What about that?" and I replied calmly..."Naaa.......That belongs to the store,"..By this time I seriously regretted letting "Gus" in to the store, I was picking up some bad vibes from him.  As he kept talking I glanced up at the shelf above my desk and looked at the "HSPP" book, it is "Hourly Sales and Payroll Percentages".  It tracks the sales from the same period last year, it is a tool used by the manager to get a rough draft for labor and sales to plan the schedule and the food.  I recall a year before where a store off Old National Hwy in Atlanta where a manager had his head bashed in with a bat by a driver who proceeded to take the till and when they found him the next day, he had smoked it away in a crack house. but the blood spatters were on the HSPP book so when the store staff got the figures, they had to deal with the dried blood spatters.  Well I was getting the "Deja vu" feeling.  I still acted calm closed up the bank bag and picked up the clipboard where I was putting the daily figures, you know the daily sales, the food percentage and the labor percentage for the day and how they impacted the weekly and monthly figures. We called it the "Daily Keys"  I proceeded to stand up, pick up the Ruger P89...

from the chair and put the pistol under the clipboard as I carried the clipboard to the data entry station outside the office and proceeded to enter the "Keys".  Well "Gus" saw the pistol and freaked out, and yelled "What are you doing with a Pistol??!"  I replied as I was entering keys "The pistol is there in case someone tries to rob me when I go to the bank  after I leave the store.."  He ran out of the store.  I quickly followed and locked the door after he left.  I then went over and sat down and knew that I was very lucky, Sure "Gus" didn't physically touch me, but I am convinced that if I didn't have the pistol, "Gus" would have attacked me to get to the store receipts.  and with him being taller than I am and crazy, I have severe doubts on how I would fare in a physical assault.  I stayed in the office for a couple of hours before I left and yes the pistol was in my hand when I locked up the store and headed to the bank and home.  "Gus" came back for his regularly scheduled shift but he avoided me after that and quit a couple of weeks later.  Well the Ruger, I had to sell her a couple of years later to pay some bills.  I regretted doing so but I was desperate to bring in some money.  This was the salad days for me and the soon to be spousal unit.    Even today, I still count myself as fortunate from that incident, it could have gone pear shaped in a hurry, and I was lucky.  I kept analyzing what did I do wrong, well what I did wrong was let him into the store, but in my defense I have done that in the past with other drivers and the company was nice while I closed the store.  I have had to pull a Pistol 3 more times doing pizza stuff this happened after my Ford Assy plant closed down,  I quit when I got my job with my present employer.   After my Ford Assy plant closed down, I delivered Pizza to keep the "Wolf at bay" until I found another "Real Job".   I believed that the law of averages would be against me and eventually I would have to shoot someone to defend my life, every one of my robbery attempts were not in the hood, not in the apartment complexes, not in the trailer parks, they were in the middle class homes that had a lot of section "8" vouchers, you know when you deliver to the house and they have the flashy cars, and TV's, but using lawn furniture inside the house and they don't tip, certain neighborhoods, the houses were rented out because nobody was buying, this was during the 2006/2009 housing recession.  I guess the kids wanted to be like their fellow homies in the hood and boost the "pizza boy" for quick cash, food and "street cred". Well "Pizza boy" carried and was going home to his wife and kid.  And as soon as my present employer hired me, I gave 2 weeks notice. As much as I hated the delivery business, I never burn a bridge.    I didn't enjoy the pizza delivery business anymore and the customers were changing.  Way back when I delivered for the first time in 1985, if you were robbed, they just took the pizza, but in this day and age, they would rob you, take your car and kill you just for street cred.  Smart crooks won't bother pizza drivers because we habitually don't carry a lot of cash, but kids are stupid and impulsive.   I never had to fire my private weapons in defense of my life and I am glad.  But I also am glad that I had the pistols when I did because things could have turned out differently.  Yes I tip delivery drivers exceedingly well because I have been there.   

Moscow Rules #2 Never go against your gut....

I and many others have blogged about listening to your gut.  I have told many people that your gut is a holdover from our primal days and our gut quickly locates a potential threat and identifies it.  Your gut picks up the subliminal leaking pardon the pun from other people.  It is hard to describe the phenomenon,  My buddy Shelldude talked about the "Gut" feeling thing a lot.  As much as people think, we are not as far from the primitive as people think.  It is part of the "fight or flight".  I listen to my gut frequently and the gut is rarely wrong.  I pulled the article from "Drudge", the pic came from my stash and the "Moscow Rules" came from the people that survived the most dangerous place to be a spy during the Cold War.   

It’s one of the most commonly doled out nuggets of professional advice: "Go with your gut." But it’s a very challenging system to consistently implement.
"We spend our workdays in our outer world. We’re interacting with our team members and clients. We don’t have enough time in our inner world where we can reflect on those experiences and listen to what our gut might have to say," says Hana Ayoub, a professional development coach.

"Trusting your gut is trusting the collection of all your subconscious experiences."

Why is trusting your gut so powerful? Because your gut has been cataloging a whole lot of information for as long as you’ve been alive. "Trusting your gut is trusting the collection of all your subconscious experiences," says Melody Wilding, a licensed therapist and professor of human behavior at Hunter College.
"Your gut is this collection of heuristic shortcuts. It’s this unconscious-conscious learned experience center that you can draw on from your years of being alive," she explains. "It holds insights that aren’t immediately available to your conscious mind right now, but they’re all things that you’ve learned and felt. In the moment, we might not be readily able to access specific information, but our gut has it at the ready."
"I’ve never heard a client say, ‘I regret going with my gut,’" says Ayoub. Think of all the time and mental energy that can be conserved by not having to overthink your next move. Here's how you can start right now.

Carve Out Time To Reflect

After a meeting or interaction that requires a decision on your part, give yourself mental space to reflect. "Instead of grabbing a coffee in the kitchen, take a walk around the block. Spend time alone. Even if it’s just a minute," says Ayoub.
If it’s a bigger decision you need to make, Ayoub recommends creating a larger window before you need to respond. "Start telling people: ‘I need to sleep on this, I’ll get back to you tomorrow.’ Start building that response into your conversations, especially with the people you work with most. It’s telling people that’s how you work."
"You have to create space to listen to what your gut is saying. That’s why people say they get their best ideas in the shower," says Wilding. "Start to think back and do an audit of your day. It’s intentional mind wandering."

Give Yourself Constraints

Lou Leone, the founder of Leadinary, a management consulting and executive coaching firm for startups, has an exercise for those who overanalyze. Every time you have a big decision or tough choice to make, give yourself a half hour window to make it.
"At the end of that half hour, you’re going to have to use your gut. That forces you to be more instinctive," says Leone.
Did you say "should?" "Whenever I hear clients say ‘I should,’ I say: ‘According to who?’ They usually say, ‘family pressure’ or ‘I guess I’m making it up.’ The ‘should’s’ help people tune in to when they’re not listening to their gut," says Ayoub.

Be Aware Of Your Feelings

Wilding recommends developing an awareness of how you feel during work situations. "Do a body scan of what’s going on for you. You may think, I feel nervous right now, or I feel like I’m not sure what’s coming next. Use those skills of emotional labeling to get in touch with what your gut might be saying to you," says Wilding.

List Every Time Your Gut Instinct Served You

Being instinctive isn’t simply an innate trait: It’s a quality that increases or decreases given how much we practice doing it well. Lou Leone recommends listing all the times you trusted your gut and whether the outcome was favorable.
"By going through the exercise, you’ll see, ‘When I trusted my gut, I always felt good about the decision I made,’" says Leone. He says that with repetition, "Your gut starts getting better at doing what’s right for you."
"As similar situations arise and you have an instinct, you realize you had this instinct before, and it’s that much stronger," he explains. "Your instinct gets sharper and more reactive. Then, when you experience positive outcomes, it creates a positive feedback loop." With time, you can comfortably defer more and more of your decision-making to your gut instinct.
Liz Funk is a freelance writer and author who covers entrepreneurship, productivity, careers, and how professionals can figure out what they're passionate about. Her website is www.lizfunk.com