[–] 26812947? 0 points 7 points (+7|-0) ago 

They had already savagely tried to yank my 93 year old Grandfather off of the ditcher machine he was sitting on. They had tried to steal it and we caught them. Grandpa was reclaiming his property. They had cut a fence to obtain it off of Grandpa's property and we simply followed the tracks it left.

One of them was rushing toward me with his fists raised while another who had roughly tried to dislodge Grandpa from the machine was standing over him with fists raised threatening him and another one (who had the pistol in his pocket) was screaming threats. So yes, I raised the shotgun and pointed it directly at the one rushing me and told him to either stand down or get shot. His eyes bulged and he froze in place. Eventually the police came and talked them into surrendering the machine peacefully but made no arrests until about six months later when the DA issued a warrant for my arrest on felony weapon possession. I'm not a felon.

Here's where it got really strange. The attorney told me that our local DA didn't originate the charges. This happened in Yuba county so where did the charges come from? San Bernardino county. I've never lived there even once. The only people I knew from there was an x wife from 20 years before. Hmmm. She had married a former employee of the city manager. Hmmmm. During this time I had threatened to fire the public defender who refused to look into the facts of the case. Another public defender, ( a blonde haired lady who seemed more honest) stepped forward and begged me not to fire their office for conflict and offered to do as I asked. Why charges six months later? It made no sense. When the officers had arrived I surrendered my weapon. When it was resolved the officer who took my weapon gave it back with the ejected shells. WTF? Nothing made sense. When the woman defender had me in her office she promised to look into all the details of who started the charges. When she told me the charges had come out of San Bernardino it was a puzzle. Just before this happened my ex had been severely harassing my daughter for speaking to me on the phone and trying to leave her. They had moved to Georgia and my 17 year old daughter had enough of the verbal abuse. The ex lied to my daughter telling her I wasn't serious and would never help her. My daughter had just committed suicide. So, at the time I was very emotionally upset. The ex had called me up hours after the suicide and in a strange tone of voice wanted to know if I would be attending the funeral. Strange question in a strange voice but one I knew from past experience. She would be setting me up for something, I would be alone, far from family and friends and she knew it. Her husband was once again working for a city manager so had new political allies. Not good. I was never going to leave my state and come 2000 miles away where I knew no one.

I told the my public defender of my suspicions about the charges. Next morning she had been promoted to prosecutor in the next county. I threatened once more to fire the original public defender he walked away pissed off and then came back to tell me the case had been thrown out of court.

What ever was going on no one wanted in a court room with an unbiased private attorney. Oh, and get this, when I told them the officer had handed me back my weapon they changed the charges to felony ammo possession. Unreal. Yuba county is corrupt, the police are corrupt, and I believe our justice system is totally corrupt.

[–] 26813476? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Thx 4 sharing. Very interesting story. Unfortunately common authoritative behavior everywhere.

[–] 26818128? ago 

I've had now a total of three times in my life I had to aim a shotgun at someone who was either committing a crime or saying they would commit a crime. In this last case, no one said they were going to do anything, they were doing it at the moment. Assaulting Grandpa who was terrified but wanted his trencher and rushing me with fists raised while the other three were mocking and making vague threats.

Back in 1990 I working as a domestic in home care giver and some scumbag friend of the client came by, got some strange idea in his head and threatened to kill me. I leveled a shotgun at him and told him to get out. He seemed a bit off. The client asked me not to call the police because he was her "friend" and was on parole. Anyway, I'm pissed off, quit for the evening and left. Stopped off at a popular eatery and bar and went inside to enjoy a beer and calm down.

Fucker is already sitting there drinking. Hmmm, parole? What for? Should he be in a bar drinking? Next day I asked the client for some more details on the guy. I'd never seen him before and he just shows up talking trash and threatening. She admitted he had been in jail for raping a minor. Turns out, I knew who this minor was as she and her boyfriend had rented an apartment next to mine. Small world. She wasn't a minor anymore so it must have been a few years back. I did a bit more snooping and got the name of his parole officer and called the parole officer up and told him what had happened the day before. LOL. They tossed him right back in jail and I never saw him again. Turns out he wasn't supposed to be drinking either since that was part of his excuse for molesting the teenager. Imagine that, "It's not my fault your honor, she was coming on to me and I was drunk". Ok, no more drinking for you.

More recently I was on a job on the east coast sharing rent with a coworker. It was a short job but too long for a motel and we got a deal on the rent. Black area. About two months into the job a neighbor who I recognized was busting the door window in and trying to access the dead bolt with his arm through the window. I ran for my twelve gauge. Warned him I was armed. He's not stopping. Warned him I was chambering a round. He's not stopping. Warned him safety was off, I was aimed and going to "BLOW YOUR ARM OFF!!". He looked up, saw that huge barrel aimed right at his eyes and ran. What did he think? A white guy is going to stay in a black neighborhood and be unarmed? Silly jogger.

To this day my favorite all time weapon is a shot gun. Pump action is something I love as there's nothing quite like the sound of racking a shell into the receiver. It's just such a sexy sound and anyone with two functioning brain cells should recognize that and realize he's about to get a huge fucking crater in his body. I've used it on stray cats and Good Lord, it rips them in half when you have buckshot loaded.

[–] 26837499? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Thanks for the accounts. I once asked some people in the know what gun I should get if I could only afford one. That was their consensus. A shotgun, as it has a way a of being very convincing to the would be perp. Also can be used for hunting in a SHTF situation.

[–] 26848055? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Right. A Mossberg 500 M 12 gauge pump action with a combination shoulder/pistol grip stock and and an 18 inch barrel is my favorite. It's simple, easy to handle, and has that wonderful sound when a round is chambered. Imagine some perp trying to break your door down to gain entry. You rush up with your shotgun and give a shouted warning. Ahh, but they aren't impressed. You chamber a shell and they can hear it through the door. If not, when they get through that door and see that barrel pointed right at their face, they have always backed down from me.

For practice shooting it just handles so well. With the combination stock you can aim from the shoulder or for inside house defense you can hold it low and aim from the hip. That short barrel gives you much more room to maneuver indoors with the combination stock. Indoors I like to load it with birdshot. Less you think birdshot won't stop a man, wrong. At close range it will blow a huge nasty hole in a man's chest or ruin his face. He might live but it's doubtful. At 10 to 15 feet it will carve a hole right through a phone book or explode a gallon bottle of water. Price wise, it's very affordable.