Thoughts on this sutuation

[10Seconds]

For right now let's discuss this as a hypothetical.

Person A is crossing the street. Person B is approaching in a truck. Person B nearly strikes person A who is still in the crosswalk. Person A yells at person B to "slow down and watch where they're going". Person B slams on the brakes to the truck, jumps out and says "you got a problem with me, mother fu(#er?"

Person A, who has been concealed carrying decides he would rather be open carry and raises his sweater to behing his gun which he was carrying. Person B gets back in truck and decides to leave. No gun was touched during this scenario.

Is there any problem with person A's actions? Discuss.

 

[SMS]

Problem? Yes, I think so. Person A purposefully and intentionally displayed a firearm, whether in a holster or not, during a completely avoidable verbal, non-life threatening confrontation....that meets my personal definition of brandishing and I think it is irresponsible.

While Person B needs to learn how to drive. Person A, if he choses to go about the world armed, needs to learn to keep his mouth shut and not instigate confrontations and then attempt to use the display of a deadly weapon to get him out of a situation that he created.

 

[Sam Shoun]

I agree with SMS, but take it even farther. Any person so concerned with self-preservation as to carry a firearm should be concerned enough not to put himself in the path of a moving vehicle. Right of way or not, the assumption that drivers will see him and yield is a foolish one.

While person B obviously acted poorly on many fronts, this hypothetical situation is all kinds of avoidable for person A.

 

[10Seconds]

Problem? Yes, I think so. Person A purposefully and intentionally displayed a firearm, whether in a holster or not, during a completely avoidable verbal, non-life threatening confrontation....that meets my personal definition of brandishing and I think it is irresponsible.

This is what I am wondering about too. I dont know that I would consider it to meet the legal description of brandishing, especially since it was never touched. And since OC is now law, purposefully and intentionally displaying a firearm is also legal.

I tend to think that both A and B could have behaved better - B needs to learn to pay attention when driving, and also not be hot headed enough to jump out of a vehicle on someone who yells at them; A should realize that yelling at someone driving by is also not likely to help the situation, what did he expect, an apology?

But person B definitely escalated the situation by getting out of his truck. A pretty dumb move in our world today, not knowing if the other guy out there is a nutjob or not.

Or if the scenario was different, say B jumps out with a baseball bat, things could become even worse.

 

[Glocktogo]

I agree with SMS, but take it even farther. Any person so concerned with self-preservation as to carry a firearm should be concerned enough not to put himself in the path of a moving vehicle. Right of way or not, the assumption that drivers will see him and yield is a foolish one.

While person B obviously acted poorly on many fronts, this hypothetical situation is all kinds of avoidable for person A.

Agree 100%. You can be in the right and still dead. Compounding one foolish mistake with another is a bad idea.

 

[SMS]

And since OC is now law, purposefully and intentionally displaying a firearm is also legal.

Certainly you can see the difference between openly carrying a firearm, and revealing or displaying a previously unseen firearm in the middle of a confrontation. Not the same, at all. At least in my book. It could easily be painted as an aggressive and escalating action that is much deadlier than getting out of a vehicle.

The armed citizen has the burden of avoiding confrontation....everything that happens after yelling at a passing truck was/is completely avoidable if the armed citizen had just kept walking...or copied the license plate number and called the police.

 

[10Seconds]

Certainly you can see the difference between openly carrying a firearm, and revealing or displaying a previously unseen firearm in the middle of a confrontation. Not the same, at all. At least in my book. It could easily be painted as an aggressive and escalating action that is much deadlier than getting out of a vehicle.

The armed citizen has the burden of avoiding confrontation....everything that happens after yelling at a passing truck was/is completely avoidable if the armed citizen had just kept walking...or copied the license plate number and called the police.

Yes I do, was just hoping that more people might comment to convince a certain hypothetical person who might happen to read this. A technically legal action may not always be the best action.

I think you posted a good Response. What if person B getting out of the truck sees the revealing of the gun but interprets it as person A going for his gun? Now B might draw and fire his, and has a decent self defense claim too, especially if A ends up dead.

This scenario does make me currious about someone going from CC to OC. It could create some interesting issues.

 

[Jam Master Jay]

If a person gets out of their truck in that situation a reasonable person may assume it is for the purpose of doing the other person harm. In that situation displaying the firearm may cause the aggressor to change his mind and leave which would prevent a legally justified but unfortunate shooting.

 

[SMS]

If a person gets out of their truck in that situation a reasonable person may assume it is for the purpose of doing the other person harm. In that situation displaying the firearm may cause the aggressor to change his mind and leave which would prevent a legally justified but unfortunate shooting.

No. That's not what a concealed firearm is for. Someone getting out of a truck is not a threat of deadly force or even serious bodily harm. There are plenty of other options one can use without injecting the threat of deadly force (that's what you are doing by flashing a gun)...like walking away.

 

[spd67]

Oh yes there is a problem...by the act of lifting the shirt there is an implied threat that you are going to use the firearm on the other person. It does not matter what your intent was it only matters what the perceived intent of the "victim" would be. So person A could be put in jail in this hypothetical for Assault or threats to do bodily harm.