BY MASSAD AYOOB
Situation: You are surrounded by hidden, loaded handguns. Unfortunately, one of your kidnappers is holding a .357 Magnum to the base of your skull.
Lesson: Sometimes it’s best to lull your assailants off guard by complying and biding your time. Experience shooting under pressure will help when the targets are trying to shoot you.
May 15, 2015. In a suburb of Jackson, Miss., Larry Goldstein, MD, is in his open garage, loading his pickup truck. A successful gynecologist, his sleepless years in residency and dedication to his long-standing practice have rewarded him with a large, expensive home. Unfortunately, criminals are drawn to signs of money.
His personal sport for the last five years has been competitive shooting. He is on his way to a USPSA match. He has just put his gear bag in the back seat of the quad cab. In it are two CZ Shadow 9mm pistols, several magazines of 9mm, and enough ammo for the whole match. He hears a noise sounding like a squirrel on the eaves, and suddenly he is confronted by two strange men wearing bandannas over their faces.
The nearest, a broad-chested guy about 5′ 10″, shoves a long barreled stainless-steel revolver in his face. Larry makes it for a .357 Magnum. He can see the noses of the live cartridges in the front of the cylinder. The man snarls, “You know what this is?” Larry replies as calmly as he can, “It’s a gun.” Predictably, the next words from the man are, “We want your money!”
Larry’s gun safe is visible in the garage. The guy with the revolver spins him around, grabs him by the shirt, and forces him toward the safe with the gun’s muzzle at the back of his head. He orders him to open it. Larry’s shaky hands don’t get the combination right at first, and he tries to explain. “You’re lyin’! We’re gonna shoot you!” He finally manages to get the combination right. The intruders start grabbing stuff. There are at least two AR15s in the safe, including a .223, but the one they grab is a Smith & Wesson M&P chambered for .22 LR. They grab a handful of AR magazines and a few handguns and stuff them into a backpack.
They march him into the house, his hands behind his head and the revolver still at the nape of his neck. Larry does not have a gun on his person. He has earned black belts earlier in his life in Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do. He knows enough to realize a disarming attempt on one of the men will leave him vulnerable to the other. He bides his time. They walk through the bedroom, past Larry’s sleeping wife. He cannot find his billfold — it will later turn up in a pair of pants he was wearing the day before — and the robbers satisfy themselves by pulling all the money from his wife’s purse. Without waking Mrs. Goldstein, they march Larry out of the house. Their plan is to make him drive them to an ATM and empty his account.
At the pickup, the second man tries to load the AR15 and realizes he can’t fit a .223 magazine into a .22 LR. They make him get a magazine fitting the rifle. Both robbers get into the back seat, the revolver still aimed at the base of his skull, and order him to take them to the bank’s drive-up ATM.
Going Mobile
Dr. Goldstein experiences a “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink” moment. Like many armed citizens (and off-duty cops) he has presumed staging guns reasonably close in the home or vehicle will be adequate. In the console is a Walther PPK .380. In the driver’s door pocket of his pickup are a Ruger LCP .380 and a GLOCK 19. All are loaded.
He assesses his odds if he reaches for one as he drives. Both robbers are in the back seat, the smaller man (about 5' 7", 150 lbs.) has put a full magazine into the .22 caliber AR, and Larry has to presume him to be armed even though he hasn’t spotted a weapon of the suspect’s own yet.
The other, directly behind Larry in the rear passenger seat, has the decidedly loaded revolver he’s kept pointed at Larry’s head. The bandits have the case between them containing two CZ 9mms and mags and ammo. At the wheel, he can’t see them both at the same time in the rear-view mirror. If he conspicuously turns around to look at them, it will tip them off and put them on alert.
Either of them will be able to clearly see if he reaches for the Walther, so the console gun is out. He might be able to slip one of the pistols out of the door pocket with his non-dominant left hand but shooting backward over his shoulder will be awkward and difficult, and he’ll be unlikely to be able to neutralize both before one of them can kill him. The logical strategy still seems to be, “Bide your time.”
Situation: You are surrounded by hidden, loaded handguns. Unfortunately, one of your kidnappers is holding a .357 Magnum to the base of your skull.
Lesson: Sometimes it’s best to lull your assailants off guard by complying and biding your time. Experience shooting under pressure will help when the targets are trying to shoot you.
May 15, 2015. In a suburb of Jackson, Miss., Larry Goldstein, MD, is in his open garage, loading his pickup truck. A successful gynecologist, his sleepless years in residency and dedication to his long-standing practice have rewarded him with a large, expensive home. Unfortunately, criminals are drawn to signs of money.
His personal sport for the last five years has been competitive shooting. He is on his way to a USPSA match. He has just put his gear bag in the back seat of the quad cab. In it are two CZ Shadow 9mm pistols, several magazines of 9mm, and enough ammo for the whole match. He hears a noise sounding like a squirrel on the eaves, and suddenly he is confronted by two strange men wearing bandannas over their faces.
The nearest, a broad-chested guy about 5′ 10″, shoves a long barreled stainless-steel revolver in his face. Larry makes it for a .357 Magnum. He can see the noses of the live cartridges in the front of the cylinder. The man snarls, “You know what this is?” Larry replies as calmly as he can, “It’s a gun.” Predictably, the next words from the man are, “We want your money!”
Larry’s gun safe is visible in the garage. The guy with the revolver spins him around, grabs him by the shirt, and forces him toward the safe with the gun’s muzzle at the back of his head. He orders him to open it. Larry’s shaky hands don’t get the combination right at first, and he tries to explain. “You’re lyin’! We’re gonna shoot you!” He finally manages to get the combination right. The intruders start grabbing stuff. There are at least two AR15s in the safe, including a .223, but the one they grab is a Smith & Wesson M&P chambered for .22 LR. They grab a handful of AR magazines and a few handguns and stuff them into a backpack.
They march him into the house, his hands behind his head and the revolver still at the nape of his neck. Larry does not have a gun on his person. He has earned black belts earlier in his life in Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do. He knows enough to realize a disarming attempt on one of the men will leave him vulnerable to the other. He bides his time. They walk through the bedroom, past Larry’s sleeping wife. He cannot find his billfold — it will later turn up in a pair of pants he was wearing the day before — and the robbers satisfy themselves by pulling all the money from his wife’s purse. Without waking Mrs. Goldstein, they march Larry out of the house. Their plan is to make him drive them to an ATM and empty his account.
At the pickup, the second man tries to load the AR15 and realizes he can’t fit a .223 magazine into a .22 LR. They make him get a magazine fitting the rifle. Both robbers get into the back seat, the revolver still aimed at the base of his skull, and order him to take them to the bank’s drive-up ATM.
Going Mobile
Dr. Goldstein experiences a “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink” moment. Like many armed citizens (and off-duty cops) he has presumed staging guns reasonably close in the home or vehicle will be adequate. In the console is a Walther PPK .380. In the driver’s door pocket of his pickup are a Ruger LCP .380 and a GLOCK 19. All are loaded.
He assesses his odds if he reaches for one as he drives. Both robbers are in the back seat, the smaller man (about 5' 7", 150 lbs.) has put a full magazine into the .22 caliber AR, and Larry has to presume him to be armed even though he hasn’t spotted a weapon of the suspect’s own yet.
The other, directly behind Larry in the rear passenger seat, has the decidedly loaded revolver he’s kept pointed at Larry’s head. The bandits have the case between them containing two CZ 9mms and mags and ammo. At the wheel, he can’t see them both at the same time in the rear-view mirror. If he conspicuously turns around to look at them, it will tip them off and put them on alert.
Either of them will be able to clearly see if he reaches for the Walther, so the console gun is out. He might be able to slip one of the pistols out of the door pocket with his non-dominant left hand but shooting backward over his shoulder will be awkward and difficult, and he’ll be unlikely to be able to neutralize both before one of them can kill him. The logical strategy still seems to be, “Bide your time.”