I sell things on craigslist often. I had a gun pulled on me recently during a deal. He was trying to rob me and was forcing me to disrobe. I managed to throw my shirt at him and rushed and managed to get the gun off him, but not before it went off. No one was hurt. Looking back, I made some dumb mistakes. A lot of things happened. I don't know. I was ok and was joking with the police and all afterwards, saying I was used to it, have fight experience, etc. Maybe because I've lived in a rough neighborhood and have people I know in a few of these kinds of situations, I was surprisingly calm about it afterwards. Or maybe I was just trying to cover up my own fear. I just tried to accept it all. I haven't told my family-only that I got into a fight. I asked the police not to tell my parents about the gun part-I'm still young and my whole family lives together. I just don't want them to worry. And the police agreed to respect my request.
I know the best thing to do is to obey the guy with the gun, but the thing was, it was an open-ish area. And he was close to me but not within reach. I just had to rely on my judgement. I did what he told me to. He was really high. I came early and it wasn't late, but I had driven a way away and he was taking his time and it started getting late. He just suddenly pulled the gun out. All of his words were something like, "Do this and that or I'll shoot you!" He always ended it with an "or I'll shoot you!" I saw the gun pointing towards me and I just kind of, I don't know, shut down my thinking. I just though of my parents and what they would think if I died, and I thought of the bag things I had done in my life and how wasn't good to my little sister that day. So I took out my wallet and stuff. And my shirt. I wasn't sure what to do. It was like my brain was running on auto and things were occurring to me. The kind of stuff experts say you should do in these situations. I heard that running in a zigzag helps but he was just too close to me. But if I went after him...It would take me a several steps to get to him and in that time, he could just shoot. But I kind of stepped towards him under the pretext of getting my key from the ground, as he told me to. And took my shirt and threw it and grabbed the gun and just tried to keep pushing him off balance so he couldn't get into position. He was stronger than me but I had more fight experience. I remember what Bruce Lee said; something to the effect that if someone has a knife then he can only think about the knife when he fights. But it doesn't matter how much experience you have if the other guy has a gun-if he shoots, you're dead! But we both were fighting for the gun now. There were some points in the fight where I had the gun pointing at me but I had to or else I would have lost control of it. Control was the most important thing, because losing control would mean getting shot for sure, vs maybe getting shot if I had it pointing at me. I remember screaming a lot. Except when I had to conserve my breath. I was going like "huh! huh!' like in that videogame, the Megaman X series. Where Zero slashes with his sword and he makes those noises. I eventually managed to trip him over some kind of side curb thing and into the bushes as I had tried, and I had control over him. I twisted the gun from him and stood up and stepped the hell away. Never was I so relieved. I prayed aloud and I told the guy that I would do nothing to him, and to follow me. He ran away. The police came rather quickly, and we went through the usual stuff. I had some scrapes and my new sneakers had a hole in the top. I keep wondering, what if I moved this way, what if I ran, what if...? What about other people that it happens to? Or will happen to? And whenever I think about the part when the gun is pointed at me and he's telling me to do this and that, my heart just races and gut clenches and I shove the thought out. But I'm ok. I'm just grateful and happy and relieved.
I know the best thing to do is to obey the guy with the gun, but the thing was, it was an open-ish area. And he was close to me but not within reach. I just had to rely on my judgement. I did what he told me to. He was really high. I came early and it wasn't late, but I had driven a way away and he was taking his time and it started getting late. He just suddenly pulled the gun out. All of his words were something like, "Do this and that or I'll shoot you!" He always ended it with an "or I'll shoot you!" I saw the gun pointing towards me and I just kind of, I don't know, shut down my thinking. I just though of my parents and what they would think if I died, and I thought of the bag things I had done in my life and how wasn't good to my little sister that day. So I took out my wallet and stuff. And my shirt. I wasn't sure what to do. It was like my brain was running on auto and things were occurring to me. The kind of stuff experts say you should do in these situations. I heard that running in a zigzag helps but he was just too close to me. But if I went after him...It would take me a several steps to get to him and in that time, he could just shoot. But I kind of stepped towards him under the pretext of getting my key from the ground, as he told me to. And took my shirt and threw it and grabbed the gun and just tried to keep pushing him off balance so he couldn't get into position. He was stronger than me but I had more fight experience. I remember what Bruce Lee said; something to the effect that if someone has a knife then he can only think about the knife when he fights. But it doesn't matter how much experience you have if the other guy has a gun-if he shoots, you're dead! But we both were fighting for the gun now. There were some points in the fight where I had the gun pointing at me but I had to or else I would have lost control of it. Control was the most important thing, because losing control would mean getting shot for sure, vs maybe getting shot if I had it pointing at me. I remember screaming a lot. Except when I had to conserve my breath. I was going like "huh! huh!' like in that videogame, the Megaman X series. Where Zero slashes with his sword and he makes those noises. I eventually managed to trip him over some kind of side curb thing and into the bushes as I had tried, and I had control over him. I twisted the gun from him and stood up and stepped the hell away. Never was I so relieved. I prayed aloud and I told the guy that I would do nothing to him, and to follow me. He ran away. The police came rather quickly, and we went through the usual stuff. I had some scrapes and my new sneakers had a hole in the top. I keep wondering, what if I moved this way, what if I ran, what if...? What about other people that it happens to? Or will happen to? And whenever I think about the part when the gun is pointed at me and he's telling me to do this and that, my heart just races and gut clenches and I shove the thought out. But I'm ok. I'm just grateful and happy and relieved.