All she wanted to do this afternoon was settle down in a window seat at the sandwich shop and read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s latest book. She needed a break from Wollstonecraft, because if she were to read another FemLit book this week, she would have to write a newspaper editorial just to get it all out of her system.
The noise of the store door slamming open stunned her in the middle of deciding between olives or green peppers for her sub sandwich, and for a moment, her mind could not make sense of the shouted words.
“Nobody move!”
Moving was impossible anyway. Her muscles had frozen in place when she caught sight of the gun, a huge lump of black metal much like the massive pistol her father had showed her at the gun shop.
As the young man continued to shout and wave his gun around, some small portion of her frightened mind could not help but draw a contrast between the oppressed minority children who had always been portrayed in her college classes against the muscular young man with the shiny gold chain and wide, dark eyes. Her paralyzed terror broke as he grabbed her purse and backhanded her when she did not give it up fast enough.
“Down, bitch! Everybody, put your wallets in here! Now! Move it!”
He jabbed the open purse at the other customers waiting in line, but swung his gun to point at the terrified cashier. She was the daughter of the owner, and always had a pleasant smile when tipped, but she was completely immobile now, frozen while staring at the gun and the man holding it.
“Gimmie the fucking cash in the register or I’ll blow your brains out!”
The sharp tang of metal and blood filled her mouth. This was not the way it was supposed to go. She had given up her purse. He was supposed to go away now, not kill the poor cashier for not moving fast enough.
Her right hand fumbled down to her beltline as she hooked her fingernails under the flap of what looked like a fat cell phone holder or music player attached to her belt. With a snap, the Sneaky Pete holster flap gave way and practiced muscles in her hand dipped inside. It was warm from her body heat and seemed so small compared to the huge pistol in his hand, but days worth of practice and boxes of ammunition had given her the muscle memory which still remained even though her mind was unable to form a coherent thought.
She brought it up and clenched it in a two-handed grip the way her father had trained her.
The first shot was a surprise to the both of them. He did not seem to be hit as he turned ever so slowly, gun in hand. Her eyes were still locked on his huge pistol as the finger of her right hand moved again, first forward, then back. All she could think of was the people at the firing range calling her little revolver tiny and weak, with the scattered holes across the target almost never inside the rings.
But he was much closer.
A red splotch blossomed on his chest with the next shot, even though it did not seem to slow him down. It had only taken one bullet to kill any number of people on television or movies, and she could remember the protests of her teachers about trigger-happy cops or vigilantes filling the corpses of their victims full of bullet holes.
The next two shots blurred together as he finished his turn, stumbling and starting to fall with the deadly black pistol falling out of his hand. She lowered her aim as he dropped and fired again, the last shot passing through his side and blowing a hole in the floor as he landed in a welter of blood.
In the resulting silence, mixed with the screams of the other customers, she could hear a clicking noise which only stopped when she finally quit pulling the trigger. The stunning explosions of gunfire still rang in her ears and the stench of burnt gunpowder made her cough, but she watched as the body of the man she had just killed stopped moving.
He breathed out his last breath in a bubbling froth and just lay there as she sucked in her first breath in what seemed like forever.
I just wanted a sandwich.
I just wanted…
I just…
Link to the Writeoff page for this story and associated comments. I had originally wanted to name this Finally Alone With My Cats: A Third-Wave Feminist Looks Back on Her Courageous Struggle Against Heteropatriarchy, but I was afraid most of my readers would not get it, and more afraid that some would
Winston Churchill said, “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” I tried my best to start out as normal as I could so the shock of the robbery would be greater. As before, a liberal political point of view does not preclude a person from taking a practical stand when it comes to protecting their own life or the lives of their loved ones. The number of women at our gun range is almost at parity with men, because God made man, but Sam Colt made them equal (bad paraphrase, but you get what I’m saying)
Sometimes, the sheer density of guns in Kansas is a little overwhelming for the anti-gun crowd, particularly in Lawrence (KU). Considering that every rural high school in the state nearly becomes depopulated during the first days of deer/quail/pheasant season, and that the most popular woodworking project in our high school shop is still custom walnut stocks for hunting rifles/shotguns, guns are a normal thing to grow up around. Four or five guns in a household is not an armory, but a good starter on a normal collection. Even back in the ‘80s when I went to college, there were several people who I knew carried concealed on campus. Illegal, yes. Practical when walking through a dark campus on the way back to the dorms, certainly. Still going on today, absolutely. Kept very quiet by the people who are doing it, certainly.
Something to consider when writing about guns what happens to the bullets after they’re fired. For you technogunnerds, Claire is carrying a little 9mm Ruger Lightweight Compact Revolver in a Sneaky Pete holster, but still, even with P+ hollow points, it beats the FBI standard for penetration of 12-15 inches. A non-center of mass shot will blow right through with enough energy to do serious damage to whatever is behind the target. Thankfully for the last round, it was the floor. And the perp. Now the *other* 2-3 shots that hit him were roughly center-of-mass, and if they do exit, they’re not going to kill anybody except in very bad-luck circumstances.
At 15 feet at the gun range, this pistol can turn out five inch groups. Since the robber just pistol-whipped the POV character, then turned his back to point his gun at the cash register attendant, he’s a lot closer BUT a few quick Google searches can give you several Cop/Perp shootouts at roughly the same range where *both* sides emptied their guns and did not lethally hit each other. Between adrenaline, distractions, jerking the shot, the New York mandated police 12 pound pull trigger, and just plain dumb luck, weird stuff happens in real life. Still, getting 3-4 shots out of 5 onto the target in that situation is pretty good, and better than a lot of police shootings.
Link to the Hickock45 review of the LCR9
However… simply carrying a gun without training is not an answer unless the question is “How can I wind up shooting myself or somebody else by accident?” A responsible gun owner is familiar with their weapons, does NOT treat them casually, follows the four rules of gun safety, and practices with them regularly, both dry-firing draws from the holster until it is routine and target shooting until you’ve spent about the cost of the gun in ammunition, and then a box or so a month to keep your skills up.
A quality gun safe is a must in any house with small (under 21) children. Please don’t store your guns like the elderly couple our 4-H group was doing estate auction assistance with (they had gone into a retirement home) and put them behind the refrigerator or loose under the bed. Thankfully, the 4-H kids were all from gun owning houses and knew the Eddie Eagle training put out by the NRA.
And now we’ve reached the legal section. Ain’t this fun.
Massad Ayoob states it best when he explains, “Deadly force is justified only when undertaken to prevent imminent and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to the innocent.”
US gun laws are a patchwork mess. In roughly 20 states, what Claire did is perfectly legal. She used lethal force on a violent criminal who was in the act of committing a crime to prevent somebody else from getting shot. In Texas, for example, the police will most probably nod and comment about her shot placement, and that she should consider getting a larger carry weapon. In some other states, her actions are problematical, as she was not being *directly* threatened at the time of her first shot. In some of those states, she might be charged, possibly even convicted of manslaughter if she gets an aggressive district attorney, a bad lawyer, and a gullible jury.
In a few very select states (New Jersey, for example), she would wind up in court and prosecuted. If she was really smart and got a lawyer before talking to the police, she might get out of it with a warning or probation, but the perp’s family will promptly sue, and might even win since they only need ⅔ of the jury to vote in their favor, and a long string of wailing relatives detailing the poor child’s recent conversion to the priesthood and impending sainthood will certainly line up at the witness stand.
If you’re in *any* state, after identifying yourself to the police by producing identification and complying with their orders to turn over the weapon (probably not in that order), you should promptly demand to speak with your lawyer, and not to speak with the police until the lawyer shows up (and not then either.)
In short, try not to shoot anybody unless you have to. And if you do, get your lawyer immediately and shut up.
Extra Credit: Identify four gun laws that Claire most probably violated during the incident that could send her to jail. Extra points for pointing out which states make the actions legal or illegal.
For a quick start on those extra points, shooting somebody who is going to shoot somebody else (not you) is one such legal/illegal action. In all states, it’s different for police officers in such a case, as they have the authority that the populi do not, but some states extend that protection over the citizenry too.
Good story.
Points for pointing out lib b.s. in colleges.
Extra points for linking Hickock45.
For the extra credits, I dont see anything wrong with her actions. Nanny states, NY NJ CA and a lot of the New England area would hang her for daring to protect herself/others. They'd rather the police show up to do the chalk outlines.
Maybe the last shot? IF he was facing away could lead to ambitious DAs making life difficult for her. Otherwise, I didn't get the impression that there was anything other than a wall behind the target.
And till he down he's still a threat.
Castle Doctrine wouldn't apply, I don't believe the 'Stand your ground' laws would either, since there may not be anyway to leave. And I didn't get the impression that she broke the law by packing heat. So I guess no extra credit for me.
If I saw this on the news I'd vote 'good shoot'.
Real life isn't the same as tv (as you've shown) people *will* react differently from said tv or even each other. It all depends on the person and what (if any) training they've had.
7508560 "And I didn't get the impression that she broke the law by packing heat." Considering that New Jersey has recently been in the news for putting a concealed carry licence holder (a black lady with two kids from another state) in jail and a corrections officer (i.e.law enforcement officer) with a CC permit in jail, both for just happening to drive though Jersey, and recently put an older gentleman through legal hell just for having some oddly shaped pieces of lead (lead balls for a musket) and a nonfunctional shotgun shell, New Jersey is a good state to stay away from if you have anything that might go bang, regardless of what paper you have in your wallet.
I am reminded of that immortal line in Support Your Local Gunfighter when he was facing a hired killer:
Jud: You hit that fellow from behind!
Latigo: Just as hard as I could.
7508770
Meanwhile places like Chicago seem to have the streets run red on the weekends. And now and then you read about some lady with a restraining order getting killed, waiting for the local police to issue her a carry permit. Unless you're either rich or powerful. Then you can do/get whatever the hell you want.
I'm happy living in one of the free states. Its not perfect, but it beats hell out of hoping either a cop is driving past, or you're facing someone who will give you a 5 minute head start with the cell phone. Its a jacked up world we live in.
Thats the best way to do it.
That and local Sheriff were epic movies! Jack Elam is awesome!
Real life can be stranger than fiction. Only with pizza.
Before I'd followed your link describing the weapon, I'd thought you were talking about some weak little .22, but a 9mm loaded with hollow-point is another story entirely. She was pretty well armed for concealed-carry. Traumatic situations mess with your head. She might need to talk with a friend about it.
My mind keeps tossing up what might happen if the locals start rioting over her justifiable shooting... Don't go there, brain!
7505864
Having lived two-thirds of my life in Texas, I can say that most people I know would say he had it coming or something along that line. There would be some praise for her for stepping up to protect the people around her.