Road Rage, and the Need to ALWAYS CARRY YOUR GUN!

[MilitantBEEMER]

Being a Eugene resident I see this type if behavior daily. In fact I have seen the MB you referred to driving like a complete moron on belt line. Here are my thoughts:
- Never react to bad drivers, no horns, no gestures etc..
- Get a dash cam to always have a witness (remember this goes both ways)
- Never follow an aggressive drive
- Never lead to your home (three right turns is a good method to know if being followed)
I am glad all worked out for you and the daughter. In the future try not to react and definitely resist the temptation to follow. As a CWP carrier, we have an obligation to go above and beyond to avoid conflict. The last thing I want to do is end up in a SD shooting because my temper got the best of me.
Thank you for sharing. It is always a good thing to debrief on things like this and look for areas of improvement.

 

[Joe13]

I've told her all this stuff, but never thought she actually listened

Mines 20 and usually engrossed in her phone. I'm chatty when in my comfort areas so I'll often fill the silence with tidbits of information I often think is falling on deaf ears.

I'll be damned but more often then not she is listening and recording it and will pull it out when she needs it.

Great job on the way you handled the situation

 

[11Charlie]

I personally think that as gun owners we need to be very careful how we react with people on the road. The last thing I want or need is someone taking my ability to protect me and my loved ones.

There are some things that I would have done different but over all I think you did fine. The most impotant thing is that you and your daughter made it home safe.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

I personally think that as gun owners we need to be very careful how we react with people on the road. The last thing I want or need is someone taking my ability to protect me and my loved ones.

There are some things that I would have done different but over all I think you did fine. The most impotant thing is that you and your daughter made it home safe.

different like keepin it real and throwin in a dip and plowin them off the road with the 5.9?

kidding!

 

[Joe13]

I personally think that as gun owners we need to be very careful how we react with people on the road. The last thing I want or need is someone taking my ability to protect me and my loved ones.

There are some things that I would have done different but over all I think you did fine. The most impotant thing is that you and your daughter made it home safe.

Good point. I'll honk or tell someone they are #1 (in an extreme situation but not normally) if I am not carrying for some reason.

When I carry I am way mellower and do everything I can not too antagonize or instigate trouble.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

for those who know me, im not the instigator type. usually i'll just let people pass and go about my day. dont let the small sh!t ruin yer day. now, if someone deliberately is trying to piss me off, its gonna take a lot but we all have that tolerance threshold thou shall not cross.

one time this punk@$$ kid with long dreads and a pot leaf sweatshirt was taking a picture of my license plate after i ran back into the convenient store to snag a bag of ice after i had already loaded my son into his car seat like i had abandoned him out in the car. ya i said somethin to him and he kept his mouth shut as he ran back to his moms car.

 

[Aero Denezol]

Wow, and here I thought Eugene was full of "peace, love, and tolerance" hipsters that had compassion and a bong in every house?!

Peace and love is only one narrow aspect of Eugene. Marijuana is everywhere in Oregon. People should know Eugene has a lot of white drugs, second only to Portland. The underbelly of that town is much more dangerous than people might think. I lived there for five years and I enjoy going back for games, but I never assume I'm in a safe place. I've seen too many people get their teeth kicked in, with no cops to be seen, anywhere.

When you are carrying a firearm you have as stone cold obligation to de-escalate any volatile situation.

This is an excellent post. That's the right approach... Still, something has to be done to discourage this type of behavior on the road. I don't know what the solution is. But I know I am far more likely to die on the road than in a shooting.

LOL I drive dump truck on average about 200 to 300 miles a day in the Salem area. Everyday I have people cut me off, pull right out in front of me, or try to drift into my steps. I rate their lack of driving skills and either use my conventional horn, Air horn, Or air horn conventional horn and middle finger. Its totally amazing how down right stupid people are and how unsafe their driving is. We have recently had to completely change our transfer route through Salem in an attempt to avoid changing lanes when going from Easy Salem to West Salem because people on the top of the Marion street Bridge were driving in such a way as to make an accident very likely.

Mark, you have my sympathy. I also commute on Highway 22 every day, and I cannot believe how selfish, narcissistic, and self-absorbed people are on the road. After a string of fatalities, I notice there's been an uptick in patrols, the problem is the cops are only catching speeders. Commuters know where the cops sit. I would like to see unmarked cop cars out there looking for hostile/reckless driving.

 

[DunRanull]

crap like this happens a lot around the Denver metro(sexual) area and I know of guns being pulled and aho's being shot dead. I have to bite my finger sometimes when I really RILLY want to tell someone how I rate their motor vehicle operating skills. Unfortunately the Old Woman operates with not a second thought about cussing and flipping off other drivers.. but she's a Floridian (Ft Lauderdale) and I guess it's more or less expected there. In Colorado we have traditionally had courtesy, helpfulness, and careful drivers... Sometimes that can mean the difference between life and death when people get caught out on the highways by terrible ice storms and blizzards when towns are miles and miles apart across the prairie or deserts... BT,DT,GTTS

 

[11Charlie]

different like keepin it real and throwin in a dip and plowin them off the road with the 5.9?

kidding!

I have to admit that tail gaters will get a nice big break check if I am in the wrong mood!


And not carrying for some reason.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

I have to admit that tail gaters will get a nice big break check if I am in the wrong mood!


And not carrying for some reason.

i have seen first hand what happens when a 3/4ton dodge hits a small car.

dodge: 1(won)
car: "f-d" (technical term)

dodge drives away with small scratch

 

[mkwerx]

BTDT with road ragers. Had a clown in heavy traffic forcing his way in after driving up the shoulder. I used my horn as Henry Ford intended as a warning device because the guy was about to hit us. Had wife #1 and step kid in the car on the side about to get plowed into. The guy freaks out and sped up ahead of us then throws his truck into reverse and sped backward at us. Mind you this is dyring rush hour traffic on the on ramp from Hwy 10 to 217 - lots of witnesses. We had no room to maneuver. Guy almost hit us coming back. At this point I figure he's nuts and is intenting to cause harm. I was young and new to carrying a firearm at the time - so the gun was not on my person but in the glove box. I removed it and set it on the dash for him to see - not pounting it at him but I was trying to make him see things were going to get potentially worse for him. It worked that time - guy saw the gun and took off like a rocket weaving in and out of cars to get away. We did not have a phone with us - this was early 2000's so they were not widespread as they are today - so we took the first off ramp, found a cop and made a report in person.

Looking back there are things I would change and things I would not. We learn from the situations we live through - hopefully anyway.

As for dispatch saying don't follow...that is not true. I have made numerous calls over the years on drunks or crazy reckless drivers. Every time dispatch has asked me to follow at a safe distance if I felt safe to do so. Makes directing police toward the offender a lot easier. They always throw in the caveat not to speed, run stop lights etc and maintain a safe distance. Rarely does prividing a plate and general direction lead to the cops finding the guy. But I would say that 80+% of those I followed at a distance got stopped. I have had to provide witness statements either in person or by phone to officers after the fact but not yet had to appear in court.

I would say you did more right than wrong. I bet you will learn from the situation and it will shape how you handle the next one because sadly, there are so many road ragers you are almost guaranteed a next one.

 

[CLT65]

Like most everyone else here, I've seen my share of road rage over the years. I've come to the conclusion that a good 10% of drivers out there have absolutely no business with a driver's license.

It's so easy to get angry when another driver does something crazy. It's almost impossible to resist the impulse to at least honk when some idiot endangers you and your family. I had an incident a couple months ago, also in the Eugene area, of some dirtbag who darn near ran us off the road, on I5 in busy traffic! My offense? I didn't pull back and make room for him as he was weaving in and out of traffic, so he just strarted coming over into my lane. I immediately pulled back and let the bastige go, but you're darn right I honked at him!

Biting my tongue and swallowing my pride, I should have just backed off when I first saw him coming. The safety of my family is paramount. Remember, confronting a crazy person is incredibly dangerous. Your safety if almost certainly more important to you than theirs is to them, and in a game of chicken they are going to win every time. You're not going to teach them a lesson. I like the dash cam idea and have been thinking about getting one. Just let them go and stay out of their way.

One last thing I can't help but say: I despise aggressive drivers. The roads and highways aren't a playground, and cars aren't toys. My family is out on those roads, and it's life and death. If you're one of those with the "need for speed" and constantly have to drive 20 over, weave in and out or pass on the right because you can't wait half a second for someone to get over; please reconsider the error of your ways and slow down a little.

If not, may you be blessed with many traffic tickets, may you be the only casualty when you cause a wreck, and when you do something reckless out there may there be an officer close by to haul you off in handcuffs.

 

[Aero Denezol]

One last thing I can't help but say: I despise aggressive drivers. The roads and highways aren't a playground, and cars aren't toys. My family is out on those roads, and it's life and death. If you're one of those with the "need for speed" and constantly have to drive 20 over, weave in and out or pass on the right because you can't wait half a second for someone to get over; please reconsider the error of your ways and slow down a little.

Very well said.

 

[CLT65]

BTW, good on the OP for posting the idiot's license plate number. I wanted my wife to take a photo or get the number of the jerk who almost wrecked us, but she was too shook up from seeing a car flying towards her window in our lane at 65mph.

 

[Joe13]

People in west WA and OR take a horn (even a polite beep) as an act of aggression or like they just saw you flip them off. They need to get out of their safety bubble and get with the rest of the country where horns are used daily.

 

[Argonaut]

I have owned truck companies or trucks since 1980 and usually drive 50-100K a year in some sort of vehicle. Driving a heavy truck changes your prospective, you learn patients (or should) the worst is when some idiot driver pulls into your safety zone while you weigh 80,000 lbs going down a steep grade........super frustrating. The driver has no idea what danger he has put himself in. So you do the best you can. I feel the connection between guns and road rage is a very dangerous one. We have had some recient incidents here in (Boise) where people were killed with guns from road rage issues so, one person is dead and one will spend his life in prison. No winners there. To me, a vehicle is more powerful than any gun that doesn't have an explosive projectile. Using a gun is the absolutely last resort. It should not be in your thought process until events have escalated much further. Those are the reasons (and rightfully so) many people oppose concealed carry, people can act differently when armed than a rational person normally would. I would not allow anyone to stop me in that kind of scenario, would have called the cops and possibly driven to a police station, stoped a cop on the road or even a scale house. At a stop light, I would allow an escape route like the police are trained to......everything defensive until and unless I am confronted by a close range assailent with a weapon. After you use a gun on someone your entire life will change, there is a very good chance you will loose everything defending yourself in lawsuits (even if you prevail) possibly loose your job from the publicity. I would much rather damage a fender on my vehicle making an escape than having to explain why I had to shoot someone. I have always been a large strong capable man. If some 120 lb woman points a gun at me and I shoot (or hit or anything else) her........guess who is going to take the heat.....not her.Shooting someone for being stupid is not justification but being stupid and getting run over might be.

 

[CLT65]

One last comment, that's probably not terribly relevant: I mentioned the incident I had to a friend who's lived in the Portland area for some time. He has friends in the Russian-American community.

He claimed that when you see someone driving super aggressive and crazy like that, odds are it's a Russian immigrant. He said he knows a lot of them that drive that way because it's how they grew up and how everyone drives where they're from, and they just can't understand why it offends people here.

I don't know if there's any truth to that or not, and no offense intended towards Russians, but it does help to understand the cultural and regional differences on the roads. In the rural area where I grew up people tended to more often be very laid back in their driving. If you drive like that in the city you will get run over.

 

[RVTECH]

Cuz they honked the horn at being a complete unsafe D bag? Who does that?

I'll tell ya who - it's the upscale thinking a-holes who think the sun rises and sets on them, everybody in their live is 'below' them and they make sure they keep it this way. They are arrogant and mean people who probably have some sort of 'position' in life and ensure EVERYBODY knows it. Their only friends are few but just like them. These are people who have ZERO regard for anybody and make that very clear when interacting with them. They are nothing more than entitled, spoiled wretched wastes of humanity who complain about everything in their lives and expect EVERYONE to do something about it. They are typically angry, unsettled, always on edge and impart this on everyone around them including becoming dangerous and never giving any thought to their actions. They are only friendly to people who they can 'use' for something in their lives with everyone else nothing but a 'Serf' or 'Page' to them. They give little but demand everything. And you know how I know all this? Because I meet people like this all the time in Bend! With any luck someday you will come upon a smoking pile of what was once a black Mercedes (owner trapped inside) in an accident but can still make out '560 JVA' on the license plate.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Seems a bit odd that the OPs driver was not in the Worlds best car, you know, The Ultimate Driving Machine
Those are the #1 choice of the upwardly mobile types just described above, and i find it ironic that our middle class azzhol was sportin a benz! Lol a better class of azzhole? Don' know! They all make the same sickening crunch when crushed by a much larger rig!
Dont follow, dont honk, dont act agressively, and stay safe!
When you drive an Arrest Me Red sport car from the late 60s, you stick out, and there is no hiding any thing, or you drive a Mustle Car with nice paint and wheels and the perfect attitude, there is no hiding any thing, you stand out! Road rage is going to happen, and when you have a supstancial in envestment tied up in your driving machines, ( not to mention your 2nd rights) you learn to drive a certain way! Add in that people are naturally curious to see such a fine and unique automobile, and your going to get a crowd at 75 mph!!!
Remember a piece of wisdom, you have to drive for all the idiots out there besides your self, and no one else knows how to drive, so plan on the worst and hope for the best!
People no longer take the art of drivi g seriously, its a inconvenience thay must be suffered to get where they want to go, and tbe faster they get there, the better. People have no idea the damage that theu can do woth a 4000 pount projectile at 65 mph, and theu have no idea how much suffering they will experience the rest of their lives after killing some one with stupidity, all because they were in a hurry to be ahead of every one else!

 

[Argonaut]

I have been thinking about this issue for several years. My wife has a very active Bay Area practice with her engineering firm (of one) we get down there every month or two to visit projects and clients along with our normal travels to other high population density areas. I have come to the conclusion that people in those environments are like an ant farm with too many ants. They become cannibalistic and insanity flourishes. It also is very difficult to make a living increasing the pressure to the point of craziness. We see it when we travel to Boise, (to a lesser extent) the Wasatch front is terrible, Denver, Portland and Seattle are all in the same boat. We are so relived to get Home to our small Idaho town that it really illustrates how good we have it.