My name is Candi. I am 29 years old. I have a story that is not typical. It is about how I defended myself with my concealed carry pistol. It was an extremely close call. I was really shook up after it happened. But let me start at the beginning.
I work for a restaurant supply company. The biggest part of my job requires that I go to restaurants all over the city to find out if they need certain supplies. I also interview owners and managers to find out if they like the brands that we are supplying or if they would like to change to other brands of supplies. It's a lot of customer support. My trips to these locations vary quite a bit throughout the day and the week. I always make an appointment in advance with them rather than just dropping in. That way I don't have to guess when they are there to have a meeting or possibly miss them. This schedule and the locations I end up going to made it easy for me to decide to carry a concealed pistol.
I bought a Glock 23, the .40 caliber version, as my concealed carry gun last year. After talking to my CC instructor I decided to get a .40 caliber because it is big enough to do some damage if I get attacked. I spent about 6 months getting to know it. That is, I took extensive training and practiced a lot before I got my concealed carry permit. I was serious about being able to protect myself if a situation occurred.
Dave, my instructor, told me that it would be in my best interest to get fully informed about the use of my pistol even before I went to the range to start live firing my pistol. I thought he was crazy. But he soon convinced me otherwise. He told me that any movements of grasping, drawing, sighting, and firing my pistol need to come from muscle memory. If I go to the range and start live firing my pistol I could develop some bad habits that I will retain in my muscle memory. After doing this it would be difficult if not impossible for me to get rid of these habits and replace them with ones that are correct. Bad habits could be stuff like improper grip, flinching before a shot, and an incorrect stance.
Before actually starting my training Dave said it would be a good idea for me to select the method that I will use to carry my concealed pistol. He explained that I would need to practice with my method of concealed carry in training to perfect all the actions that are involved. After his suggestion I looked for a perfect concealed carry purse. I found it at Pistol Packn Mama. They have purses and holster sizes to fit all the popular handguns that are used for self defense. My choice was the Raelynn Leather Crossbody Organizer. It was beautiful. Perfect size for my pistol. It had an over the shoulder strap, which I like very much. I could carry it cross body or over the shoulder comfortably. Plus it was stylish enough for me to take to appointments. I could carry my IPAD in the front pocket and have access to all my sales data. Only problem is that I had to sacrifice it, but I am getting one to replace it. How did I loose it? That's a story in itself.
It goes like this. I had booked an appointment with one of my best customers for noon on Friday. His place is over on the east side near the docks, not the best location for me. I called him at 11 AM to confirm and he said that he as going to have to push our appointment back because of loading problems that he was having. It looked like 5 PM would be the best for him if I could make it. After today he said he was going to be going overseas and would not be back for 6 weeks. So I figured that it was 5 PM or nothing. I told him I would be there. About 3 in the afternoon it started to rain. Pretty heavy, naturally. I got to the parking area at his office about 4:30 PM. I have to walk from the parking area down a truck lane between 2 warehouses to get to his office. It's about a city block and a half.
I had my purse slung over my shoulder and clutched up under my umbrella to keep it from getting wet. The rain was driving. I hoped that this meeting didn't go too long because I didn't want to walk back down this way after dark. I also hoped that if I did have to do it after dark that I would not have to use my pistol. But I was ready, if I did.
Meeting was great, I was glad that I came. Customer gave me 2 new orders that will fill my quota for this month. But it took a long time, we had several interruptions and the customer laid out a lot of products that he had not ordered before. Meeting was over at 8 PM. I was very excited when I finally left his office. I needed to get the paperwork back to my office before I could go home, so I walked very quickly. I had folded the paperwork and put it into a thick mailing pouch inside the pocket of my purse where I keep my IPAD to keep it dry.
Just for safety sake I opened the concealed carry compartment of my purse as I started to walk. I pulled my pistol out of it's holster inside the compartment, but kept the gun hidden inside. I gripped the pistol and pressed my purse up against me to keep it from getting wet. About half way to the parking area someone stepped out of the darkness to my left. His arm hit the handle of my umbrella as he tried to grab my purse. I blocked him away with my forearm and he slipped down on the wet pavement. Up he sprang and lunged at me from the front. It was a very bad day for him! I had my finger on the trigger in a split second. I shot him right in the chest and down he went.
For this one I did not try to pull the pistol. I shot right through my purse. I have had so much practice with the pistol that I was able to hit the target by just using my muscle memory. I didn't even have to think about it. It was totally a reflex shot. That .40 caliber lived up to its reputation. It gave the attacker a great whack! The attacker did not die, but he may have wished he had when he got hit by the bullet.
Neither me nor my paperwork were injured in the attack. All is well with me and I have already ordered another Raelynn Leather Crossbody Organizer/ to replace the sacrificed one. It pays to be ready!
