[henryher]

I read a lot about how you would defend yourself from an attacker(s). But what about when you are not alone. For instance I go out a lot with my wife. When ever I think of scenarios that could happen I always imagine my wife next to me. My sons are all grown and hardly ever with me. Sometimes we have our grand babies with us also.

So what do you do? Do you push your wife and kids behind you? Do you have a plan worked out with your wife and family on what to do in case they see a group of guys are a guy come toward you and they are aware of the danger? Do they know what to do? Where to go? How to handle it in case the bullets begin to fly?

My wife is not comfortable with me carrying a gun. She sees it more as a danger to ourselves if I have to use it. She always asks me why I am carrying my gun with me. I tried to tell her recently that if she sees that we are being accosted or approached by some suspicious characters that I want her to make her way inconspicuously behind me. She got mad and walked away, she said to stop trying to involve her in my paranoia.

 

[NkmG19]

Henryher it is very important that you and your wife come to some kind of understanding about how to react if something ever goes wrong when you and her are out. I can only imaging how hard it is to try to convince a loved one that you are not paranoid or crazy for wanting to be safe and have the means to protect your family. Your going to have to pull out all the stops and tricks in the book to get her on board with you. It's important.

I envision myself putting my kids or my lady behind me while I face the thread head on. It might not be easy to get away from a situation when your with someone else than by yourself. My lady and I have developed a kind of six sense when we are out together. We can both spot potential situations at the same time and react before it gets bad. I think this is due to her wanting to not be defenseless against an attacker. Although she does not have a CWL, I bought her a Glock26 for her car and for when I'm not home.

Good luck with your wife and hopefully she will come around to your point of view about safety and guns.

 

[OrlandoDriver]

When i First started to show an interest in guns was after seeing the crime rate going up.My wife also thought i was being paranoid when i first started carrying around the house,Thn she started watching the news with me noticing how many home invasions were taking place the amount of car jackings women getting attacked as they were either jogging or just walking thier dogs then it hit her one day.She decided to goto the range with me but as she heard the sound of guns goin off she froze so i let her be she had to shake that off her self and build the nerve to go again,then after awhile she decided to go again simply frustrated by all the stuff she was reading and seeing on the news,and i must say her first time out she was a natural i had my cousin teach her and she followed all his instruction on range safety and as i said she was a natural she now has her license and carries everywhere she goes she checks her surroundings stays alert she carrys a 38 snubby.Last monday i took her to the range she fired my PT111 9mm and my 24/7pro 9mm she was still hitting dead center i also rented a 1911 man i felt like a proud dad she handlethat puppy like a champ,Tonite i noticed that she got her 38 and sat down to watch TV mine always on my side but i noticed she lace it by her side so i looked at her asked her feeling paranoid? lol her response are you kidding its holloween you know how man knucleheads running around with masks looking to catch people off guard? All i can say is give your wife some time don't change what you have been doing she will come around,Good Luck.

 

[Red Dawg]

My wife knows I carry all the time now. But, she forgets and only remembers when she comes over for a hug or she brushes up against my right side. The rest of my family does not know either. Every now and then my son wants to frisk me to check. Being an avid hunter, they know that I don't have a problem with pulling the trigger. I have not had the conversation with them a to what to do in case we are approached/accosted. I guess now is as good a time as any to formulate a plan.

 

[deadeyedick]

My wife would pull out her pistol too and check six. :thumsup

 

[henryher]

Thanks, I appreciate the imput. I sometimes think I should just step in front of her to put my body between her and danger. But then I think that maybe if I am drawing my gun it may cause the attacker to point in her direction. I have thought of both scenarios. One is where I step in front of her but then I think that would make the attacker if he is carrying a gun to aim in her direction. If I step away from her and the attacker is carrying a gun it will draw his attention to me and away from her. what do you fellas think?

I wish my wife would be like yours deadeyedick but she fired my gun once several years ago and said she didn't like it. She hasn't touched it since. She is NYC born and raised and comes from a very anti gun family. Not a single person in that family has a firearm, not parents, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, no one. They all think I am some kind of crazy, paranoid, old man for having guns in the house. And only my wife knows I carry since I got my CWFL. They all carry their extra money for the muggers in a dedicated pocket in the hopes the creatin will only take the money and not harm them. Makes me sick.

 

[mortpes]

You draw the fire by moving away from them. And you advance on the threat.

 

[artemis]

May I ask what caliber of gun you got her to shoot the first time? It may have been to powerful for her if it was her first time.
There are a couple of websites and a blog written from a woman's perspective that might help her to understand if she is willing to read them. corneredcat.com, aware.org and limatunes range diary.

 

[flccnp]

Thanks, I appreciate the imput. I sometimes think I should just step in front of her to put my body between her and danger. But then I think that maybe if I am drawing my gun it may cause the attacker to point in her direction. I have thought of both scenarios. One is where I step in front of her but then I think that would make the attacker if he is carrying a gun to aim in her direction. If I step away from her and the attacker is carrying a gun it will draw his attention to me and away from her. what do you fellas think?

There are too many possible situations for you to try to pre-plan everything. It could be safer for her to be behind you. It could be better for you to move away from her. It could be better for you to push her behind cover or down to the ground. It could be better to tell her to run somewhere.

I could only suggest you keep running various scenarios through your head whenever you are with her. Before you go through a door you can't see through, decide what you will do if a bad guy is right behind or a few feet away from it. When you walk through a mall parking garage, think of what you would do if a bad guy steps out from behind that truck on the right or is hiding behind that Mazda on the left.

Keep your brain working in other words.

 

[Japle]

My wife always walks on my left.
I carry bags or whatever in my left hand. Just a continuation of the old military habit, so you can salute.
She understands that, if the fun starts, I'll become a bullet magnet and she's to get the hell away from me and behind cover.

 

[Maharaja]

The BG would have to look down the barrel of my glock AND my g/f's glock

 

[RWBShooter]

Me and the Mrs.

My wife has her license already, although once mine gets here I'll be more likely to be carrying. (She doesn't carry often, though I'm trying to change that. I'll carry everywhere/everytime I can.) We've never discussed it explicitly, how we'd handle various scenarios. We should. Fortunately, she's very alert out in public. She doesn't see all the details I usually notice but she's got an uncanny sixth sense for the big picture, a BG radar of sorts.

We do need to sit down and talk about what we'd do "if/when" before the "if/when" becomes "now." I'm likely to push her aside/down or toward cover and step away to my right as I draw and fire. (Unless she's armed, of course. If she's carrying I'm not going to impede her ability to draw and fire.) Other than that, I've not given it enough thought.

-Str8Shooter

 

[henryher]

My son was here for a visit from Iraq. Unfortunately he leaves tomorrow again. He wanted to shoot my SW 9VE 40 cal. He asked his mom to make the targets for us. She copied some targets I had at home and we set them up. We shot for a while and he did something I could not do for years. He got his mom to shoot the gun with him. She shot the 40 cal and I brought out my pocket Beretta 25 and she shot both. I was hoping she would continue but she said that the vibration from the 40 cal was hurting her hand and she left. She broke her left wrist when young and has always had problems with that hand. She also had a carple tunnel operation last year on both hands and they have been tender since then.

I took the opportunity to talk with her and my son about carrying. I told her that if I ever have to draw my gun when we are out she is to get away from me as quickly as possible. She asked if I was afraid to shoot her by mistake. I explained that by drawing I would be making myself the target for the assailant and did not want her in the line of fire. She looked at me funny and asked what would happen to me then. I said hopefully nothing but the idea is that nothing happen to you. She teared up and hugged me. She said the thought of me making myself a target to save her never crossed her mind. That night I was looking at guns on line. She asked me what I was doing and I told her that I needed a better carry weapon but the bills come first. She said if I had told her she would have gotten it for me last month for our anniversary. Of course I would not have let her since we need the money for bills. But that my friends is a major step forward with her.

 

[NkmG19]

My son was here for a visit from Iraq. Unfortunately he leaves tomorrow again. He wanted to shoot my SW 9VE 40 cal. He asked his mom to make the targets for us. She copied some targets I had at home and we set them up. We shot for a while and he did something I could not do for years. He got his mom to shoot the gun with him. She shot the 40 cal and I brought out my pocket Beretta 25 and she shot both. I was hoping she would continue but she said that the vibration from the 40 cal was hurting her hand and she left. She broke her left wrist when young and has always had problems with that hand. She also had a carple tunnel operation last year on both hands and they have been tender since then.

I took the opportunity to talk with her and my son about carrying. I told her that if I ever have to draw my gun when we are out she is to get away from me as quickly as possible. She asked if I was afraid to shoot her by mistake. I explained that by drawing I would be making myself the target for the assailant and did not want her in the line of fire. She looked at me funny and asked what would happen to me then. I said hopefully nothing but the idea is that nothing happen to you. She teared up and hugged me. She said the thought of me making myself a target to save her never crossed her mind. That night I was looking at guns on line. She asked me what I was doing and I told her that I needed a better carry weapon but the bills come first. She said if I had told her she would have gotten it for me last month for our anniversary. Of course I would not have let her since we need the money for bills. But that my friends is a major step forward with her.

The Family that Shoots together Stays together. :thumsup

 

[SuperTrkrE2812]

Henryher

Please tell your son THANK YOU before he leaves again for the sacrifice he is making to keep me and my family safe in this country.

:drinks :drinks

He has my undying gratitude.

 

[aharley1]

Tell your Son, "Thank you for your service" for me.

 

[Sheepdog27]

I dont have a plan as of yet, my wife knows I carry, and while she is not 100% for it, she is definitely not against it.

I explained my reasoning for carrying a concealed weapon to her like I explain it to anyone. I carry a firearm for the same reason you have a fire extingisher in the house. You never hope for a fire, but if you have one, you can put it out. I never hope for a gun fight, but with a firearm, I can try to put it out and survive.

I would likely do what others have said, move away from them drawing fire towards me, and getting them out of the way.

:drinks

 

[deadeyedick]

If I was with my wife and we were attacked my some miscreant, I would run away screaming "Take her, just don't hurt me!"

 

[Obiwan]

I've taught my wife to dive for cover. I even test her at times - example: When eating a Johnny Rocket's burger, just as her hands are juicy - I'll say "Bad guys coming in the door NOW - what will you do............... and see what happens (note - not a live test. I just want her to think it through. By the way - that's why I don't get my hands greasy/juicy in a restaurant). istols