Knife vs Handgun... What would you do???

[jjasonbbo1]

Gonna just give you the highlited version instead of the hour saga that got to this point....
Went fishing last night with 2 of my kids to go fish at a friends dock that is covered up in crappie.... We pull up in the boat and there is a guy and his kid(maybe 10 years old boy) sittin there fishing... We were a little bummed out but its ok.. Big area plenty of fish.. We anchor up (a good ways away from them) and start fishing... We catch a few and the guy was just bad mouthin his kid and cussin like a sailor.. I mean M-Effin his kid and all kinda good stuff.. So we politely ask the guy to please not cuss with my kids around and for that matter me when its like that.. Boy that did it... This poor drunk redneck went off tellin us how he owns this dock and blah blah (and he doesn't the owner is a friend of the family) starts cussin us pretty bad then... Well my dad is a little bit of a hot head when it comes to crazy people like this so when the man told my dad he could (Kiss his Hiney) My dad said.. ok... lets go.... so here we go pullin up the anchor to go over there because as far as we know this dude us tresspassing on our buddies dock too.. While we are headin over there with all the profanities going on and my dad just telling him to stop cussin and all will be well the poor little crazy man pulls out his 9" blade fillet knife and proceeds to tells us that "I am gonna have to cut somebody tonight"... So at this point I unholster and hold my side arm in plain site not aimed in any threatning way while he is waving his blade all over the place (at this point there is only about 10' in between us and him)... once we got close and he saw me pull the gun out it was strange how he immediately stopped with the knife waving and proceeded to put it in its case and lay it down.... and was yes siring my dad pretty quick....

I do fully realize that my dad probly shouldn't have pulled anchor and went over but once the "terroristic threats" started was I right or wrong in being prepared?? If that crazy drunk had tried to jump in the boat with us then what??? What if I didn't have a firearm for protection(even though he was a skinny guy I coulda sit on him and killed him.. lol)??? I guess I am just looking for thoughts on it from all sides...
My kids were like that guy is nuts he coulda got killed or hurt us or his kid even my kids saw the danger.... I felt so bad for the little boy.. I probly should have called the police and got dfacs on it with him wavin a knife around drunk like that... There was nothing safe about that man..

And for the folks that will ask how do i know he was drunk... I watched him drink several beer while we were there and you could smell it on his breath and his speech was slurred and he was staggering...

 

[Burdy]

Kenny Rogers is one bad S.O.B. I would have just let him disarm the guy with the knife.

 

[fattboyzz]

the idiot dad goes for a swim while me an his kid laff our but off standing on the dock hi-fiving each other !!

 

[sirduke]

What was the final outcome??? LEOs ? Can o Whoopass ?

 

[howl]

Its probably best you did not call to cops. Brandishing a firearm is illegal in GA. You should not pull the pistol unless you are going to use it.

I would have left and let the owner of the dock know what happened.

 

[Ballplayer]

I'd have done the same thing (brandishing) right or wrong. Someone pulls a knife to use on my dad, he's gonna see something I have ! A small person can kill you as fast as anyone and I take all threats seriously.

 

[CCW]

I'm not sure jjason actually "brandished". Technically speaking, "Brandishing" is when you point or aim your weapon at someone.

CODE OF GEORGIA
16-11-102 : Pointing or aiming gun or pistol at another: A person is guilty of a misdemeanor when he intentionally and without legal justification points or aims a gun or pistol at another, whether the gun or pistol is loaded or unloaded.

Jason, I have to say though that un-holstering your pistol over this could have possibly gotten you a misdemeanor charge and loss of your GWL or worse, it could have cost you, your kids and your fathers lives if he pulled out a gun also. I think it was very irresponsible to say the least. As a GWL holder (and I assume you are), I would expect you to hold a higher standard in such a conflict and ONLY pull the weapon if you intend to squeeze the trigger.

Not to mention aggressively approaching a drunk man with intent to harm. He actually had more right to initially retrieve a weapon than you did if the truth be known. There is a fine line between good/bad judgment and trying to get a point across and I have to say Jason I think you erred on the side of bad judgment in this instance, especially since you had your children with you. More importantly I think I would have a talk with my father (since you mentioned he was the hot headed one ) if he was going to be out with me.

Just my take. Hopefully you are not offended, but I view these issues as very serious. Sometimes, they can mean life and sometimes they can mean loss of life. You should have pulled anchor and left. Gladly nobody got injured or killed.

 

[Patronus]

I essentially agree with CCW. You had every right to call the police to deal with him and as long as he did nothing aggressive towards you or even his son you were justified to observe until the police arrived. You had no legal grounds to approach him however. your father initiated contact and then you approached agressively. That put you in the wrong. He was in no position to harm you or your family from his boat. I've read the section on brandishing but I can't find it to cite it so I won't, but if you had pointed your gun at him you would have been guilty of a misdemeanor as cited by CCW.

Clearly the drunk was an idiot and in the wrong for his behavior. But you, as a licensed weapon carrier MUST maintain a higher level of responsibilty. You have a responsibility to yourself, your family, and to all of us who also carry legally. We are fighting every day to keep the right and we all have to show by our superior responsibility that the right we enjoy and the burden that comes with it are in good hands. We have to always be better than the idiots. Hard as that can be at times. lol

Take it from another hothead...it ain't easy

and sorry if I sound like im ranting. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[TBurnham]

Man this is a tough one, you cant say to pull anchor and leave, remember he was in the boat with his dad. Soooo he was along for the ride, BUT with that being said IF things had gone wrong it would have been his dads fault. his dad approached the drunk, not the right thing. It was in my head right but when I started typing I kinda lost it. Hope what I did type makes sense and maybe someone else can finish my thought.

 

[Ballplayer]

Even if the dads actions were wrong would you sit there and watch a foul mouth drunk "legally" defend himself by cutting up your dad ? Don't think so !