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In 1996 my father passed leaving me a 12ga shotgun his father had given him and a small .22 cal pistol he had bought for himself. The 12ga I hadn't fired since I took gun safety training at age 12 and the pistol I had fired once when I was 10 and took it out while my parents weren't home and blew GI Joe to plastic bits in the back yard. Prior to that I also had an air rifle my father gave me when I was about 9. Shortly after gun safety training my brother in law took me to a gun range where I had the chance to shoot a couple revolvers, a Glock and an AK 47. I had a lot of fun but didn't really develop in interest in guns.
Two months later my daughter was born and my fiance and I moved from MN to Phoenix, Az for a variety of reasons but mostly just to get away from some of the family pressures we had starting our family. We found a nice apartment nust outside Scottsdale and I was working as an auto tech in Scottsdale.
July 1997 one of my neighbors was having a really loud party on a sunday night. At 2am I politely asked him if he could turn it down a bit and he responded by telling me to go f**k myself. Of course I called police and for reasons unknown, at least one of them was arrested, including my neighbor. He got out of jail about 3 days later and I woke up to find my tires slashed. The next time I say him he threatened to kill me. A cuple of days later he showed up at my work, baseball bat in hand and I knew these weren't idol threats. Thankfully as an auto tech I had better toys and more people but I knew this wouldn't always be the case. I tried to get an order for protection but was told it would be unenforceable until I moved since we lived in the same building. I had never thought about carrying a gun before but I took the .22 out of it's box and started carrying it. Two weeks after the whole ordeal started he showed up at my fiance's work, a daycare, as I dropped her off. He had 3 friends and all had bats or knives. With nowhere to go and them between me and my car and my family inside, I pulled out the .22 and without a @!$%# being fired they scattered. Police finally took some action and arrested him a couple hours later for agravated assaullt. With him gone for at least the time being, I put the gun back in it's box where it stayed. I moved back to MN about a year later.
Fast forward to 2007. I'm living on the very fringes of the Twin Cities suburbs in what is still predominantly a farming community. I am divorced and living with some friends on about 8 acres of land, a couple I had known for quite a few years who were into hunting and target shooting. I picked up a 9mm handgun just mainly for target and fun but had no interest in carrying a gun. No pissed off neighbors. I'm still working as an auto tech on a late shift and get off work at 1 am. As I am coming home I noticed I was being followed by an erratic driver, figuring he was drunk and lost I kept him in my rear view just in case he went off the road. I pulled into the driveway and he went passed, I had one more cigarette before going in the house.
As I finished my cigarette he appeared again, pulling into the driveway. He rolled down his window and shouted incoherently. I told him he was at the wrong house and I was calling police and as I headed inside, he attempted to follow. I was on the phone with police while fending off a very large, beligerent intoxicated drunk. Being in a rural area and served by a Sheriff's department, they were at least 20 minutes out. I fended him off and locked the door but he didn't leave. I grabbed my gun as I wen't to check the other doors in the house. The couple I lived with was still sleeping as were their kids upstairs. I got to the side door as he was trying to make his way in again and if he hadn't have bent over to pick up his keys he dropped he probably would have made it. I pulled my gun and ordered him to the ground and apparently just sober enough to realize he was screwed he did just that. This woke my roommates up who found some zip ties large enough to use as make shift flex cuffs. From begining to end the entire thing was less than 5 minutes, the Sherrif's deputies showed up after 20.
I think think my experiences were extraordinary. I think they could have happened to anyone. One could be threatened for any reason, anywhere, with or without provocation. With this in mind I made a personal decision to be better able to defend myself, did what was required to get a permit to carry. My life is now in a better place. I have my own place in a nice neighborhood, a beautiful daughter, and decent job. I wish to keep and protect what I have and the only one responsible for doing that is me.
