A Reddit user said one of the moments that permanently settled the argument about whether carrying was “necessary” happened years earlier in downtown Los Angeles. According to his comment in the thread, he and his then-girlfriend entered an underground parking access tunnel on Los Angeles Street, southwest of Aliso, across from the Federal Building. As they walked in, four scruffy-looking men noticed them and started following them into the tunnel.
He wrote that his girlfriend was a native Spanish speaker. As the four men closed in behind them, she asked him in a shaky voice whether he had his pistol with him. Then she told him why she was asking. She said the men behind them were discussing, in Spanish, a plan to attack them, bash his head in, rob them, and assault her. He added that he did not think the men realized how well their whispers carried in that concrete tunnel.
He said the group kept getting closer. The tunnel was enclosed enough that the sound carried, and the space itself did not leave much room for pretending this was some harmless misunderstanding. According to the post, the four men had closed the gap down to around 15 to 20 feet. The Reddit user said he moved to a covered position where the tunnel made a right turn. That gave him a little bit of structure between himself and the men and put him in a place where he could stop retreating and face them.
Once there, he turned toward them and put his hand on the pistol inside his jacket. He said it was an unusual Beretta with a tip-up barrel, carried hammer down. In his telling, the men may have actually heard him cock it. Whether they saw the movement, heard the gun, or simply realized from his posture that the attack was about to become a shootout, the effect was immediate. He wrote that the four men stopped, looked at each other for about two seconds, laughed, and then turned around and left.
He was very clear about what he believed was happening in that moment. He said he was sure they could tell he had decided to start shooting if they moved forward. There was no claim that the men apologized, acted confused, or tried to bluff it out. They stopped, read the situation, and backed off. The encounter ended there without him needing to fire.
He added one last detail that gives the story a clean ending. After that, he said, his girlfriend never teased him about carrying again.
What do you think — if your girlfriend whispered that the men closing in behind you were openly discussing robbing you, beating you, and raping her, would you have waited until they got within 15 feet too, or acted even sooner?
Original Reddit post: Been carrying for years now, just got in another huge fight wife my wife about it.
