Well done sir. People without guns should remember that if they are working in the yard, they would normally have some long-handled edged tools nearby. A good sharp spade or a lawn edging tool would be fine, but best of all would be a petrol chainsaw or brush-cutter.

Neighbor across the street came running, screaming bloody murder, towards my yard. I was in my front yard doing yard work. Ashe got closer, it was obvious that he was bleeding profusely from both of his forearms.

I suspected right away that I was looking at defensive wounds and started looking for the guy who’d stabbed him. I shouted for my wife to go get my 357 and bring it out, while I took my shirt off and used it to staunch the blood flow.

Neighbor told me his brother was on a meth bender, had come over demanding money, he’d told him no, and brother had stabbed him.

Shortly after, brother came outside with the knife in his hand, shouting incoherently about the money he thought his brother had taken from him.

I held my 357 up and told him that if he came across the street I’d shoot him, told him to stay over there, and waited for the police to show.

EMTs were a block away but wouldn’t come until the police got there. So we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

My wife said 23 minutes of me, standing by the curb line with my pistol in hand, brother sitting on the grass behind me bleeding, and the meth head pacing back and foth like a caged feral, seething with rage and obviously trying to decide whether he should just come on over or not. I thought for 23 minutes that at any second he’d lunge at me across the street, and I had it sorted that I’d wait until he hit the property line and then drop him.

The police finally showed up. They were remarkably cool about me having a gun, i honestly figured they’d freak the fuck out and hold me at gunpoint and cuff me and everything, but they were totally non-plussed, didn’t even ask me to put it down. They got brother to drop the knife and surrender, and the situation was done.

I’m positive, with every ounce of certainty, that if I hadn’t had that pistol that day, that I’d have ended up in a fist fight with a guy who had a chef knife, and god only knows where that would have ended up.