Good for you. I found the CCW course I took a couple of years ago to be very interesting and entertaining. A little story for those people who are on the fence about getting theirs... Back in 2011 I wanted to get my concealed carry permit and to get a gun to carry with me. My wife was not happy about this idea as money was a little bit on the tight side. But I felt strongly about it and so she reluctantly agreed. I signed up to take a class with one of my good friends on a Saturday morning. That afternoon I mailed out all of my paperwork and began the wait for my permit. Even back then, there was quite a large push of people wanting to get their permits. So all in all, I waited about 2 months to get my permit. Once I had my permit, I went to Gunnison's in Salt Lake City (who treated me very well, by the way and gave me a great deal). I wound up buying an XD 40 and spent a little bit of time at the range learning the ins and outs of it. I was no stranger to firearms at this point, but practice on each of your guns is of utmost importance. Fast forward a few weeks. I was leaving work at about 5pm on my motorcycle. I have to turn right out of the parking lot and make a U-turn where the median breaks. I stopped for oncoming traffic. A few second later a woman pulled up behind me with a man in the passenger seat. After about 20 seconds of waiting, they honked at me as if I could turn. I shrugged it off and about 10 seconds later they honked at me for a solid 5 seconds straight. I turned, looked at them and put my hand up and shrugged my shoulders because there was nothing I could do about the traffic. The man then lost his temper and out of the car. I calmly set my kick stand and got of my bike. He started yelling at me for not turning and delaying him, for what, I don't know. In a bit of an irritable tone, I told him that there was oncoming traffic and I wasn't going to risk my well being to avoid inconveniencing him. After this he swung and punched me in the face. I was wearing a full face helmet with the visor up and his fist came through the front. Luckily, the helmet caught the sides and absorbed most of the impact. Obviously at this point I was pretty fired up because of the adrenaline. He started advancing on me by starting to come around the bike. I don't really know how to fight, so I didn't know what to do. I started to pull up my shirt to go for my hip and told him that if he didn't back off, something very bad was going to happen. I don't think he was really paying attention to what my hands were doing, but the woman in the car saw me and screamed at him to get back in the car. Luckily, he listened, insulted me and walked away. By this time, traffic had cleared, I got on my bike and drove away. The funniest part about it is that after all of that had gone down, I made my U-turn, looked at the woman and she had the audacity to flip me the bird. At any rate, I'm glad that the situation didn't escalate, more for my sake than his. I wasn't planning on firing my weapon, but brandishing is legal in Utah if it will diffuse such acts of violence. But I'm also happy that I had the means to defend myself. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I learned a valuable lesson that day. Both that you never know when you might need to defend yourself with that kind of force. But I also learned a lesson on deciding when it is a proper time to take things to such a level. I don't think that was the situation for such action.
