Road Rage.

[scotty1]

Just walking back to work from lunch, I heard a car horn, looked up and saw a car swerving around another one on the road in front of me.

One car goes past, and then the following car goes past, but the driver of the car following (and apparently the one that was wronged but I didn't see it) was gesturing to the other lead car to pull over and shouting "****ing pull over! Pull over you mother****er!"

He was swerving all over the road and his face was quite literally contorted with rage and pressed up against the windscreen.

That bit of town is not a bit where you can just put you foot down, but quite small lanes and the lead car would have had to stop at some point.

My point here is that there are times when you may need to defend yourself but it wouldn't be appropriate to stab or shoot someone. This is mainly in response to people who say for self defense "buy a gun" or "hand to hand skills aren't relevant anymore". They are, at least in the UK.

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir here...

[Icewater]

I know what you mean. Two weeks ago on Sunday I was almost hit by a speeding truck. I was in the far right lane, and he swerved onto my front bumper trying to come around me onto a bridge from the right. He almost clipped the side of my car where my wife was sitting, and would have if I didn't jam the brakes. I gave him the instantaneous finger and a loud 'arsehole' as he looked into his sideview mirror to see the result of his shenanigans.

You would think this guy was in a hurry with his driving, but he managed to take the time to follow me into a Lowe's parking lot and get out of his truck. Well, I thought, here we go...

I think he decided against it when I got out of my car and he saw that I was significantly larger than he was. His pace slowed and he started explaining that some Mexicans wouldn't let him in so he had to "juice it" to get into the lane before the bridge. I let him finish, let him stare at me for a second, then watched him walk away, get into his truck and leave. I figured there was no use in telling him that hitting the gas instead of the brakes put me and my wife in danger.

I can't believe this guy would take the chance of following someone like that. I could have had a knife, gun, or at worse we could have both been hurt in an altercation (which I'm fairly sure would have gone my way).

But the lesson here is that I shouldn't have lost my temper and flipped the bird. Sometimes it's hard to control those emotions, but they can lead to trouble if not left in check.

[rubthebuddha]

such situations have little or no differences from any other. basic facts:
1. if your safety is threatened, you have cause to use the necessary amount of force to deal with the person. if someone follows you because you flipped them off, then picks a fight with you, **** them up. they had plenty of opportunity to continue on their way, but did not.
2. if you have a chance to simply get away, but make no effort to do so, it's your own fault, to. american law mostly looks at two things: fault and necessity. did you start the fight or were you defending yourself? and did you stick around to prove that you're macho, or did you just leave the ****wit behind somewhere? if you could have left, but chose not to, you can no longer truly claim self defense.

[scotty1]

Good points and a good story, cheers.