The Forrest Scenario

Down in Greer, South Carolina, a robber killed a homeowner, but the homeowner took the robber with him:

Police now say that the shooting deaths of two people in Greer came during a robbery attempt.

Police said Tuesday that 62-year-old Douglas J. Burgess Jr. died in a shootout with a woman who was trying to rob him.

Police said Burgess answered his door Monday morning and found a woman asking for money. Investigators say when Burgess refused, the woman pulled a gun and so did he.

Each of them fired once.

Thirty-four-year-old Tamika Yvette Weatherspoon of Greer died during surgery at Greenville Memorial Hospital.

I'll call this an example of the Forrest Scenario, or No Damn Man Kills Me and Lives! It's named after Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most remarkable soldiers on either side during the Civil War. Forrest started the war as a private soldier, and when the war was over he was a Lieutenant General. He was both recklessly brave and a natural tactician of near-genius. His record was marred by a virulent racism that saw him involved in a massacre of black soldiers during the war, and by his role as a leader in the Ku Klux Klan after the war.

The Forrest Scenario happened after some Union raiders captured some of Forrest's artillery pieces. Forrest laid the blame on a young Lieutenant, Andrew Wills Gould. Forrest and Gould subsequently met to discuss the matter, and the discussion turned into a violent argument, during which Gould shot Forrest in the abdomen. Forrest, thinking he had received a death wound, stabbed Gould to death with a pen knife which he opened with his teeth, his other hand busy fending off Gould's gun. Forrest is reputed to have yelled No damned man kills me and lives! (some historical accounts can be found here.) Gould subsequently died of the stab wound Forrest inflicted; Forrest, to his amazement, found that Gould's bullet had missed his vitals and, glancing off of his hip bone, lodged in muscle tissue, and after a brief recovery Forrest was back on duty.

So. When you carry a gun the ideal situation is to never need it; or, if you need it, to be able to end the confrontation without firing it. Sometimes, though, you're forced to fire it to save your own life. Worse still is to fire it in the Forrest Scenario, as a last great act of defiance and vengeance, taking your attacker with you. Worst of all, of course, is to be an unarmed victim, at your attacker's mercy, to be done with at his/her whim: violated, stripped of dignity and bodily integrity, the death of a slave or captured animal.

I ran a poll on an occasion, asking how many of you had the Forrest Scenario in the back of your mind when you acquired your CCW license and your every day carry firearm, and I got a lot of answers in the affirmative.

Yeah. You may get me, those of you who prey on your fellow humans, but by God, I'll do the best I can to take you with me. That's the real meaning of the Gadsden Flag's message of Don't Tread On Me! You may get me, but I'll try and return the favor.