In a recent video from Charlotte, North Carolina, we learn about a man who f***ed around and almost found out. Let’s first look at the video and then look at what we, as gun owners, can learn from it.

The cell phone video isn’t entirely clear, and it doesn’t show the full context, so it’s a good idea to watch the full newscast. What we end up learning is that one man honked at a guy who wasn’t going when the light turned green, and this resulted in several blocks of road rage. This culminated in what was shown on the video, with one man getting out and throwing water on the other man’s car. Then, someone ran to the other car and started hitting it with a stick. As he was getting back into his car, the other man shot a gun at him, hitting his car, but missing both him and his father who were inside.

The newscast briefly shows footage of the broken windshield, and it’s clear that the gunshot could have easily struck either of the men as it was likely intended to do. Some fragment of the bullet as it went through the windshield did hit his father’s face, narrowly missing his eye.

After seeing all of the consequences of his road rage, the man said, “I engaged instead of just letting it go, and it really ended with kind of something crazy.”

The man with the gun wasn’t found or arrested yet, and might not be unless someone had the presence of mind to catch a license plate or something.

What We Can Learn From This

First off, let’s look at what the man with the gun did wrong. Instead of accepting that he did something dumb by not driving when the light turned green, he instead chose to get angry and get a road rage incident going. Then, when it started to get out of hand, he pulled a gun and almost killed someone over his own bruised ego. He also managed to injure an innocent man in the other car.

Obviously, mistakes were made at every point, but it all comes down to ego. You don’t carry a gun to protect your pride. You carry a gun to protect innocent life. If you do something stupid (like we all do sometimes), be humble enough to accept that you made a mistake and leave it at that. That’s embarrassing, but it’s not nearly as bad as doing something that can land you in prison!

Going back to the perspective of the unarmed man who honked at the guy with the gun and ended up getting shot at in the end, his words were about right. Instead of engaging with the man who had a bruised ego, he really should have withdrawn from the situation. By the time insults and minor physical force was exchanged, he almost lost his life and his dad ended up with injuries to his face.

Again, a big ego was at play. Just because someone else makes a mistake and gets ugly when they’re corrected for it with a minor horn honk doesn’t mean you have to keep the exchange of nastiness going. One’s ego says to engage, while common sense says to withdraw. He also could have withdrawn early while still feeling like he did the right thing, which should be better for one’s ego.

Perhaps more importantly, be gentle when honking at somebody. I’ve found that a quick chirp of the horn or two is seen as a lot less aggressive than a long honk. The long honk might feel good to deliver to some moron with their head up their apps who doesn’t go when the light turns green, but it could enrage that same kind of idiot. A gentle “beep beep” wakes that kind of person up without saying to them, “Hey stupid! What the hell is wrong with you, you MORON!”

In short, either person could have prevented this violent dispute by resolving it early. It pays to be mentally and spiritually well enough to be the adult early and often in life instead of joining the clown show and regretting it later.