A tale of two car jackings, two very different outcomes...

[virginia mountainman]

In the first....

She had just gotten into her car and was about to close the door, when she said a man grabbed her door open and forced his way in. He pushed her to the passenger seat, pointing a gun at her.

"He took off out of the parking lot, and I screamed just let me out," she said. "He opened my passenger side door for me to get out, he didn't slow down. He hit me over the head with the gun and basically pushed me out."

The woman's arm got stuck in the seatbelt and said the man, accelerated to make her fall out. She rolled onto the pavement, breaking her wrist and hand, and got road rash all over her legs.

In the Second....

One victim, Audry Sauceda, fought back. She pulled her own gun when a man jumped in her car.

"He stuck a gun in my side and told me to get out of the car. And I pulled out my gun and stuck it in his face, and told him, he needed to get out. He screamed and jumped out of the car," Sauceda said.

She's taken self defense classes and kept her cool, watching the man's movements before she took action.

She's been robbed 6 times in 7 years and said she was tired of being a victim.

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/hillsborough/Police_seek_suspects_in_strin

[east texas lib]

1. Well...

Good thing the intended victim in the second example had her shiny metal peni...er, gun with her
at the time. Evidently hers was bigger than the carjackers.;-)

[AndyTiedye]

2. How Could He (Carjacker #2) Miss At That Range?

"He stuck a gun in my side and told me to get out of the car. And I pulled out my gun and stuck it in his face, and told him, he needed to get out. He screamed and jumped out of the car,"

I would have thought she would have acquired an enormous hole in her kidney as soon as the carjacker saw her pulling a gun out.
He had has gun poking into her side, and even the worst shot couldn't miss at that range.

[slackmaster]

5. I was taught in a self-defense class that most criminals haven't drilled or practiced very much

If you have a significant amount of range time and have practiced drawing and firing your weapon, you have a leg up even if they already have a gun in their hand.

[Tim01]

6. You are right.

If he had his gun in her side he could have shot her in the side. And she could have shot him in the face. A bit of a stale mate. And he was looking for an easy target, not a gun fight that starts with him getting shot in the face.
She has had enough and she rolled the dice. Fortune favors the bold.
Hopefully she will get a little more training now that she has come to the understanding that when the shit hits the fan she will not be the one giving up and begging for her life.So she needs the training.
She should have got the bad guys gun off her as she put her gun in his face.Her odds would be a bit better.
Still, she got out ok. Kudos to her.

[TheWraith]

7. Not really. The gun is a threat in that situation, not a weapon.

To a petty criminal, a carjacking is not worth shooting someone over. Particularly when you might then get shot yourself. Given the choice, most carjackers will retreat and seek an easier target.

[happyslug]

3. A Manual Transmission could have done almost as well.

Most people who are doing the Car Jacking do NOT know how to drive a Standard, even the Military has finally adopted automatics for their trucks stating in the 1980s (Tanks, in the US and its allies have been automatics since WWII, but even the US army used manual transmissions to this day, through most trucks purchased since the 1980s have been automatics).

Given this lack of use of manual transmissions in the US today, the best way to reduce the possibility of being car jacked is to have a manual transmission.

http://www.autoblog.com/2005/09/30/carjacking-thwarted-by-manual-transmission/

[pipoman]

4. Funny that..

we drive older cars. Our 4Runner has a console shift automatic. A few years ago the button in the top of the shifter popped out. I made due using a long allen wrench. It takes me a minute to get it into position if I take it out, and about 10 minutes the first time. We were going to replace the shifter but decided that the allen wrench is better theft deterrent than a Club and should we ever be car jacked, we will put the car into park, pop the allen wrench out and watch as the jacker goes nowhere.