A Kansas City gamer is lucky he's not dead after fending off a pistol-packin' moron who wanted his copy of Modern Warfare 3.

This is a story of two gamers, each of whom really wanted a copy of Modern Warfare 3, and the different ways they went about getting it. First up is Adam Freeman, who picked up his preordered copy of the game at a midnight launch event at GameStop, went back to his car and drove home like a normal person. And then there's David Morales, who also went to GameStop for the midnight launch, saw the stupidly huge lineup and decided to opt for a DIY express checkout instead.

Morales followed Freeman back to his apartment, using his red Ford Explorer to block him in when Freeman pulled into his parking spot. As Freeman got out of his car, Morales approached him and "racked a round" in his gun, shouting, "Give me the game!" in what we can only imagine was his best Steven Baldwin impression.

"Forget you!" Freeman replied - something along that line, anyway.

At that point, Morales "racked another round" for some reason, causing the first bullet to eject and fall to the ground. Perhaps Freeman saw that as his opening, or maybe he just decided that Morales was an idiot; whatever the case, he grabbed the gun by the barrel, they struggled for a bit, and then Morales ran back to his SUV and drove away. Freeman went to his apartment and called 911.

And that should be where this sad, sordid and silly tale ends, but it's not. After talking to Freeman, police went to the GameStop location where the big adventure began to see if the store had any surveillance footage that might have captured Morales' face. What they found was even better: a red Ford Explorer in the parking lot and a man matching Morales' description standing in line, waiting to buy the game. He was arrested and eventually copped to the attempted robbery.

As for Freeman, he said he reacted to the situation instinctively and acknowledged that it probably wasn't the smartest move to make. "If I had more time to think about it, I probably would have just given him the game," he said. "It's a wonderful game, but it's not worth dying over."

Source: The Kansas City Star, via HonestGamers