Story

**Jake8147** · December 26th, 2008, 08:25 PM

I'll do my best to make a long story short. I had the day off work recently, but had to go in briefly to clean up a few matters. As I exited my office, I made a swing through the office kitchen to find my boss and a couple of the ladies from work having lunch. My boss is an avid hunter and owns quite a few firearms and at some point he made some reference to the President-elect and his hatred of firearms. There is one particularly liberal woman in the group, who happens to think the sun rises and sets in Obama's back yard and I half believe the boss was trying "to get me started". Now before you read this and think I blindly gave her both barrels, you should know that she feels this guy is THE ANSWER and is constantly moaning about how things are so unbalanced and life is so unfair to some. She buys into the whole redistribution of wealth thing and the whole nine yards. I was respectful, but she knew that I meant what I said. In response to his comment, which I don't even remember, she said:

She - "What is that supposed to mean?"
Me - "Barack Obama believes that there is no reason for anyone but the police to carry or even have access to firearms and that they are there to protect us. I carry a handgun because I find that cops are just too awkward to carry, especially if you get a hefty one!" (Everyone laughs).
She - "Well just so you're not like that woman at her kid's soccer game!"
Another woman at the table - "Yes, wasn't that ridiculous?"
Me - "I carry at all my son's soccer games because unfortunately criminals don't advertise their scheduled crimes and one needs to be prepared there as much as anywhere else. She had every right to carry there."
She - "Do you carry it out in the open like that?"
Me - "No, in those particular circumstances I choose to carry concealed, but I do carry openly at times."
She - "Well that's OK, I don't have a problem with that." (meaning concealed carry)
Me - "So what you're saying is that as long as you don't know about it, you have no problem with it, that somehow my sidearm is less dangerous to you because you haven't seen it."
She - "Yeah, I guess so." (as she giggles at her own cluelessness)
Me - "Then you don't have a problem with me stealing all of that money out of your purse over the last couple of months because you haven't noticed yet that it's missing." (Everyone laughs again). "You and the rest of this society need to seriously look into losing your irrational fear of inanimate objects made of plastic and metal! I own a whole cabinet full of guns and my son sleeps 20 feet from them, but they have yet to load themselves in the middle of the night and shoot us all!
She - "Well guns just scare me!"
Me - "If you want something to be scared of, try motor vehicles. I've been a career paramedic for 21 years and trust me I've seen far more innocent children killed by cars than by firearms. Most of these idiots you see have no business even owning a 2 ton automobile, much less operating it on a public roadway. If some soccer mom accidently gets on the wrong pedal while parking at the game, jumps the curb and runs over 7 or 8 kids, will you be crying for a ban on minivans or calling for federal lawsuits against Chrysler?"
She - "Oh, I agree with you about that, bad drivers scare me too!"
Me - "But you feel we should somehow target the responsible individual rather than the vehicles they're driving. All I'm saying is that my firearms are as valuable a tool to me as your precious automobile is to you and you wouldn't for a minute tolerate someone suggesting we should go back to horses because cars are killing our kids!"
She - "I understand, but she just didn't need to have that gun at that game around all those kids."
Me - "You're probably right, I guess there's no chance a disgruntled ex could show up at a soccer game to teach everyone a lesson for being cut out of his / her child's life. Really, what are the chances she would need a gun to defend her life and the lives or her children and others at a soccer game? I'll bet the chances are almost as slim as someone killing a bunch of kids at an Amish Schoolhouse, a college, or a mall!"

At this point the room fell pretty silent and I like to think it's because they all paused respectfully as "logic" walked in the door. The conversation trailed off from there, but I told her that she's entitled to her opinion and I appreciate that, but she has no business trampling my right to protect the lives of myself and my family and everyone else I care about in the process.

I should mention that as this happened I was carrying the XD-45 Compact concealed (Hume 715M IWB) with my T shirt over it. I suppose she kept control of her bladder because she didn't know it was there.

After I left I felt a little bad about maybe putting my boss in an awkward situation, although he sort of instigated the whole thing, so I sent him an email. I apologized for getting wound up, but reitterated that I'm very passionate about this particular subject matter. He replied that there was no problem and that he enjoyed the exchange. I replied to him:

"If I'm ever leaving the office late at night and see her being raped at gunpoint in the parking lot, to show that there are no hard feelings, I will "drill" the perpetrator as many times as I would if he were harming someone near and dear to me!" As expected, he thought that was big of me and he got a chuckle out of it.

I've always been rather quick-witted with this subject and could always hold my own in these discussions, but my time lurking and reading here has certainly helped out. Thank you to all of you for fighting for our rights. I do what I can, when I can, but sure appreciate that we have strength in numbers.