Guns are the talk of the town

[ungawa]

Almost all my encounters in public have been positive with mostly support and sometimes supportive curiosity. Only a few neutral, the couple negative ones weren’t very bad. I’ve had an interesting week and decided to report a few encounters. Please note I did not carry in a Post Office, of course. I have paraphrased/truncated conversations.

POST OFFICE
Went to Post office this week to mail a package. Came back the next day for a certified letter.

Postal: “You’re becoming a regular. I remember you mailed a package yesterday to, um, Advanced Arms?”
Me: “um…Advantage Arms, yes.”
Postal: “What do they specialize in?”
Me: “Slides that you can put on your handgun to shoot .22s.”
Postal: “Yeah, I got one of those from Ceiner some years back. With the price of ammo nowadays, that’s a good thing.”

Us: Gun talk
Me: Wondering why a postal employee would need more than one box of ammo

The rest of the stories are from today.

BARBER
Barber, Man1 in chair, Man1’s 9-year old Kid waiting.

Enter Ungawa. Kid spots my sidearm as soon as I walk through the door. Sit next to him with him on support side.

Enter Man2 two, sits next to Kid on support side. Kid is not afraid, and not rude, but seems a little curious and excited, checking me out a bit. Not the slightest bit apprehensive.

Man1 exits chair and sits to my strong side at 45° (adjacent corner), Kid takes chair.

Man1: “[inaudible] …you’re carrying.”
Me: “Yeah, it’s a Glock 19.”
Man1: “No, I meant that you are carrying. Why are you carrying, are you a cop?”
Me: *Laugh* “No, oh NO, why, did you do something wrong?” *laugh*
Man1: “No, I asked because you are carrying, I’ve never seen that before.”
Me: “Sorta the same reason I have a smoke alarm in my house the last 20 years. Never done me any good except sucking down 40 batteries. But I still keep it. Unfortunately, more likely I will need this.”
Man1: [I think he said] "That makes sense, I've just never seen anybody carrying before."
Barber: “A lot of people carry guns in here. I got 75-year olds carrying guns. You know what it is now? Women. They open their purses and show me guns. They used to carry that, what is it, Mace? Now they carry guns. If you want to protect yourself, you have to carry a gun.”
Man2: “I carry. Pennsylvania is an ‘Open Carry state.’ I didn’t know that until a few weeks ago.
Man1: “I’ve just never seen anybody carrying before.”
Me: “about 1 out of 16 people in Pennsylvania over the age of 21 are licensed to carry. That’s a lot of people.”
All: “No shit! Cool!”

Exit Man1 and Kid.

Us: Gun talk, and introductions with Man2.

SMALL SHOP
Go there about once a week. Guy I’ve seen for the past year, who is a little shy, looks at my gun and says,

Guy: “I just bought a gun the other day.”
Me: “Really? That’s cool! What did you get?”
Guy: “It’s just a 9mm, umm… I think.”

Uh-oh. Houston, we have a problem. He’s shy, I’m not going to run him through the wringer at this moment.

Me: “Cool, be safe, bro. Good luck with it!”

I’m going to talk to him in a few days and give him a flyer, and invite him to the range. I think this guy was not a gun guy and worked up the guts to buy one from seeing me carry over the past year. I’m going to take him under my wing if possible.

DRUG STORE
Get out of my car and prepare to cross parking lot. Soccer Mom drives by and slows down and waves, with a long heartfelt (not viginafelt) smile. Could have been nothing, but I’m putting this down to Glock Goodness. It was definitely out of the ordinary.

[MischaBurns]

SMALL SHOP
Go there about once a week. Guy I’ve seen for the past year, who is a little shy, looks at my gun and says,

Guy: “I just bought a gun the other day.”
Me: “Really? That’s cool! What did you get?”
Guy: “It’s just a 9mm, umm… I think.”

Uh-oh. Houston, we have a problem. He’s shy, I’m not going to run him through the wringer at this moment.

Me: “Cool, be safe, bro. Good luck with it!”

I’m going to talk to him in a few days and give him a flyer, and invite him to the range. I think this guy was not a gun guy and worked up the guts to buy one from seeing me carry over the past year. I’m going to take him under my wing if possible.

DRUG STORE
Get out of my car and prepare to cross parking lot. Soccer Mom drives by and slows down and waves, with a long heartfelt (not viginafelt) smile. Could have been nothing, but I’m putting this down to Glock Goodness. It was definitely out of the ordinary.

1) Good man. you gotta get that guy out and about!

2) bet she had a gun in her purse

[Guns4Fun]

My only comments.

Get the soccer moms number and take her shooting. The heck with the shy guy . I mean you know she was checking out your ass if she saw the gun right .

[ROCK-IT3]

Nice casual encounters.

I had one the other day. I was walking near the local park when I saw an old friend of mine attending a birthday party at a pavilion there. I only see him every few years now, but he was in my wedding back in the day. I go over and talk to him, and as we are talking, a woman from the party approaches us to pet my doggie. As she is bent over petting her, she stands up and says to no one in particular "you have a gun", then says to my buddy "he has a gun". He tells her "there's nothing wrong with that". She replies "Oh, I know, I just wanted to make sure he knows it's there" We all laughed and I said "I know it, it didn't get there all by itself." Actually I missed a good opportunity to scream "OMG, get it off of me, get it off of me"

All in all, just a good, lighthearted encounter.

[Scrumpyjack]

She was hoping you'd pop your Glock out. I'd say it was a good week.

[Scrumpyjack]

Just don't be this guy....

[SteveinNEPA]

Great post, and great encounters. All should be this way and I hope taking the guy from the small shop under your wing works out, sounds like he needs a little guidance from someone who knows. However, this has to be the greatest part of the story, your wording had me laughing man.

Soccer Mom drives by and slows down and waves, with a long heartfelt (not viginafelt) smile. Could have been nothing, but I’m putting this down to Glock Goodness. It was definitely out of the ordinary.

[ungawa]

I like two "i's" in "vigina," my tongue has a hard time the the letter "a." Especially with repetition

[Connal]

Sounds like a good time over all. Definitely get the new guy started down the right path. Better he have someone helping him down the road, than taking a wrong turn somewhere.

[blankexistance]

Nice to hear of the good encounters. Always a plus when people are open-minded and learning. Awesome about trying to get that guy under your wing!