You’ve probably had the scary experience of a shopper at a gun store or show pointing a gun in a direction that involves your own precious bodily fluids, right? Makes you want to slap that person.
Two days ago I caught a ride with some neighbors to a store in the town about 35 miles away, looking for some shinies to keep the new Taurus company. I call it the ATF Store because it’s not primarily a gun store; it sells alcohol, tobacco and firearms among a great many other things. So I walked in, traversed the drug store section, turned a corner at sporting goods, hung a left at the gun shop…and found myself looking down the barrel of a compact Sig .380 with a really fancy finish – that last part not being the first thing I noticed.
The odd part was that the wrongdoer was not a customer but the kid behind the counter, who should by all means have known better. I stopped and gave him a “daddy spank” look, praying the gun was unloaded inventory and not his carry piece.
He was appropriately chagrined, and politely said so.
Oh yes… my first gun show out here was pretty terrifying that way. I had just gone through a “refresher” type basic pistol class and was even more paranoid than usual about muzzle discipline, etc. All the guns being mishandled were display items, and the one person I actually complained to seemed shocked that I’d be worried about an “unloaded gun.” I told him in no uncertain terms that ALL GUNS are treated as LOADED, and Cooper didn’t ever say that gun shows were an exception to the rule about not pointing a gun at anything you weren’t willing to destroy…
And you can’t possibly have a “daddy spank” look that is more intimidating than the “mama spank” look I’ve used so successfully for most of 50 years. But this guy just shrugged and put the gun down. I thought about smacking him, but he was more than 6 feet tall and outweighed me considerably. I don’t think I could have reached his face…
Don’t go to the gun shows in the city anymore. We don’t have those problems at the small shows the clubs around here put on. And none of that would be tolerated in the one gun store I do visit whenever I’m in Rapid City, SD. Those folks are pros.
Oh, come on now, MamaLiberty. Don’t be so modest. You know very well you could have had him writhing on the floor, begging you to not touch him again. But you were just too dignified to do so. It’s amazing what a well-placed boot toe will do…
}:-]
I guess we have all had a firearms “oh shit” moment of one sort or another. Joel, ML you guys were a lot nicer than I have been in the past to the fools. I do not suffer fools gladly or well.
Like ML I don’t do the gun/hunting shows in the city any more. I find it easier and safer going to the smaller club sponsored ones. Just too many wing nuts at the big shows for my taste.
The last time I was at a gun show I was at a distributor’s desplay when an idiot had a rifle up and was looking at the world through the scope. As the idiot traversed the rifle past this big dude’s face, the big guy grabs the barrel and quickly shoves it back so the scope ring hits the idiot in the face leaving him with a red ring. The guy with the gun starts yelling at the big guy who simply replied “it’s rude to point a gun at someone you aren’t going to shoot.” The idiot starts talking about police and assault charges. The sales guy said to him “Call the cops. I will make sure to tell them how you were pointing the rifle and I will ask that you get charged with careless use of a firearm.” I chirped in with “And I will be a witness.” Red faced, the idiot stalked away muttering. I told the big dude if there was trouble with the cops to call me as a witness. I gave him my contact info then left. That was the last big gun show I have been too.
Western Drug in Springerville?
LOL!! No, really. I had to give up wrestling tall men when my sons got too big to spank – though the temptation does occur once in a while. I’m only 5 feet tall, and am now 70 years old. The “look” has to do me these days. 🙂 With the XD on my hip as backup, of course. Only needed to shoot to save my life once. Came close a few other times. http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/?p=3570
But the big guy wasn’t threatening me, just being stupid. And when I called him on it, he quit it.
ML stature and age have very little to do with dominance. You are a wolf or sheep, simple as that. I would bet money that when you spoke with this guy you “left eyed him” without knowing it.
It sounds bad, until you look at the statistics of people killed via “accidental” discharge over the last hundred years or so (the numbers go back quite a way). The numbers killed have steadily been going down, even though the population and the number of guns back then were *much* lower. So on average, people have been getting much more safety conscious – Jeff Cooper did a good job with that. It must have been exciting to live a hundred years ago…