independence
Regular Member
I had a couple of separate encounters at McDonald's recently:
1st encounter: An elderly woman with some kids accompanying her says to me, "I like your gun! What kind is it?" I tell her and then she says that she just passed the HCP course and expects her's in the mail soon. She was excited about it!
2nd encounter: A McDonald's employee called out an order number but no customer came up to get the food, so a guy behind me in line says to her, "Want me to call it out?" Without waiting for an answer, he proceeds to yell the order number out in an *extremely* loud voice. I turned around to him smiling with raised eyebrows and said, "You're not shy, are you?" He beamed and said something like, "No I'm not...but I definitely don't do THAT even though AM permitted to carry." I was kind of confused by his wording and just stood there puzzled for a brief moment thinking about what he said while he snickered and shifted his shoulders nervously. I then said, "Oh, are you talking about open carry?" "Yeah...I don't carry like that -- because I don't trust myself to...I might use it! Instead, I carry a knife." At this point, he started to talk crazy and I can't remember his exact words. It was something like this: "And boy I can slice your throat with that thing -- I don't need a gun! And that'd be a surprise when you suddenly feel the your neck being sliced and blood flying everywhere!!"
He was talking really loudly during all this and attracting a lot of attention by talking about blood and all. I felt a little embarrassed to be talking to him at that point and said something the effect that knives were indeed a formidable self defense tool and tried to end the conversation. Fortunately, it was my turn in line which facilitated my exiting the conversation. After I made my order however, he piped up again. "So that law must have passed afterall, huh?" "Which law?", I said. "The law to legalize open carry", he said. "Oh, you mean the law going through the Tennessee legislature now?", I said. "Yeah." I then explained that the bill was to make open carry legal without a permit and is dead but that open carry with a permit has been legal in TN for many years. He just said, "Oh..." (as though it wasn't important) and we parted ways.
1st encounter: An elderly woman with some kids accompanying her says to me, "I like your gun! What kind is it?" I tell her and then she says that she just passed the HCP course and expects her's in the mail soon. She was excited about it!
2nd encounter: A McDonald's employee called out an order number but no customer came up to get the food, so a guy behind me in line says to her, "Want me to call it out?" Without waiting for an answer, he proceeds to yell the order number out in an *extremely* loud voice. I turned around to him smiling with raised eyebrows and said, "You're not shy, are you?" He beamed and said something like, "No I'm not...but I definitely don't do THAT even though AM permitted to carry." I was kind of confused by his wording and just stood there puzzled for a brief moment thinking about what he said while he snickered and shifted his shoulders nervously. I then said, "Oh, are you talking about open carry?" "Yeah...I don't carry like that -- because I don't trust myself to...I might use it! Instead, I carry a knife." At this point, he started to talk crazy and I can't remember his exact words. It was something like this: "And boy I can slice your throat with that thing -- I don't need a gun! And that'd be a surprise when you suddenly feel the your neck being sliced and blood flying everywhere!!"
He was talking really loudly during all this and attracting a lot of attention by talking about blood and all. I felt a little embarrassed to be talking to him at that point and said something the effect that knives were indeed a formidable self defense tool and tried to end the conversation. Fortunately, it was my turn in line which facilitated my exiting the conversation. After I made my order however, he piped up again. "So that law must have passed afterall, huh?" "Which law?", I said. "The law to legalize open carry", he said. "Oh, you mean the law going through the Tennessee legislature now?", I said. "Yeah." I then explained that the bill was to make open carry legal without a permit and is dead but that open carry with a permit has been legal in TN for many years. He just said, "Oh..." (as though it wasn't important) and we parted ways.
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