One of our neighbors took pity on me this morning. He saw me mowing the front yard on Thursday with a (gasp!) push mower, and inquired as to the status of our riding mowers. Neither one was working. So he came over this morning and did some troubleshooting and gave me a first rate lesson in mower maintenance. First he charged up the battery. The mower started, and died. We commented on the age of the gasoline and poked around a bit. The air filter look okay, but I cleaned it anyway. Then the neighbor noticed a stray piece of fuzz, or something else suspicious, and popped the cover off. We found this:
The critter nest covering the air-cooled engine might have had something to do with it not running. We put in fresh gas and changed the oil, and low and behold, it seems to be working great. I'll find out for sure tomorrow afternoon.
This afternoon was spent doing errands in town, and I OC'd. Kohl's, Target, the mall (from one end to the other (including JCPenney and Chick-fil-A) and Lowes. The only comment I got was from the cashier at Target.
Her: "Nice gun."
Me: "Thanks!"
Her: "Are you a cop?"
Me: "No. SD, what's the best defense against a bad guy with a gun?"
SD: "A GOOD guy with a gun!"
Me
: "Cops can't be everywhere all the time, and it's my job to keep her safe."
Her: "You can do that?"
Me: "Yes. Open carry is legal here without a permit. I also have a permit so I can carry concealed."
So, yay. A positive experience and maybe someone new is considering options she didn't know she had.
And THAT is why open carry is so important. That interaction wouldn't have happened if you were carrying concealed.
ReplyDeleteConcealed carry can't, by definition, normalize guns in public.
Agreed. And that is why I suck it up and put on my "happy face" even though I am not a people person. I had an extra 15% off coupon that I gave to someone at Kohl's who was giving me the hairy eyeball. She seemed very surprised that a complete stranger (and one with a ZOMG! GUN!) would do such a thing, and thanked me profusely. And people seem much more polite when interacting with me when I OC. I don't know if that is because they think I'm a LEO, or because *I* am being proactively (almost aggressively) polite to begin with.
ReplyDeleteNah, they probably think that if they're NOT nice to you, you'll shoot them.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, good show on the OC; like Alan said, only if it's carried openly can a discussion happen.
Friends... They ARE good for something :-) Glad the OC went well too!
ReplyDelete