Woman with a gun in plain sight and a child in tow …

… enter a grocery store and pick up some milk. And had a very nice conversation with a gentleman with a “Waste Management” t-shirt whose accent indicated that he originated way north of the “Sweet Tea Line”* about the different types of flavored coffee creamer that are available. Sweet Daughter selected some discounted Easter stickers to buy with her allowance and only fussed when she realized that I carry her on the same side as my pistol (uncomfortable for her), and so insisted on riding in a cart. The rather flamboyant cashier with the multi-colored star tattoos on his neck and the multiple facial piercings didn’t even bat an eye. But then, I don’t think I was his type.

I just wonder how long it will be until I have the guts to do this while shopping for shoes or clothes in the city.


*The Mason-Dixon line has nothing to do with where the South begins. When you go to your localnon-chain eatery and ask for sweetea (all one word) and they don’t bring regular iced tea and sugar packets, but have a separate pitcher of tea-flavored simple-syrup, you know you’re in the south. I was in a restaurant near Annapolis and asked for sweet tea. I was informed that they didn’t have any, but they had regular tea and sugar. “That’s not a solution” I said. “That’s a precipitate.”


I’m such a geek.

Disgruntled woman enters grocery store with a gun ...

… in plain sight and 49 rounds of ammunition and nothing happened. Well, except that she walked out in a better mood than when she walked in.

On some level, I felt obligated. I have often said I feel like such a poseur in the gun community – my knowledge consists little more than The Four Rules, knowing which end of the gun is the most dangerous, and that a .45 is bigger than a .38. I know to roll my eyes when my coworker tells me that if the caliber doesn’t start with a “.4”, it’s not worth carrying. (Especially when I ask what he carries and he tells me he doesn’t have a pistol.) And I know that January 23rd should be a national holiday.

While in Pittsburgh, I open carried for the first time. It was cool, but when you’re surrounded by 69,999 like-minded people, it’s not such a big deal. When we got back home, JayG posted his thoughts.

And Mike W., who open carries regularly chimed in.

And then Breda goes and knocks one out of the park, summed up with “You can create the future while securing your own.”

Then Alan piles on with a plea to contact Texas representatives to get an open carry bill pushed along. Here in VA, open carry is legal, and I’m not taking advantage of it.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine

And I realized I have a responsibility as a role model for Sweet Daughter to push the envelope of my comfort zone in order to support those freedoms, because

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ~James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788

Last weekend, Michael W. took my Miami Vice II shoulder rig from Galco orange to a beautiful dark brown. And tonight, I wore it to the grocery store, unconcealed, and nobody cared. One gentleman did look at me a little funny, but that’s not unusual even when I’m not wearing a gun. And the cashier was especially friendly, reminding me that if I bought my wine in quantity, I’d get 10% off AND a free wine bag.

I’m not an evangelist of any sort. I don’t particularly like talking to strangers, but I do feel like this is a way in which I can make some small contribution back to the gunnie community. I can help desensitize John Q. Public to the sight of a regular person with a gun. And Sweet Daughter will be right there helping. When someone asks me why I’m carrying, I’ll ask SD “What’s the best defense against a bad guy with a gun?” And she’ll answer “A good guy with a gun!”

You can create the future while securing your own.

Thank you for pointing that out, Breda. Because, really – how many people have that opportunity?

New shiny!

1848 Colt Baby Dragoon pocket revolver, and it’s my first percussion gun. Because one can never have too many obscure calibers.

.31 caliber. And, no. I can't get the picture stay in landscape orientation.

.

(Thanks, Michael W.!)

Pictures from Saturday night

Photos are courtesy of my Blogfather, JayG, and his new camera. 

With my blogfather, JayG at the "after party".

With Weer'd Beard at the 2A Blog Bash.

With the cool-beyond-belief Breda at the 2A Blog Bash

Werewolf Shoes

Mid-life crisis shoes -- cheaper than a convertable.

It's not easy taking pictures of your own feet from this angle. This is the best I've got for now -- I'll update if I get any better ones to add. (That's a hint. If you've got anything from Saturday, please send them to me. If I don't have pictures, it didn't happen, right?)

UPDATED to add:

Thanks Blogfather!

Anti-gun Protest

Sweet Daughter got to see the her first demonstration on Saturday. We went out with the other bloggers to watch the antis* march in and …

Crickets.

We hung around, got a bite to eat, visited a bit, and Sweet Daughter asked for a pen and paper. All I had was a napkin, but she sat down and proceeded to draw this.

That’s a demonstrator trying to take her guns away. She’s the one saying “No No No”. That object with the circle in the middle off to the left is a target.

When she was done with that, she begged a piece of paper from JayG and walked around copying names off of NRA attendee badges for her “People I Like” list. It wasn’t technically a “Bloggers I’ve Met” list as she pointed out that she doesn’t have her own blog, and it included friends from her kindergarten class.

After waiting for around an hour with nobody showing up, we went back inside to stand in line to meet “Gunny” when the call came through that the demonstrators had finally shown up. We went back out, and I listened to their spokesperson being interviewed by the local news station. Near as I could tell, they wanted to make it very, very difficult for people to get guns legally as that would solve the problem of drugs in their neighborhood. Or something. I explained to SD that while I did not agree with what they were saying, they had a right to say it. Just like we could tell them how we felt.

And then I saw the woman across the street with the sign that said “Give your children hugs, not guns!” and something flipped the little switch in my brain from “rational discourse” to “THAT PERSON IS A THREAT TO SD’S SAFETY!”

Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. I yelled, and I was not logical, rational, or coherant. I learned that counter-demonstrating is not my strong point, and next time I’ll follow SD's exampole, and just point and laugh.

* On another note, it was determined that a group of hippies, like a murder of crows or a parliament of owls, should be referred to as a "Patchouli of Hippies".

Photo bleg

I didn't get any pictures of the shoes last Saturday. Can anybody help me out?

Thanks ...

Nancy