So today was Starbucks appreciation day, however my visit to the coffee house was delayed by the wife’s 12 hour shift. 

So initially I planned on buying myself some coffee and at the same time buying a bunch of Via to send overseas.  There’s an old adage that was drilled into my head by my dad growing up, “No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy.”  They didn’t have the big packs of Via at this Starbucks.  The wife is going to check Safeway tomorrow after her shift and if that fails I’ll be picking it up at Costco or ordering it online.  My current receipt is small but will be growing considerably once I get my hands on the Via or order it.

Those that know me and spend time around me know that I carry anywhere I am legally allowed.  This isn't a joke and it isn't an exaggeration.  Going to the store, grab the gun.  Going to visit a friend, grab the gun.  Heading out on the boat, grab the gun.  Getting dressed in the morning to do work around the house, grab the gun.  To me carrying a firearm is as common as carrying a wallet or watch.  As it should be.

I do this for a couple different reasons.

1. The burden on my belt is much lighter than the burden of regret.
2. Because I can.
3. Because there is no advantage to myself by not carrying.
   
4. Because it's my right.
5. Because being prepared should not be frowned upon
   

So last night at the ham radio meeting it was business as usual. I was sitting rubbing my forehead because of a sinus headache while two members to my right were having a conversation.  I was openly carrying my 1911 on a OWB holster so it was quite visible.  Since I was in Idaho my give a crap meter was at about -20, even in Washington it registers only about a 1 until I get to the West side.

All of the sudden I head one of the men go, "Sir are you wearing a side arm?"  I look up at him with a half cocked smile and say, "Yes sir, I am."  Usually that is about the end of a conversation but he was a little more persistent than most and responded with, "Why are you carrying a side arm?"  It currently was a polite question and certainly reasonable.  I just politely responded, "Because I can."  At this point he was shocked that I would carry a weapon and his voice showed it because he repeated the same question with a tone of disdain in his voice.

At this point I had a personal revelation.  That type of behavior will place me in threeper mode at a speed otherwise only known to photons.  Because I didn't think, I didn't blink, my face just went stern and I looked right at him and calmly but without any hesitation said, "Because it's my god given right."

That was the end of the conversation.  He no longer pressed me, he no longer talked to me with disdain in his voice.  I don't know if he was just inquisitive and it came off wrong it's hard to say.  Considering he halted his current conversation to focus on my sidearm it's hard for me to think he was really just generally inquisitive.

That is the first time I've ever climbed the "threeper hill" and used the it's my right argument.  I will say in this case it was quite effective and given my headache at the moment I liked it's nuke the site from orbit effect.  That said I prefer a much more tactical approach to sway people, but it has now been established that if you treat me as a substandard person for carrying a gun, I will go threeper on your ass.

Doubly entertaining was about 5 minutes later another buddy of mine showed up to the meeting and was open carrying as well.  The icing on the cake was we were both sitting next to each other.  I'm not sure if the guy noticed or not, I really don't care.  But I wasn't the only one in the room any more and it made it all the better.  Sadly the wife was busy so she wasn't with me, otherwise she would have been open carrying her's as well.

No surprise to the rest of us though absolutely NOTHING happened.  While at the Genesee community days today the wife and I were open carrying.  There were numerous sheriffs deputies and state patrol walking around the area.  While there we saw something quite interesting form in the sky.

We stopped and chatted with the local sheriff after spotting a funnel cloud and took the opportunity for pictures.

We actually chatted with him for an extended period of time about open carry and different things he’s run into.  Evidently people often come up to him when working events like this and the county fair informing him of people who are carrying firearms.  His response to them is usually along of lines of, "and this is a problem because.”  It reminded me of the Pullman PD officer I met who looked at the person freaking out and pointed at the gun on his hip and said, “I have a gun, what’s the difference?”

It’s Idaho and as he put it, “It’s all that remains of the Western frontier.”  It’s talking with officers like him that reminds me while some are driving the us versus them wedge, it is by no means all officers doing it.  Especially since he has evidently gone to Boomershoot.  I told him he needs to come again.

To further put the icing on the cake, I gave Mike one of my blogger cards.  He had mentioned having a holster shirt but couldn’t remember the manufacturer.  After I was going to finish this post I was going to email him for the brand.  In my email I just got a message from him.  He has one of these and really likes it.  Anywhere else that whole exchange would probably have been forgotten.

There was a nice car show, here’s a simple set I did.

I got a bunch of pictures from the car show as well, but those will be processed slowly and will probably end up dumped on my photography site.

As I said previously when carrying you’re a diplomat, and Robb Allen does a fantastic job in his interview.

I think Caleb from Gun Nuts Media said it better than I can.

I want everyone who advocates for open carry to go to Robb’s blog and watch the video he did with the local ABC affiliate.  That is how you advocate for open carry.  He looks like a normal dude, doesn’t shout about A RIGHT UNEXERCISED IS LOST, and he certainly didn’t wave a shotgun around.  Instead, he acted like a rational dude and made his points succinctly and intelligently.  And he even wore pants.

Whether or not you like it, while carrying you are having to break down the negative stereotypes associated with carrying from the media.  This is much more easily done by acting and behaving exactly like Robb did.  Serious kudos to you Robb, that’s the way to win hearts and minds!