Summary: A Moms Demand Action type sees a bulge and gets all excited.
Paranoia
1. Psychiatry. a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission.2. baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.
With commentary, in red.
Buckle your seatbelts and put down your beverages.
Why your gun makes me nervous
by Lynda Waddington
January 10, 2015
There’s a mantra quickly repeating in my head: “Please have a badge. Please have a badge. Please have a badge.” It’s a steady heartbeat as I begin a conversation with a shop clerk and reposition myself so I can peer over her shoulder.
Does this happen often?
I’ve already seen the bulge in his jacket, and it’s clear from the size and shape that he has a holstered gun. Now my eyes are quickly scanning, hoping to find a law enforcement badge clipped to his belt.
Really now? You must be more observant than 99.44% of the rest of humanity.
I’m in a local bookstore and there’s a sticker near the door asking patrons not to carry weapons on the premises. My two children scurried off the moment we entered, each in search of their own treasures.
The man with the weapon is as interested with the bookstore patrons as he is with the books on display. I’ve watched him watch others. The way he tracks them is unnerving.
I do not know this man, have no knowledge of his profession, personality or character.
Do you know this about anyone around you in public, ma’am?
I am unaware of his mental state,
See above…
of why he feels the need to carry a weapon into a bookstore. Frankly, I’m not that interested in his reasons right now. My mind is too busy filtering through the various scenarios that could be taking place. They flick before me like movie trailers, and I watch, casting some aside and mentally marking others for further consideration.
Was one of those movies trailers the one for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
There’s no badge — at least not one I can see. And my inspection of him has not gone unnoticed. I rotate my handbag so that more of it rests toward the front of my body and gently pat it. It’s a tell by women who are packing heat in their purse. Many do it without thinking, a subtle check of hard steel through the leather. My touch is greeted by the bristles on my hairbrush, but no one else knows that.
Patting one’s purse is a tell by women who wish to communicate they are packing heat in their purse? I’ve been in the gun community for decades now and this is a new one to me. Generally, people who are packing don’t communicate their status in my world.
The man recognizes the gesture, his eyes briefly flicking to my own before he moves past us in the aisle.
Robert Ludlum, are you listening? She can really spin a thriller in her head, can’t she? Oh, that’s right. Author Robert Ludlum is dead.
I still don’t know him, and the movie trailers increase. He could be the stalker, searching for his mark. He could be contemplating a robbery, or seeking someone to abduct. He could be an off-duty police officer, or even one that is undercover. He could be paranoid, thinking the world is out to get him or knowing someone truly is. He could be a fugitive, a drug dealer, a rapist or the owner of a sporting goods store. He could be a million things.
Do you regularly see movies in your head. You should talk with your doctor about this. This man could be a million things, however, predator probably isn’t one of them or he would have zeroed in on the cray-cray woman staring at him, following him, and looking at his bulge. Maybe she’s a Mom Demanding Action and that’s why she spends her day looking at bulges under men’s clothing.
Thanking the clerk, I walk toward the YA section and my children. We won’t be spending money in this store today. We will be leaving as quickly as I can get them through the door, away from the man.
…I do not know the last time the weapon in the man’s holster was maintained, and state law provides no assurances he knows how to maintain it.
There’s no assurances in life, Lynda, except that you’re going to die.
You don’t have to be an unarmed victim, Lynda. Empower yourself. Get a firearm. Get Training.
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