Charlottesville IHOP

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Hi guys, been lurking here for some time, you might know me from THR. I have been carrying concealedfor a while and finally worked up enough nerve to try carrying open.

I took a weekend trip to Charlottesvillefor thebig DMB concert Friday and Saturday.My PA CCW is no good there so it was open carry or no carry. My girl and I ate at the C'ville IHOP about midnight Friday night. We were both dressed nice, I was wearing jeans, brown loafers and an untucked polo shirt. I was carrying my Taurus PT145 in a sidekick on my right hip. We ate without issue, the place wasn't really crowded but started to fill up with concertgoers as we were leaving. I noticed no strange looks and no one bothered me.

As I was standing in line, someone started yelling "sir, sir!" from about25' across the lobby.I generally do not talk to strangers, but when I realized he apparently had an immediate need to talk to me, I nodded in his direction. Male aged 18-20, unmistakeable college student complete with Mac laptop, most likely from nearby UVA. Conversation went like this:

"Do you have apermit to carry?"

"No permit is needed to open carry a firearm in VA."

"Are you a police officer?"

"No."

"OKthen do you have a permit to carry?"

"I have a license to carry concealed weapons in PA, where I live, would you like to see it?"

The kid was obviously frustrated at this point, my last retort shut him up for a couple seconds, but he was not finished. I thought I was clear in my explanation, but this is not what he wanted to hear. I explained to him the difference between open carry and concealed carry and again,that no permit was needed to open carry in the great State of Virginia. My final words were "you learn something new every day" as I paid my bill and left.

Since he engaged me from across the room, it was clear he did not want to learn about open carry, rather he wanted to make a scene.At this point half thepeople in the place werewatching. According to my girl, a guy in the next booth muttered something to the effect of "leave the guy alone" then "that shut him up" ...glad someone had my back.

If I could have done it again I would have answered his first two questions with "unless you are a law enforcement officer, you don't need to know what I have or who I am" but his intentions were not immediately clear, and I admit, I was tired. His barrage of questions didn't exactly wake me up like a SD situation would have.

At any rate, I urge you to open carry in C'ville and maybe a couple more college students can learn something.

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When I was in high school, I thought I had all the answers.

When I was in College, I told people all of the answers.

Now, I'm always looking for answers, so I read books or ask an appropriate forum--like this one.

You sound like you're second guessing yourself, but it sounds to me like you were fairly smooth about it. Good job.

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carterbeauford, Welcome toOCDO I am also ProguninTN @ THR and PDO. I apologize for the actions of this student. (Perhaps he has been brainwashed by leftist professors ?) Keep on carrying, perhaps you will meet pro 2A college students. (Like me. )

PGTN

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carterbeauford, welcome to OCDO!

I agree with ryanmerrell, college kids can be some of the most arrogant people to deal with. (I should know, I am currently one of them :banghead Worst of all, you probably ran into a lefty who is aware that OC is legal, and doesn't like it because "guns kill people."

Last month they had a fugitive trying to hide on the Virginia Tech campus (which is also in Charlottesville). Since then there have been a lot of articles, in the local andschool papers, on both sides of the gun debate. Actually, a lot of good pro-gun articles and letters to editors have come out of that situation. Here is the VCDL Alert on that ordeal.

I think you did fine in handling that punk. Although, I also like the "unless you are a law enforcement officer, you don't need to know what I have or who I am." Either way, don't let him get you down on OC'ing in VA!

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In hindsight most of us think, I should have said this or done that. You handled it fine. The downside to OC is you can't really tell the little azzhat what you really think, or you risk escalating the situation. and.....................

Welcome to OCDO!!!!!!!

Be careful Tex, They might convert you to their side.

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ryanmerrell wrote:

You sound like you're second guessing yourself, but it sounds to me like you were fairly smooth about it. Good job.

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Well it was only the second time I had ever open carried in public, so I am thinking "good god is this going to happen every time I do this?"

I did not disclose I am also a college student, 4 to 6 years older than the guy at IHOP, though.

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VAopencarry wrote:

Be careful Tex, They might convert you to their side.

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:cuss:They can have it when they pry it from my cold, dead, fingers!

BTW: we missed you on Thursday at the VCDL meeting.

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Nah - it's almost never gonna happen.

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TEX1N wrote:

Last month they had a fugitive trying to hide on the Virginia Tech campus (which is also in Charlottesville).

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Virginia Tech is Blacksburg, which is quite a bit further south west ofCharlottesville. (unless they moved it since I was there is August)

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VApatriot wrote:

Virginia Tech is Blacksburg, which is quite a bit further south west ofCharlottesville. (unless they moved it since I was there is August)

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Shoot! UVA is in Charlottesville, I don't know why I was thinking Tech was there. It just goes to show you how much I know about VA geography! I guess that kills my theory about the kid being a lefty from Tech, etc, etc. Oh well.

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TEX1N wrote:

VApatriot wrote:

Virginia Tech is Blacksburg, which is quite a bit further south west of Charlottesville. (unless they moved it since I was there is August)

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Shoot!  UVA is in Charlottesville, I don't know why I was thinking Tech was there.  It just goes to show you how much I know about VA geography!  I guess that kills my theory about the kid being a lefty from Tech, etc, etc.  Oh well.

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Lefty from Tech? That's a good one. Tech students are generally more down to earth then most considering many of them are studying to be Engineers or other trade skills then most. Not to say you won't find a lefty but they are not as common as UVA lefty. I tend to find the more Liberal Arts they have, they more lefty they get.

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It never ceases to amaze me how brazen and uncivil the lefties can be, and how they love to use their bolshevist tactics to agitate others and puff themselves up at the same time. If you saw someone using an asthma inhaler in public, would it ever occur to you to yell out across the room "Hey, do you have a prescription for that thing? Are you a doctor? You're not?!! Then let's see your prescription records, buddy?!" Pretty outrageous, right? You'd be perfectly within your rights to say "Shut your smart mouth, sir, and mind your own business!!" Because we have an obligation to be just as civil and polite as possible, we are more likely to answer in a somewhat conciliatory and defensive tone. I'm not faulting Carter, as I probably would have said about the same thing after being baited by that little snot.

Perhaps this would have been better:

"Sir, Sir, do you have a permit to carry?"

(After verifying it is just a young twerp) "That doesn't concern you. I'm carrying legally".

"But are you a cop?"

"No, and neither are YOU!" (while turning away and ignoring him further)


I know, its always easier to think of what you SHOULD have said, but we need to decide in advance how we are going to handle these rare but annoying circumstances.

I'd like to apologize to Mr. Beauford for the inappropriate behavior of the idiot in question. Trust me, most Virginians are not like that at all, and I'm sorry your trip here was blighted by his stupidity.

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Maybe I haven't watched enough news lately, but I don't recall anyone ever fending off an attacker with a MacBook . Maybe he plans on strangling them with his iPod?

In all seriousness, I'm sorry to hear about your encounter. I hope it hasn't soured your view of Virginia hospitality. I applaud you on how you handled the situation, I'm not sure I could have remained as calm as you. Nothing irritates me more than someone with a chip on their shoulder that refuses to listen to a rational explanation and can't mind their own business.

Next time you come down here and someone gives you grief about OC, just tell them to move to New Jersey if they have a problem with guns .

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Ah yes, Wahoos. The undergrads from UVA are something I don't miss from living in Charlottesville.

One of the main problems with Virginia is that it is so close to the north. I'm not sure about UVA, but I know that when I was at JMU it seemed that a quarter of the students were from New Jersey. Another 50% were from NoVA, which isn't much better.

At least in Texas we are much further from the BS of a lot of the People's Republics--NY, NJ, MA.

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Hirundo should feel fortunate that Virginia is and always has been the battleground where Yankee intrusions have been fought.

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rabbit994 wrote:

TEX1N wrote:

VApatriot wrote:

Virginia Tech is Blacksburg, which is quite a bit further south west ofCharlottesville. (unless they moved it since I was there is August)

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Shoot! UVA is in Charlottesville, I don't know why I was thinking Tech was there. It just goes to show you how much I know about VA geography! I guess that kills my theory about the kid being a lefty from Tech, etc, etc. Oh well.

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Lefty from Tech? That's a good one. Tech students are generally more down to earth then most considering many of them are studying to be Engineers or other trade skills then most. Not to say you won't find a lefty but they are not as common as UVA lefty. I tend to find the more Liberal Arts they have, they more lefty they get.

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Actually, lefties aren't that uncommon at VT. There's a good reason for why we all called it NJ or NY State Polytech. Combine those with the abundance of whiny liberal arts students there, and it was unbearable at times. The engineering students weren't exactly gems of logic either (I was an M.E. major). Here are some good examples.

First, when I was in school in 98 (senior year), a group of ME students decided to write in to complain about an article on the rodeo in Roanoke. According to them, it was unacceptable to write about an event that "abuses and kills animals". Basically, it was a letter spouting off whatever the cute girls in Peta had told them. No research was done. There was no fact checking attempted on their part. As such, it was easy for me, someone who had participated in rodeo for 5 years, to basically refute every claim they made.

Then there's a guy I work with now that graduated a couple of years before me that seems to think restricting guns on campus because "those redneck yahoo Agriculture students are just itching to shoot someone". He didn't like it much when I pointed out that he's a hypocritical left-wing bigot, based on that comment. Despite being an engineer, he's too stupid to grasp that his comments about "rednecks" aren't any different than saying that blacks shouldn't have guns because they'll just kill each other off (note: I don't believe either is true. I'm just comparing two equally ludicrous statements). My favorite from him was his comment that, since he was in Central America with his church and saw the violence down there, he knows for a fact that a gun can NEVER protect you. My response was "well, I'm sure it did a great job of protecting the guy that was a better shot".

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Dutch Uncle wrote:

Hirundo should feel fortunate that Virginia is and always has been the battleground where Yankee intrusions have been fought.

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That is true, and I'd love to move back to Virginia in the future in spite of all the Yankees. That's not going to happen any time soon though since I'm going to be in school down here for a very long time.

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NRA_Bear wrote:

In all seriousness, I'm sorry to hear about your encounter. I hope it hasn't soured your view of Virginia hospitality.

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Not at all, I've been to VA numerous times before and have always been treated right. Everyone else we dealt with was nice,servers at restaruants, hotel staff, etc.

In fact the security at night two of the concert was so laid back, some dude jumped on stage and cut the show short.I carried a Surefire flashlight into the show and could have easilyconcealed a small revolver in an ankle holster if I could have done so legally.

I think the obvioussolution is to carry a bigger gun.Perhaps the kid didn't take my little Taurus seriously. Wonder if he'd harass someone carrying a bigshiny 1911?

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vtme_grad98 wrote:

My response was "well, I'm sure it did a great job of protecting the guy that was a better shot".

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I'm going to have to remember this line and use it. That one statement pretty much destroys the anti arguement that guns can't protect people.

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Hi all,

I am new here, but have been on PDO for a while. I atttend VT and I can attest to the fact that some students and many in the administration are certainly in favor of gun control, and I don't mean using two hands on your .45! I have been harassed by students (and one faculty member) for expressing my views about the policy that prevents students from carrying guns on campus.

I imagine Charlottesville is even worse, but you'd think that an institution founded by Thomas Jefferson would be more pro-2A.

Jackie Treehorn