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A day out with the family

2nd_to_one

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
14
Location
Arlington, Washington, USA
imported post

Hello everyone,

I am relatively new to this forum and this is my first post. I have been reading here for about 2 months now and have learned a great deal from some of the people posting here.

Today I had my first outing ever while carrying a gun, not only that, but I chose to open carry as well (might as well jump in with both feet!:what:). Needless to say I was a little uneasy given some of the experiences that I have read about here but I did stack the deck in my favor a little by taking my wife and six year old son along for the journey. To set the stage a little, I was wearing blue jeans and an old button-down tucked in shirt. I was carrying my Taurus PT145 in a black Don Hume OWB (outside-waist-band) holster.

Anyway, to the day. We headed of to meet my wife's father and some friends for lunch in Covington (east of Kent). We were a few minutes early so my wife suggested a quick trip to the Hallmark store nearby,and off we went. We walked in the door and one customer at the counter noticed the gun (I saw her double-take) but there were no comments. We shopped for about 5 minutes and then paid for our things and left.

We then proceeded to the restaurant (Carl's Jr. if it matters) to meet our lunch group. We ordered our food (I did notice a look at the gun from the counter girl but no comments) and then proceeded to sit for about 45 minutes with our friends and family eating and talking. I was sitting with my back to a large portion of the restaurant with the gun in clear view on my hip so I am sure that some people noticed, still no comments. I did find out later when talking to my friend that a young lady sitting with her father appeared to notice, commented to her dad who apparently looked at me and then went back to his meal.

The next stop was the Home Depot on Kent's East Hill where my son, my friend and I shopped for about 40 minutes. In that time I talked directly to 2 different Home Depot employees while requesting and receiving assistance (one for about 5 minutes). We traversed nearly the entire store on our trip and passed several other customers. Once again there were no comments. We paid for our purchases and went on our way.

The last stop was just my wife, son and me for dinner at the Applebee's back in Covington before heading home tonight. There I finally got a reaction! Not from any employee, not even from an adult. We were seated in a booth and is our custom I sat next to my son with my right side (holster side) facing onto the aisle. Immediately next to us was a large group of people (Grandparents out with children and grandchildren) and as soon as I sat down a little boy in the group (~4 years old) started pulling on his dad's arm excitedly and saying "daddy he's got a gun" over and over. I just smiled at him and dad and went about my business. We spent nearly an hour-and a half there with customers and servers passing in a steady stream and there were no other comments or questions.

All-in-all a very pleasant outing that I hope to repeat often. I feel much more comfortable about carrying now but I still need to partake of some of the back up data that has been so painstakingly compiled by the folks on this forum so that I am fully prepared if I ever end up needing/wanting to discuss my open carry decision with anyone.

Thanks for reading, I hope to post (nothing) again soon.

Steve :)
 

Ajetpilot

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
1,416
Location
Olalla, Kitsap County, Washington, USA
imported post

Steve,

Welcome, and thanks for posting your positive experience. The number of negative postings far exceed the positive ones. The reverse is true in the real world. The negative reports are necessary, but reports of positive experiences help to keep things in perspective.
 

G27

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
573
Location
Kitsap County, Washington, USA
imported post

Kids are the only people that are attentive to things around them. Out of all the times I've been "caught" open carrying, it was by kids. Adults are so out of it by the time that they get into the "routine" that they don't notice anything. :?
 

Springfield45

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
299
Location
South Central Pennsylvania
imported post

Welcome to the forum Steve !! Most of the reactions I get come from kids as well ... with the exception of a few adults who actually pay attention to thier surroundings..

~~Springfield
 

just_a_car

Regular Member
Joined
May 28, 2007
Messages
2,558
Location
Auburn, Washington, USA
imported post

Glad to hear you had a good experience. I'm also fortunate that in my many months of OC that I've rarely had a bad experience and of those times, there was a consensus had such that both I and the other party (both managers of restaurants) were satisfied with the outcome.

There is a download section in the forums over at nwcdl.org (not the one on the main page) that has many of the laws and training bulletins that will help you in case you do have a bad encounter, either with a manager or with a LEO. It was, in fact, the training bulletins and laws that helped me come to an amicable resolution with both of the aforementioned managers.
 
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