Interesting conversation at dinner tonight with manager...

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So the wife was hungry for a cheesteak and we eat at Carmine's on a pretty regular basis... Steve, the manager knows us well and has always welcomed us and we have even had a couple of OpenCarry dinners at Carmine's.

Steve told me the other day some guy came in, by himself and was eating.. as Steve was making his rounds he struck up a conversation with this customer.. just regular stuff... how the food tastes, the weather, etc.

The the customer says... "A week or so ago, I was in IHOP having breakfast... and this guy walks in and my jaw dropped.. this guy had a GUN strapped to his hip out in the open for everyone to see!! I couldn't believe it! And he did not look like he was a cop and he had on a t-shirt and jeans" He continued.. "So Steve.. since you are a manager... what would YOU do if some regular guy just came in.. ordered a meal and sat down to enjoy it while wearing a gun?"

Steve smiled and basically told the customer that it is legal and that we (me and my dinner crews) have come a few times and had 20 people OCing with no problem and that I go there a couple times a month. The customer was like.. "what if they were to freak out and decide to shoot everyone?" and Steve explained that it is not the law abiding citizen that is who he worries about.

Steve actually lives in Maryland and not "gun guy" but I am proud of him for properly explaining the situation to the customer.

Way to go Steve! :celebrate

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Yes sir! He needs to enjoy the rewards of increased business by us folk. Perhaps another luncheon there might to in order.

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Any day except Monday and Wednesday I should be able to make it at the usual time.

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I don't even know where this place is, but I'm willing to make a road trip to go there!!!

This guy just got a new customer!

:celebrate

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MSC 45ACP wrote:

I don't even know where this place is, but I'm willing to make a road trip to go there!!!

This guy just got a new customer!

:celebrate

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location:

[url]http://tinyurl.com/lxocdh[/url]

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It's a purty fur piece from you, Mike.

~ Boyd

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Yer Right on that one, Boyd.

I think I still need to get up that way to see some battlefields. Sadly, I'll have to lock my stuff up when Itake the kidsto Antietam and Harpers Ferry:cuss:...

This place looks like a good place to stop for lunch on the way up there...

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Let me know when, and if I'm not working, I'd love to join you there.

~ Boyd

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I like these kinds of stories. Education is a must....

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These stories are sometimes fascinating to me from a psychological perspective. In this case, the guy in question didn't seem to be particularly anti-gun, just surprised and curious about seeing someone OC'ing. When he started to think about the OC dinner scenario, his first reaction is the fear that all these pistol-carrying folks might "freak out and decide to shoot everyone". I have to ask myself why an otherwise reasonable man would come up with such a grisly fantasy right off the bat. I suspect he was a product of our "value neutral" (hah!) public schools in which children are taught to fear anything to do with firearms, and the people who own them. The fantasy that merely possessing guns would turn regular people into homicidal maniacs fits the kind of propaganda our children are exposed to. If I had been Steve, I would have looked at him very quizzically and replied "What on earth made you come up with such a preposterous idea? Don't you think your imagination is just a bit overactive???" It is important to confront people who have bizarre attitudes toward things like guns. It may help with their reality-testing and lead to some self-examination. To my mind, if Steve had said 20 people came in and all ordered steak, only to have the guy respond "Aren't you scared they'll go crazy with all those steak knives around and start slicing people up?" it would be time to have a little talk with the poor overwrought guy. :banghead: Sheeesh!

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Dutch Uncle wrote:

<SNIP>...his first reaction is the fear that all these pistol-carrying folks might "freak out and decide to shoot everyone". I have to ask myself why an otherwise reasonable man would come up with such a grisly fantasy right off the bat.

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Dutch.. I once had nearly the same conversation with someone. They nearly exploded with the "someone could freak out and shoot everyone" as their rebuttal to "an armed public is a peacful public " comment from me.

I said to him: "Don't project into me how you would behave. Just cause YOU cannot handle your temper and if YOU were crossed then YOU would freak out and start shooting. You're not afraid of people like me, you're afraid of people like YOU. YOU know what YOU would do and that's what scares you."

Our conversation ended soon thereafter.

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doug23838 wrote:

Dutch Uncle wrote:

<SNIP>...his first reaction is the fear that all these pistol-carrying folks might "freak out and decide to shoot everyone". I have to ask myself why an otherwise reasonable man would come up with such a grisly fantasy right off the bat.

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Dutch.. I once had nearly the same conversation with someone. They nearly exploded with the "someone could freak out and shoot everyone" as their rebuttal to "an armed public is a peacful public " comment from me.

I said to him: "Don't project into me how you would behave. Just cause YOU cannot handle your temper and if YOU were crossed then YOU would freak out and start shooting. You're not afraid of people like me, you're afraid of people like YOU. YOU know what YOU would do and that's what scares you."

Our conversation ended soon thereafter.

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Ever drive down a busy interstate at 70 mph and wonder why the guys in the semi trucks don't just "freak out and start running into people"? And the cars, too? All those deadly machines in the hands of random people, many of them frankly idiots who get their licenses in Cracker Jack boxes, and yet people pretty much do a pretty good job of not killing each other.

Even in road rage incidents, they rarely get violent once the participants feel they are really in danger.

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doug23838 wrote:

...

I said to him: "Don't project into me how you would behave. Just cause YOU cannot handle your temper and if YOU were crossed then YOU would freak out and start shooting. You're not afraid of people like me, you're afraid of people like YOU. YOU know what YOU would do and that's what scares you."

Our conversation ended soon thereafter.

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For a number of months, I have started processing in the back of my head some thoughts along these lines which I have simply not had the time or motivation to swish around and wring out into something written that would make a cognizant point.

But I think your thought touches on a tremendously significant observation that goes a very long way toward explaining how pro-2A and anti-2A folks think differently from each other, and more specifically, why each group is astounded that the other could take in and process the same finite set of facts and arrive at the totally opposite conclusion.

The final punch line at the end of my line of thoughts basically concludes that it might be a good thing that antis are antis... they really don't need to be handling firearms at all.

Maybe someone can take it from there.

TFred

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doug23838 wrote:

I said to him: "Don't project into me how you would behave. Just cause YOU cannot handle your temper and if YOU were crossed then YOU would freak out and start shooting. You're not afraid of people like me, you're afraid of people like YOU. YOU know what YOU would do and that's what scares you."

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Excellent way to put it Doug. I've long held the same notion, that it's a projection. What else could it be? It's completely irrational to suppose that kind of thing, I mean is there any empirical evidence :^)?

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JPFO has soe great booklets.

One of them explains the psychological basis of those who fear guns

Projection is on the list.

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I work in the Dulles/Chantilly area - where is the restaurant? Sounds like a place that should get my lunch money!

Yes sir! He needs to enjoy the rewards of increased business by us folk. Perhaps another luncheon there might to in order.

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Let me know if a lunch is planned.

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Regular_Joe wrote:

I work in the Dulles/Chantilly area - where is the restaurant? Sounds like a place that should get my lunch money!

Yes sir! He needs to enjoy the rewards of increased business by us folk. Perhaps another luncheon there might to in order.

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Let me know if a lunch is planned.

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It's up in Sterling - north of the intersection of 7100 and 7. You should be able to Mapquest them: 20789 Great Falls Plaza, Sterling.

They've got great food, BTW.