Interesting thing happened to me the other day while walking into Walmart. While heading inside I happened to be walking behind three young black men. Nothing remarkable about them to be honest, they didn't look like gang members or anything of the criminal sort, but one of them looked back and saw me about 10 feet behind them. Then turns to the others and says "Cops on our tale."
Things got a little congested at the entrance. so I was gaining on them as we slowed for pedestrian traffic in the door way, they stopped to get a cart and I passed them by. The one who warned his friends that I was tailing them stopped me as I passed and asked, "hey, are you a cop?" I stopped and said "no, I'm just an every day guy like you." Then he asks me as we began walking inside, "Isn't it illegal to carry a gun like that?" My reply went something like, "Not in Nevada, you should stay a while, you'll like it here."
Now this wasn't a negative encounter from my perspective, but I think they were a little taken back by the whole thing. Now, to be honest, I can't imagine what it's like to be black, but now I imagine it involves a lot of looking behind you to see who is there. They did it because they live in a world where you never know when the next cop is going to give them the third degree under some pretense, we do it because we never know when the next cop is going to want to make an example of someone exercising their rights, or to so if someone might be targeting us.
Why did I go into all of this? Because someone else's reaction to me carrying my firearm gave me insight into not only myself but a part of society that I now have some way to relate to, if only in the slightest. So, next time you have one of the interactions, look at things through their eyes. Try to put yourself in their shoes and perhaps you may just learn something you never knew you didn't know.
By the way, These three young men asked me later, while I was in line for ammo at the SG counter where the could go to learn how to shoot, and I refereed them to the county shooting park were they rent a few rifles. Hopefully we can fold them into our ranks.