James writes, regarding fear of armed proprietors:
> This is an irrational fear. When you walk down a sidewalk, any one of the
> drivers passing by could turn their wheel and run you over. And it
> happens, with intent no less, relatively often. Do you never leave the
> house?
It may be that fear of armed individuals is irrational. There are indeed
many other ways you could be killed. But the gun exists specifically
to shoot people in this situation. The proprietor didn't wear that gun
hoping that a duck or deer would wander into his shop. He wore it so
that he could apply deadly force against people. Hopefully not against
me, but mistakes can happen.
I wanted to be very careful that nothing I did could be misinterpreted
as threatening. This is the same attitude I have when stopped by the
police. I don't want to scare them, I want to reassure them that I am
not a threat, and terminate the interaction as soon as possible.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:38:40 MDT