Being outed

About a dozen years ago, as I mentioned in a previous post, I carried a handgun in a fanny pack. Fanny packs were the perfect carry method for concealed handguns. Everyone had them, especially the tourists in Central Florida. It made carrying a handgun more comfortable, as you could wear clothes that are suited to Florida's hot and humid summers, while still enabling you to carry a full sized handgun. It was during the summer of 2000 that I was dating this woman, and we decided to make the drive to Tampa with some friends, so we could visit Busch Gardens. Now, one of the first rules of carrying a concealed weapon is not to talk about it. It just isn't polite, and is rather boorish behavior, to run around and get in everyone's face about the fact that you are carrying a gun. For that reason, no one we were with knew that I was carrying a Glock 23, except the woman that I was dating. We were standing in line for a ride, when one of the women asked my date why I always wore "that stupid fanny pack" everywhere. She replied that I carried a gun in it. This caused the questioner to loudly yell at me, "You have a gun in that thing?!?" The rest of the conversation went like this: Divemedic: "Hold it down. Everyone can hear you." Distraught woman: "Why do you have a gun in that fanny pack?" DM: "Because it won't fit in my pocket." Woman: "That isn't what I meant, and you know it. Why do you carry a gun?" DM: "In case someone tries to attack me." Woman: "So you really think that someone is going to try and kill you in the parking lot?" DM: "If I thought that, I wouldn't be here. The best way to survive a gunfight is not be in one." Woman: "Exactly. The best way to not get in a gunfight is not to have a gun. No gun, no gunfight." DM: "I know you are smarter than that. That is like saying that you can avoid car accidents by not being in a car. Pedestrians get run over all the time. You might as well not own a fire extinguisher, either. That way, you will never have a fire." She wasn't even anti-gun, she was just conditioned like many people are, that they do not need guns, because only the military, police, criminals, and paranoid, uneducated nutjobs need guns. She eventually came around, and now owns a gun that she keeps at home. The way we win this argument is by being level headed, logical, and not losing our temper. By doing so, we convince those who are not true anti-gun believers into seeing things in a different light. As for the fanny pack, this incident, as well as the searches that resulted from 9-11, made me realize that it was no longer a viable carry method. I still have it, but I have not used it in over a decade.