texasjeep44 wrote:I am not suggesting you go out and start broadcasting it to the public that you carry. Nor am I suggesting that if the person is clearly paranoid and nearly soiling themselves that you stick around and try to convert them on the spot.chasfm11 wrote:
My concern about having a gun discussion with a stranger who may have just perceived it is that you never know where they are coming from. I've met a lot of people who were open to discussions about guns but there are some closet antis out there, too. My fear is that it will be one of them who asks me. There would be nothing to stop them, after our discussion, from making a 911 MWAG call. Although they probably wouldn't have physically seen it, I confirmed through our discussion that I had it. A dispatch tape with the caller saying "and he intimidated me" would not go well afterwards, I suspect. I freely admit to a bias in believing that antis are part of a Liberal mentality for whom the facts are unimportant.
I'm a risk avoidance type. I don't frequent Oak Cliff (though I've gone there on occasion ) because I see it as a high risk environment. I view talking to absolute strangers about guns to be another risk area that I'd prefer not to venture into.
Total strangers aren't going to be close enough to feel it during a hug or whatever. At most they might have caught a glimps of the bottom of a holster or imprint of a grip on a shirt if I mess up too bad with concealment. Generally though folks in public are oblivious, "condition white" to what is going on around them and aren't going to see anyway.
If your doing your job concealing, the people that are going to notice are those with whom you spend time around and most likely already have some sort of relationship with.
Perhaps I'm mistaken but I thought that the premise of this thread was that an excuse was needed. To me, that means that someone has asked a question like "what is that under your shirt." Charles suggested that his church had a lot of hugging and that happens sometimes at ours, too. Our congregation is large and I don't know all of the folks who might get caught up in a session where physical contact might happen. We attend church functions besides the Sunday services. While they are not complete strangers, I certainly don't know all of the church members well enough to consider them to be close friends. I completely understand "concealed is concealed" but I also know that almost all of my shirts will print if I bend over far and enough and someone is standing at the correct angle to see it. My assumption, since others have posted suggestions is that the possibility of some sort of detection exists and that it is the subject of this discussion.
I'm frankly a little envious of those who can handle an "outed" situation gracefully. Those that know me understand that I'm rarely at a loss for words but I don't know that I would be as graceful about what I say under such a circumstance as I would like to be. For those that said they would simply tell the truth, I'd like to understand better how they do that. The plain, blunt truth may set some folks off. I fully understand that the truth can be presented in many different ways and that is what has intrigued me about the posts. I also find some reassurance in the number of posts that don't suggest the truth and even have some humorous alternatives. To me, that means others share my unwillingness to, on the spur of the moment, dive into a conversation based on the premise question. Someplace between "none of your business" and "it's a gun" is a middle ground with the right words. I just don't know what they are and will avoid admission until I do.