Thoughts

After Guns of August, I went to see a friend.  She was surprised to see me dressed as I was, and since I hadn’t told her what brought me to Ohio, I told her.  She seemed genuinely interested.  On our way back back from dinner, the topic of guns came up.  She asked me what I knew about CCW.  Not much I told her.  NJ doesn’t have it so readily available, so I only know based on hearsay with regards to other states.  I asked her if she was thinking of getting a gun, and I could swear I heard her say *I refuse to get a gun*, then tripped by her words, said something else.  But it made me wonder if she was anti gun.  If she is a fence sitter, that’s fine.  I won’t push her, but I told her I could help her find a safety class if she gets the itch.

To date, I have not personally met anybody anti gun.  Lots of fence sitters, and when I show them my Cowboy guns, their eyes twinkle.  Ah….a good start I always think.  But my personal friends, I don’t know.  They’ve never let on.  I conclude that they feel that I know what I’m doing, and won’t blow a hole in the wall doing something stupid.  But I wonder.  If a friend of mine is anti gun, how detrimentail is that to our friendship?  Would I, could I, walk away from this relationship?  Makes me wonder.

But back to my friend in Ohio.  She was fine with me bringing my gun cases into the house, and even asked me to show them to her.  I started small, with the Derringer from American Derringer, and my Pocket Pistol from Harrington and Richardson.  She was intrigued by the Old West style.  Then I showed her my Ruger New Vaquero’s, with the engraving I got from Jim Downing and a smile came over her face, and a twinkle in her eye.  I told her none of these were loaded, and showed her the loading gates, and the cylinders so she could see for herself.  She was impressed, and intimidated by my rifles, and shotgun.  But she felt oddly comfortable around them since they looked like antiques, even though only the Pocket Pistol, and Winchester 1892 were originals, everything else was repro’d.  So maybe I brought someone over to our side in the end.

But I could still swear that I heard her say *I refuse to own a gun*.