I live in a small town. We’re on the easternmost edge of a major metropolitan city. This City is maybe 30 minutes away, yet we consider ourselves a rural area. Sure, the locals page has posts about pigs and goats wandering the highway, but we’re not far from civilization.
Our town is a strange mix of conservatives and liberals. There are no shades of grey in between, but everyone is one or the other. And with that, there are the people who think it is perfectly okay to shoot guns in the backyard, drive offroad vehicles down the city streets, and make so much noise their neighbors cringe while cussing at them as they shut the windows and turn the music or television up to 75 just to be heard.
And then, there are the cowboys. Not so much the romantic cattle hustler from old western movies, but the older men driving big trucks that make them feel powerful. These men saunter through town like they own the world and aren’t afraid to yell at anyone, man, woman, or child, whom they deem as having stupid ideals.
I recently encountered one such man as we were leaving a local bar. As we paid our tab and slid out along the counter, he ambled in. When I passed him, he brushed the tail of his coat behind his back, showing off the gun hanging in the holster on his right hip. I stared. I’d never seen anyone other than law enforcement wearing a firearm in public like that. He looked at me, and while he didn’t say a word, he sneered at me. I imagined the words in his head calling me a dirty liberal.
My partner and I left without further incident. However, as I think back on that recent night, I wonder at the type of man who considers it his right, to carry a gun at his side at a local bar. I assume he believes he is protecting himself. But, sir, this is not the Wild West. We don’t have gangs of outlaws roaming the streets, robbing stagecoaches and trains. Bandits aren’t riding into town on black steeds with guns blazing. We’re more civilized in the twenty-first century, or so we’d like to believe.
There are many ways to handle situations. However, when guns are involved, someone is often mortally wounded. Frequently, that someone is not the criminal. Slinging a gun from your hip at the local bar on a Saturday night doesn’t make you look tough. In fact, you, sir, are a coward. Please stop trying that in a small town.