The scene is yesterday at about 6:30 p.m. The sun is setting and it’s getting dark out, but it’s not quite nighttime yet. I’m coming home from an afternoon of apartment shopping, and I stop at my credit union on the way home because I’ve got some checks to deposit. I’m standing at one of the two ATM’s, waiting for the machine to finish sucking in my deposit envelope so that I can get my receipt and go home. Since it was a fairly warm day yesterday, I decided to carry openly, with my pistol in plain view on my waist. When summer rolls around in Tucson, concealed carry more or less goes out the window.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a white pickup truck with two Mexican guys pull into the parking lot. They look kind of sketchy, but I don’t think about it too much because there are a lot of people in Tucson who look just like them. One of the guys gets out of the truck and starts heading straight towards me, even though there’s a vacant ATM right next to me. I half-turn to get a better look, and now my gun is fully exposed in this guy’s line of sight. He stops, takes one look at my waist, and turns around to head back to the truck at a quicker pace than he originally came. The truck peels out of the parking lot, I grab my receipt, and that’s the end of that.
I don’t really want to think about what could have happened had I not been carrying yesterday, but I might have had a pretty unfavorable situation on my hands. It’s not like the guy pulled a weapon on me and demanded my wallet, but the whole thing was extremely suspicious at the very least. Why come to the bank if you’re not going to use the ATM? Why walk towards me when there’s an open ATM on the other side? Why turn around and change your mind after seeing that I wasn’t going to be an easy mark? Exactly.
Stay safe out there. Your personal safety is nobody’s responsibility but your own.
It’s good to hear you’re okay, Matt. God bless you.
Like Tucson, the heat here in Yuma makes concealed carry in the warmer months problematic. No free man need ask a bureaucrat’s approval to preserve his life. Well done Matt. Thank God you had the foresight to carry openly.
Shit, dude. Also, don’t go to the bank at night. My grandpa was mugged a few months ago. Tucson is getting to be a rough place.
You think he was really aiming at you? What if he just needed directions and got scared of your gun?
I know people get tense when I wear my Glock around, so I only carry it late at night.
George – do you put your seat belt on only some of the time?
No, you don't know when you'll get into an accident so you put it on all the time.
Same thing with your gun – the purpose of it is to save your life, just like your seatbelt. And like your seatbelt, it doesn't work if you don't have it on.
If you're worried about people getting tense, then wear a cover shirt and get a concealed carry license. It's worth the hassle if it saves your life. Or your loved ones.