An Interesting Encounter

[Walter Zoomie]

This is a true story.


While making a delivery at a customer’s freight dock, I pulled a small knife out of my pocket in order to cut the plastic stretch wrap off of a pallet of goods.

One of the female dockworkers, commenting on me carrying a knife, said, “I like a man who is prepared!”

Ignoring the obvious flirtatious nature of the comment because I am a faithful married man, I replied, “Well…I normally carry a gun, but Department of Transportation regulations prohibit me from doing so in a commercial vehicle.”

Hearing this, a nearby male dockworker asked, “I have a question I’ve always wanted to ask people like you. Why do you carry a gun?”

The tone of his question raised my combat antenna a little bit.

Having been acquainted with this guy for several years, I knew him to be somewhat sarcastic, and at the same time probably one of those gentle types of souls who avoids direct confrontation and would probably lay down and roll over if he was ever accosted…a good dude, but personality-wise, nothing like me.

Anyhoo…I replied, “Because it’s my God-given and Constitutional right to do so, and because I can, and because I want to.”

He then asked, “Where do you live?”

I replied, “Indianapolis.”

The female dockworker commented, “That’s why he carries a gun!”

(These folks live and work in a small town in southern Indiana, which is worlds away from Indy in many respects.)

Then, the guy asked, “Could you really kill a person?”

I said, “Look…I don’t know if I ever told you this, but I was a Marine. I have no problem killing some fool who is fixin’ to hurt me or my family, or is trying to steal my ****. I could shoot him and not think twice about it.”

Then, the female dockworker jokingly said, “A Marine? Then you could kill somebody with your bare hands!”

“It's a myth that every Marine can kill with his bare hands. Besides...I’m too old for that ****, and it’s too much work. Pullin’ the trigger is a lot easier, and I’m not messin’ around if somebody starts actin’ crazy,” I replied.

I don’t think I convinced the guy that handguns are OK and that carrying one ever makes sense.

Like I care…