This was in my Concealed Carry Report E-mail: Watch Your Mouth! Written by John Caile on September 12, 2013. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t encounter some twenty-something-year-old guy sitting in a public restaurant and blithely throwing the “F-bomb” around as if it were perfectly normal conversation. Unfortunately, many young people seem to think that such language is acceptable public discourse. And sometimes, it is an attractive young woman spouting off. Or at least she was attractive… until she opened her mouth and sounded like a drunken sailor (no offense to sailors). But such gratuitous vulgarity is not merely unseemly. It can lead to some very unpleasant (and legally dangerous) situations. Whenever I hear this kind of talk, I can’t help but wonder whether these young people realize the risks they are taking, especially if (God forbid) they are legal carry permit holders. Imagine the various scenarios that might play themselves out, given a certain set of circumstances. Suppose our foul-mouthed friend and his buddies happen to be sitting near a gray haired man in his ‘60s, trying to have a nice, quiet dinner with his daughter (or even worse, his grand-daughter). If the man in question turns out to be one of my friends who is a hard-as-nails combat veteran, things could get extremely ugly, and rather quickly. I can quite easily see one of these former military men walking over and, probably quite politely at first, asking the young men to please watch their language. One fellow I know would likely tell the offending party to “put a sock in it” or something even more pointed. If our young friend has more sense than he has taste in companions, a simple apology and a return to more civil conversation might end the issue without further incident. But suppose our permit holder took one of those “drive-by” permit courses (“Buy one, get one free!”) that never covered things like how to behave on a day-to-day basis? Or what if one of his friends has less than stellar anger management skills, and tells the “old guy” where to get off, and as a result, an altercation ensues? Even more stupidly, what if said friend of said permit holder makes the huge mistake of taking a swing at “grandpa?” If “grandpa” is the guy I am currently thinking of, the permit holder’s buddy would be lucky to wake up on a gurney in the hospital with tubes up his nose. Even at 65, this particular gentleman is a stone-cold walking weapon of war…with the combat wounds to prove it. Now, what if you were to attempt to end the argument by drawing your gun, and you succeeded…what then? Police would surely be called. Various patrons would be questioned. Would charges be made? Maybe. Against whom? As with all things legal, no one can predict for certain (although there will always be those who foolishly believe they can). But more importantly, if this did end up in court, for whom is a jury likely to have more sympathy, a grandfather and distinguished combat veteran, trying to have a nice dinner with his daughter? Or a foul-mouthed twenty-something with a gun? Maybe you weren’t the one who started the confrontation, or even the one with the dirty mouth. But why not just be smart and make sure you never get into such a fix in the first place? Watch your mouth. And pick your friends with the same care you use to pick your gun.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 19:31:36 +0000
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