Less than four days following the attack on innocent lives and the murder of 22 people and the wounding of another 24, I found myself walking into our local Walmart before 5 am. On my hip, as usual, I sported my pistol.
Soon I was approached by a young man who asked me to please leave the store, because I had a pistol. He explained that in response to the deaths in El Paso, Texas, ‘they’ve’ decided to stop allowing open-carry in ‘their’ store.
Surprised, I asked, “Really? I’ve been here lots of times while open carrying.”
“That maybe, but things have changed,” he answered, as two male employees walked up, joining him.
The four of us began heading towards the front of the store and the only door open at that time of the morning. As we approached the exit I asked: “Can you guarantee my safety if I come in here unarmed?”
“Yes, we can,” he smiled, “We have a uniformed officer at the front door.”
Looking to where he was pointing, I saw an older woman, sitting on a stool facing the interior of the store and completely unarmed. I had walk right by this person when I entered the store and she said nothing to me.
“What, her?!” I exclaimed, fully shocked, “Not only is she unarmed, she’s facing away from where the threat will come. Basically, she’s nothing more than live-bait for an armed predator and she’ll be the first person in this store who gets shot.”
“She’ll be able to call radio in any threat that comes her way, long before any ‘threat,’ steps inside the store,” the so-called ‘manager’ stated.
He made air-quotes when he said the word, ‘threat.’ I couldn’t tell if he actually believed what he was saying or if he was that well rehearsed at regurgitating a ‘company line.’
“Good to know,” I replied, while shaking my head and I left the store without offering further argument.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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