Do you believe you would be "more polite" to someone with a gun?

[IdaBriggs]

If, during a disagreement about ANYTHING, do you believe you would behave differently if the other person showed you they had a gun?

Would you be more "respectful" to them?

More "polite"?

Would you become more antagonistic?

Would you abruptly END the conversation?

Please share your thoughts.

Thank you.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. I would be very nice and then walk slowly away with my hands up./nt

[geek tragedy]

2. I would choose to not be in the same building as someone with a hand gun.

People do not carry something unless they anticipate using it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. this is so true. everything i carry in my purse i plan on using at some point

makeup, money, bank card, moisturizers etc

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. i would prefer not to encounter someone with a gun. i dont know that avoidance=politeness

[NightWatcher]

4. I'd leave the situation....and I've got a ccw permit

I also haven't shot for a few years because those nuts at the gun ranges frighten me. It seems that for a while last year, someone was getting shot at the range weekly. I was a trained professional, but too many of these other yahoos are amateurs.

[Just Saying]

6. I wouldn't be in a discussion with a person with a gun.

Frankly, I don't want someone who feels the need to carry a deadly weapon with them all the time in my life.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. I would be scared out of my mind and probably try to run or get away somehow

If I couldn't easily get away, I certainly would try to de-escalate the situation and ensure that the other person doesn't end up feeling like they might have to use it- of course with people like that, you don't know exactly how they might react. Better to just get away at the first possible opportunity. I don't play with guns.

[liberal N proud]

8. Only until I was out of range

So we should let people carry guns so they can win arguments?

[NYC_SKP]

9. I don't know. I would want to dope-slap them but probably wouldn't.

If I thought that they were showing me their gun as an attempt to intimidate me, the conversation would be over.

After that, I might consider legal action if I thought a law was broken, in hopes of ridding the community of a threatening person.

[Lizzie Poppet]

10. I think my reaction might depend on how they "showed" the gun.

If they simply opened their jacket to reveal the weapon but didn't reach for it, I'd just end the conversation as quickly as possible and walk away. Palms-out, "we're done here" sort of thing...

If they were actually pulling the gun, unless something clearly indicated otherwise, I would consider it the initiation of an assault.

[nolabear]

11. Polite might not be the right word. Careful, certainly. Especially if accompanied by a badge.

I'm scared shitless of guns, I don't care who's got them. They have a way of shooting people, on purpose, by accident, whatever.

[Trillo]

29. "compliant"?

[nolabear]

41. To a point. But resistant if necessary. Very carefully.

I was actually held at gunpoint once by a truck driver (don't ask how this dumbass ended up hitchhiking at 18) and I was very careful and personable and polite but I didn't comply with anything. I got out of a bad situation okay by a great combination of smarts and luck.

[In_The_Wind]

12. I'm usually polite with everyone.

[spin]

13. Purposefully flashing a concealed weapon is illegal in Florida. ...

So if someone tried to intimidate me by flashing his handgun I would do my best to withdraw and then would call the police.

I have a Florida concealed carry permit and I carry on a regular basis. I found that I became a much more polite individual once I first got my permit over 15 years ago. Other people that I know who have carry permits have told me they noticed the same thing.

[arcane1]

14. I would say I won the argument by default, and call them chicken-shit n/t

[Frytruk33]

15. Concealed means concealed

The truth is that you won't know most of the time. If somebody "shows" you a gun they are either trying to scare/intimidate you or they have a screw loose. Either way I would remove myself from the situation.

[MisterP]

16. their idea of "respect" is the same as everyone else's "fear of being shot"

and as for "an armed society is a polite society," that was meant to say that the "defective" and the slow draws were weeded out through generations of duels (evolution doesn't work that way), written by an ex-officer who never saw battle and instead became America's Kita Ikki

[hobbit709]

17. Until they turned away from me.

[hack89]

18. I would view it as a threat and I would immediately end the conversation and leave. nt

[Horse with no Name]

19. Actually, when I am around folks with guns

if I am in a public place, I leave, no matter what I am doing.

They make me very uncomfortable about my safety and the safety of those that are with me.

[mainer]

20. The presence of a gun changes the dynamics of any encounter

It intimidates those who don't carry it. And it gives the carrier a sense of power over everyone else. It destroys frank conversation and it makes the non-carriers want to disengage.

[sinkingfeeling]

25. +1000

[Paladin]

21. "Polite" and "respectful" aren't the operative terms.

"An armed society is a polite society" is surely one of the most ignorant, wrong-headed notions ever presented. An armed society is a violent, paranoid, scared-shitless society---check the morning headlines if you doubt it. And the open display of firearms by non-law enforcement or non-hunting individuals is done for one twisted purpose: public intimidation. Open carry is even opposed by some hard-core gun militants, who realize what a negative effect it has on the one socio-political issue they care about.

[frazzled]

22. What does "polite" even mean in such a context?

If someone showed me they had a gun I'd take it as a sign of intimidation and would be immediately fearful and try to extricate myself from the situation immediately. Obviously one wouldn't try to antagonize such a person in that situation. But that sure doesn't translate into "politeness."

Polite means you smile at someone and say nice things and treat them with respect. Would I do that to a person who shows me their gun? Only if I had to fake it to get out of the situation.

Then, when safely out of reach, I'd say: What a piece of sh*t goon that was. And I'd report them to the police: because showing someone a gun who is not specifically asking about guns is an act of aggression.

[UserNSAv32]

23. No

[sinkingfeeling]

24. I will not speak to somebody that I know is carrying a gun, so they would

have to pull it out and aim it at me.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. If you pull a gun on me

I assume you were taught the same thing I was growing up in a gun household . . . If you pull it you shoot it and you shoot to kill.

No - I wouldn't be polite. I'd be too busy asking the Universe to protect me on my journey into the other side.

[rrneck]

27. No. nt

[JHB]

30. I think the historical solution...

...where the politeness flows mainly from "because he might shoot me" (which is what the saying implies) has been "be polite now, but ambush the bastard later".

[Blue_Tires]

31. He's already proven that at the minimum he's an irresponsible gun owner

has poor judgment, is emotionally stunted and potentially a violent criminal if he's the type to introduce a gun into a previous non-violent disagreement; as if the gun makes him "right" or something...

I'd break off the discussion and leave the scene ASAP...

[Orrex]

32. If it's a guy in the US, I advise him that the average penis is 5.6 inches.

Then I say "Just saying."

[haele]

33. I certainly wouldn't be more respectful if they pulled out their gun to make a point.

I also wouldn't be more "polite" unless I felt that was the only way I could get out of the situation alive.
People who use the fact they are carrying a gun when a gun does not need to be present as a requisite tool for the task at hand just to increase their authority or the validity of their conversation are dangerous fools.
Wanna-be John Waynes (or any other wanna-be "tough guys&quot displaying their guns in public have no more social validity than drunk drivers.

That's the mistake people make with the Heinlein quote "an armed society is a polite society" - he wrote that in reflecting a period in the society of his story which "a great and wealthy country" had stopped investing in community well-being and had degenerated into a corrupt oligarch state, when where most of the general population of that story went around masking their real feelings or attitudes in fear of whom they might be interacting with due to the prevalence of instant "street justice" for those who weren't wealthy enough to have the protection of a police and judicial system. He was also making fun of the Hollywood portrayal of the Wild West.

(Note to the Heinlein haters - he pretty much a liberal socialist early on even considering "Starship Troopers"; he started going more Libertarian when he married his last wife who was conservative without the religiosity common in most American Conservatives.)

Haele

[musical_soul]

34. I wouldn't be more polite to them at all.

I might if they were overly tempermental, but I would be that way without the gun.

[Xyzse]

35. I'd avoid them to begin with

Arguments are just something I don't like having.
Them showing a gun is just being a bully, and that is a damn threat, especially if we are arguing.

I don't know what I would do exactly.

I may just put up my arms as if I've been sticked up and make sure I am at a populated area, and shout "Help, this guy has a gun". I'd probably even run and call 911, and tell them I was threatened by a guy with a gun during a verbal argument.

[Pelican]

36. Is comparing manufacturer, model and caliber more polite?

Seriously though, treat em like I do anyone else.

Odds are most people you run into that are carrying, you don't or shouldn't know.

[Fla Dem]

37. After my initial panic, and I was able to breathe again, I would leave the area very quickly.

No words, no actions, no looks; just quickly walk away until I was out of danger.

[sarisataka]

38. I try to be polite in every interaction with people

as I do know there is at least one gun present. If there is disagreement, politeness is every more important.

Over many years of refereeing youth sports, I have learned shouting solves nothing. A well-measured voice speaking in clear complete sentences will get past a person's ears better than any volume will.

If a person is attempting to use a gun as a prop for intimidation, I will politely point out their faux pas, end the conversation and call the police ASAP.

[ieoeja]

39. My dad and I openly poked fun of people sporting guns on their hip all the time ...

... when Indiana made it legal to carry a concealed weapon. The gun nuts wanted to make a big show of how they could now wear the weapons everywhere.

Problem was, open carry was NEVER illegal. They could have been doing that their whole lives. People would have thought they were kind of strange for walking around with a gun all the time. But there was never a law against it.

[LanternWaste]

40. I would walk away... quickly.

I would walk away... quickly, regardless of what the conversation is about. I guess that means I would be less polite.

[LittleBlue]

42. I would be more deferential toward them

You bet.