Encounter at a Central Wisconsin Diner

By Dean Weingarten

Don Hosmer
  Don Hosmer
Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Last year, on the way the Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC), I had an unexpected encounter at a diner in central Texas.  I rode my motorcycle to that GRPC.

This year I took my truck to the GRPC in Chicago. I have friends and family in Wisconsin that I wanted to visit, and some items that would have been less comfortable to carry on a motorcycle. This year the encounter happened after the conference.

I was traveling up I-90/94 when I decided to stop for dinner on the northern edge of the Wisconsin Dells. Last year I had parked my motorcycle at that Denny’s for lunch. There had been a lot of construction then. Now, a year later, it had been completed. I grew up in Wisconsin, and have followed their fight to restore second amendment rights in their state. I knew it was legal to open carry, so I had been. I noticed that one of the customers “made” me as I came in the door and was taken to a booth. His booth was in line and adjacent to mine, but I faced his back as he faced away from me.

I wondered if he would say something to me. He had that self confident look that made me wonder if there might be a verbal exchange.

It is hard to read the back of a head. The waitress had delivered my coffee (very good), and I was trying to relax and get ready for the next leg of my trip.

Then he put on his hat. On the back of it was a Gadsden flag, about 1×2 inches. I opened by mouth and said “I like your hat.” He turned around and we started talking.

He had just come up from Chicago, he said. So had I, I remarked. He had attended a conference. So had I. He sat in the back row of the GRPC. I sat in the front row.

By now, we were friends. We traded cards and experiences. He had come to Chicago through Indiana, and stowed his carry gun at the last rest stop before the Illinois border. He said that he saw several cars that were stopped and doing the same thing; holsters coming off, guns being unloaded and stowed to be sure of compliance with the law.

I had followed the Illinois fight to restore rights closely, and I had read the law. If you could carry legally elsewhere, you did not have to unload as you travel through Illinois. Gun culture members are careful and law abiding, and they know that there can be a difference between the law on the books and how it is interpreted on the street. The law is still fairly new, so it makes sense to be cautious. Don is a great guy, and I hope to see him again.

The old media has worked hard to convince the gun culture that we are marginalized and isolated. We sometimes worry enough about harassment to avoid putting on a bumper sticker or wearing a pin. From Don’s picture, you can see that he is not shy about his views. In my defense, I was openly carrying. Everyone has to evaluate their own situation.

I have found that we are not isolated, we are not alone, our views are mainstream, not out of date and dying. There are friends and allies all around us. Sometimes you find them in unexpected places. Don struck me as the kind of man you could trust at your back. Maybe a Gadsden flag pin, or a second amendment bumper sticker is something I should try.

The more I look for friends and allies, the more I find. I have decided not to let those who want to destroy the gun culture decide who is mainstream, and who is not.

c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

About Dean Weingarten;

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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VT Patriot

Hopefully Dean will see this. I’ve always wondered about ‘legal’ open carry in other states. Living in VT (OC, CCW state) and wonder about traveling to NH next door where OC is also legal. Can I walk or drive across the border from one OC state to another while OC even tho not a resident?

Odysseus M Tanner

A gratifying story. I’ve also been thinking how the gun culture needs to assert itself more visibly, and call out the bigotry toward people of arms for what it is.

https://66.147.244.112/~peoplfd3/the-heart-of-the-matter/