Defensive Carry banner

Grilled out for the first time this year today...

2K views 24 replies 20 participants last post by  RETSUPT99 
#1 ·
I pulled the old grill out (not really that old, bought it last summer) and cleaned it up. Set it up on the back patio and started the charcoal then sat in my lawn chair with my ice cold Coke Cherry Zero (one of the greatest inventions in the history of the world).

I had on a pair of 5.11 Academy cargo shorts and a too large tank top. It is one left over from when I was much fatter, it is an extra large and I now wear a Medium. But, it hides the Glock 23 on my right hip in a Fobus paddle OWB holster. :image035:

After the burgers were done and we had eaten them with some baked french fries and baked beans (all American dinner!) I went back out to clean the grill and stow everything. The wife came out and sat in the chair and about that time our neighbor walked over to say hello.

We chit chatted for a while. She remarked on my weight loss as she had not really seen me for a couple of weeks and then she asked about the slight bulge she saw on my right hip when I bent over to pick something up. She asked it it was the house phone clipped to my belt or what. So I just raised the tank top and showed her what it was. Her eyes got real big and she said "Oh...it's a gun!"
She's pretty cool and I knew she would be OK. She asked me why I had it on and seemingly on cue we heard a siren in the distance. Maybe on the interstate that runs through our town or something but I pointed in the general direction of the siren and said, "because the sirens might not always be so far away."

We talked about guns for a little bit and she looked at my wife Beckie and asked if she had any guns and Beckie just lifted her shirt and showed her the XD .40 sc in her Galco belt holster.
Again, the big eye stare and then she asked if she could go to the range with us sometime. She says she would like to learn about guns some and might even buy one for home protection bt doesn't think she could carry one.

So, looks like we might have a new gun person right next door.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Woo Hoo. The only thing better than grillin' is gunnin'. Just bought a new grill a couple weeks ago since I had killed my old one (wore it out, didn't shoot it). Neighbors aren't back from Arizona yet (snowbirds), so they haven't been over yet. Otherwise sounds like that could have been my place.

Glad your neighbor is good with it. Sounds like a good person to have living next door.
 
#4 ·
She's a very nice lady and since she isn't married and has no kids she has really taken to ours.

We went to my wifes parents house in Mobile Alabama last summer for a 3 day visit and asked her to watch the house while we were gone.

She called while we were down in Alabama and said everything was OK and she had gotten the kids a surprise for when we got back.

When we pulled up in the drive way there was a life sized Spiderman blow up figure standing next to the front door. It scared the hell out of me as I walked around the corner to go in through the front door and into the garage to turn the circuit breaker back on for the garage door. (We cut the breaker off when we go out of town to keep anyone from being able to open it with an opener on the same freq.)

She has gotten them Christmas presents and little toys from time to time. She is a sweet lady and I would be very happy to teach her about gun safety. She is very level headed and I think she will make a great gun owner.
 
#5 ·
Nicely done! :urla9ub:

Now maybe you can have your friends over for a BBQ and have them all open carry at the BBQ with their finest gun and holster set-up. Make sure to invite her too.

That will definately generate some interest from her, especially if everyone behaves and conducts themselves as adults, which they should if they are packing.

By the way, I will soon have a BBQ Holster to go with my S&W Blued Steel BBQ Gun. :banana:

Biker :tumbleweed:
 
#6 ·
A neighbor couple across the street know that we both carry. The guy is fine, but the wife has this thought that "...if anything goes wrong I'll just call you to come over with your gun..." We always say, "Er, it's about self-defense, not us arming up to police the neighborhood!" She still doesn't get it and continues to think that we will be her superheroes...arrgghh.

I really regret the day I shared with him that I carried, thinking that he would honor my request to be discreet...I'm sure others in the neighborhood know, and I wish they didn't.

Yes, it is warm enough in Minnesota to cook out and sit on the deck, once the remains of the two feet of snow is gone, which should be within a few days. Today I considered it a major sign of the coming of spring to go out shopping with just a fleece jacket...it has warmed up here, but no shorts yet, heh. Had it not been for prostate cancer and January surgery, I'd have been in Florida staring at the gulf for two months--next winter we'll try again.
 
#7 ·
Our last neighbor was an engineer for Colt. In a drunken stupor one night, he pounded on our door, walked in and introduced himself just before grabbing me and my husband by the hands and pulling us over into his apartment to meet his wife.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

He and my husband were always comparing guns and showing off new toys. His wife was shy to guns and had never really wanted anything to do with them, but seeing that I was alright with them and still a lady instilled in her enough ease to go shooting with her husband one weekend.

She came back ON FIRE! She jabbered on and on about how much she LOVED it and couldn't WAIT to go back.

When they moved away we continued to get photos of them with new toys and another couple pictures of his wife at the range, a determined look on her face, declaring war on b-mods.

It's a great thing to share the love!
 
#8 ·
Nothin' better than bbq. Being from Seattle, we love throwing some fresh salmon on the grill. Our last one was about a week ago.

As for neighbors, I really want to make sure that only a select few friends know that I will be carrying and the neighbors don't make that short list. I don't know about you guys, but for me the few people that know the better. I am all for trying to spread the gospel of CCW, but I also want to blend in unless that moment that we all carry for comes my way.
 
#10 ·
As for neighbors, I really want to make sure that only a select few friends know that I will be carrying and the neighbors don't make that short list. I don't know about you guys, but for me the few people that know the better.
I'm in agreement. This is the same as what they say about letting people know (if) you have martial arts training. Use it when you have to, but keep it quiet until then.

This is especially true if you just don't know what your neighbors' feelings are about the subject, or whether they're the types who can keep their mouths shut. Most people can't, which is why it's best to just say nothing about the fact that you have guns for protection.
 
#9 ·
But, it hides the Glock 23 on my right hip in a Fobus paddle OWB holster. :image035:
You gotta love those Fobus paddles! I spent all of yesterday and today with one on. It's the most comfortable carry system I have tried yet, apart from a shoulder bag (which has the drawback of being very very slow).


This is my favorite part:

We talked about guns for a little bit and she looked at my wife Beckie and asked if she had any guns and Beckie just lifted her shirt and showed her the XD .40 sc in her Galco belt holster.
That is flippin' AWESOME!! :image035:

Again, the big eye stare and then she asked if she could go to the range with us sometime. She says she would like to learn about guns some and might even buy one for home protection bt doesn't think she could carry one.

So, looks like we might have a new gun person right next door.
I love the fact that your wife carrying/being armed impressed something upon this woman. Perhaps it will result in her becoming a woman that the scum out there ought not to mess with. With any luck she will indeed go from being unarmed, to being a home defender, to possibly even being a CCWer. Have your wife spend more time with her, if she's agreeable. This sounds like it could end very well. :smile:
 
#11 ·
thats awesome.. I just took my fiances uncle to the local gun store where he bought a MP Compact 40... its his first and i get to teach him im excited
 
#12 ·
peacefuljeffrey, believe me when I say that I LOVE the fact that my wife carries all the time too. We are each others back up. And we make a hell of a good team.

Our neighbor has always been a good and level headed lady and I knew she could take it and could also keep a secret.

It was a good experience....and the burgers were awesome.
 
#13 ·
Excellent!! I love hearing this kinda stuff. :) Of my neighbors that I know, we have a LOT of firearms around here. The guy I live next door to recently had to use a bow(!!!) for self-defense against a mountain lion. haha He now carries a Beretta 92 when he goes out.

I usually get approached when we are loading targets and guns into a truck and all of us are either CHL or Open Carry. Neighbors will come up and ask about the guns, where we go, and how we shoot. I've taken a few out and shown them a few drills in the past months since I've graduated Gunsite 250. It's a good feeling to have so many neighbors who feel the same way...
 
#15 ·
... and then she asked about the slight bulge she saw on my right hip when I bent over to pick something up. So I just raised the tank top and showed her what it was. She says she would like to learn about guns some and might even buy one for home protection bt doesn't think she could carry one.
Sometimes it's that simple. With the "right" people, honesty can be the simplest way to get everything out on the table. Of course, you're at your home and that doesn't necessarily mean you carry concealed anywhere else, but ... now she knows. If she's got a mouth, more folks will soon know.
 
#17 ·
you're only supposed to grill durig nice weather?...My wife gets on me because I grill come rain, sleet, snow....I love my grill...
 
#18 ·
I've found that grilled meat is even more savory during those cold winter months when it's least expected. While I have the luxury of a sunroom/eating nook from which to monitor the grill while being indoors during the cold winter months, I'm sure all can come up with a system that works for them.

As to letting others know of your penchant for CCW and carry status, we live with a double-edged sword. So long as our rights to CCW are threatened (and in some locales, denied), we each need to do our parts to make others aware of the avenues to assist in the fight (NRA, GOA, JPFO, etc.). This makes advertising our individual practices difficult.

How do we let others know that guns are safe, that guns can and do protect thousands each year, and that the government will always try to disarm those private individuals who threaten the government's ability to tyrannize the masses, and at the same time keep our personal practices private? When it seems I have to choose between the two options, I have always decided it's better to be an exposed advocate. At least when they verbalize their assumptions that I'll protect them, they've opened the door to a discussion of the status of the government's infringement of our 2A rights.
 
#19 ·
I wish I hadn't read this thread. Now I want to hit the grill for dinner tonight, but just learned that I'm our of LP and charcoal (having a grill that can burn meat both ways is the greatest). I suppose I'll have to wait until I can make it in to see Hank Hill later this week.
 
#20 ·
I would say that most of my neighbors know I carry, since in the hottest weather it is exposed while I work cutting brush on my back property, mowing lawn, etc. I no longer have a lot of strangers wondering around on my property. It probably has more to do with the Machete in my hand while clearing brush then the gun on my hip.

My Niece will be coming up to stay awhile so I had better clean my grill, cause I know she will want grilled Salmon and steak.

I better start looking for some good charcoal. Of course she can roast hotdogs in the patio fireplace if she wants.
 
#22 ·
I grill every chance I get, and warm weather is optional....:wink:
 
#23 ·
Was high 70s here today, I weeded the front beds, picked up fallen branches from the lawns and marked out the excavation lines for the pool we're putting in.
Then we sat on the back deck with a couple of Belgian beers and basked in nature.
I wish it was like this all year.
 
#24 ·
Amen 0.02, it was real nice here today too. I am not sure what the temp was but, it was very nice. We went to the zoo with the kids, had a great time and burned off mega calories walking around the zoo all day.

Came home, rolled the grill out to the back patio and got a good charcoal fire going, then dropped 4 big steaks on it. Man it was good. Baked some big potatoes on there too.

I had the whole street wanting steak. It was great.
 
#25 ·
You Betcha'...

I pulled the old grill...$59.95
Coke Cherry Zero...$.75
pair of 5.11 Academy cargo shorts...$39
Glock 23...$600
After the burgers...$6

"because the sirens might not always be so far away."...PRICELESS

ret
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top