If you have not followed this series of threads, you can find the background here:

Concealed carry and the Mexican Restaurant - Finale

Pursuant to the CCW class, the county sheriff had asked Mr. & Mrs. “Brady” to call his office and schedule a meeting at their convenience so he could have a follow up discussion with them. They did have the meeting and although the sheriff asked me if I would like to go, I had to decline due to a schedule conflict. I was disappointed because I would have liked to personally follow through with this little project that the sheriff had taken on.

During our weekly command staff meeting the sheriff filled us in on the conversation with the Brady’s. He said they were very complimentary of the sheriff’s staff throughout this entire episode. Though they indicated they were frustrated in the beginning, they said at all times the deputies conducted themselves professionally and appropriately, which was not their experience with law enforcement ‘back east’. The sheriff said he asked them a series of questions about the cultural differences they had experienced thus far between their home and the Arkansas Ozarks. They said they had both grown up in homes that were very liberal politically and socially, gone to a Ivy League school which was also liberal, and they’d pretty much thought most Americans were liberal too. They said that when the HR manager of the oil & gas company they work for talked to them about relocating to Arkansas, he advised them it would be culturally different and they needed to be prepared. They said they got on the internet and did some studying up on the area and it seemed like a beautiful place to go.

What they were not prepared for, they said, was cultural change. They said they’d heard of the Bible Belt but didn’t believe it actually existed. A place where most people go to church, and say “yes sir” and “no ma’am, and the community actually has monthly Tea Party meetings. But what shocked them most was all these guns! They had never seen anyone outside of a law enforcement officer with a gun and now they were in a place where it seemed everybody had one! It was absolutely frightening to them.

But, they said the concealed carry class changed everything. They referred to comments I made while teaching the class where I told them I had learned to handle firearms at a very young age. I’d shared with them how my grandpa took me rabbit hunting with him when I was but 4 years old, and had taken my first buck with a rifle by age 6. I taught my two sons how to handle firearms at a young age too, and when my oldest graduated high school I bought him a Ruger .22 Single Six as a graduation present. When he graduated college, I bought him a .40 semi-auto. I had also shared how my wife has a concealed carry permit, and although she seldom carries a firearm on her person, there is always one in the car and she is proficient with handguns. All of that was totally alien to the Brady’s who had grown up fearing firearms because only cops and bad people had them back home. They told the sheriff that the single most intriguing comment I made in the class was that seeing a shotgun leaned up in a corner by the back door of my father’s house was no more intimidating to me or my children than had it been an umbrella. We all knew that unless there was a need to use it, leave it alone, it’s not going to do anything by itself.

They told the sheriff that it surprised even them that they enjoyed the concealed carry class. Actually handling and shooting the firearms at the range was not as scary as they anticipated. They were quick to tell him they were not converts to this whole “gun culture thing”, but they had a much better understanding of why when they originally called the police about their concerns about people carrying guns in public, the officers just didn’t seem to be overly concerned.

The sheriff asked them if they felt more or less safe knowing that a lot of law abiding citizens were carrying concealed handguns in public. They said they had discussed that very question and they agreed they actually felt somewhat safer here because it’s part of the culture. They said back home they would feel very uncomfortable if any of the family members had guns because no one knows how to handle them, it’s just not their thing.

A few days after his meeting with the Brady’s, the sheriff tracked me down and showed me a thank you card they sent to him. In a had written sentiment at the bottom of the card Mrs. Brady wrote, “Thank you for the professional concern and courtesy you and your staff have shown to a couple of east coast liberals. You have been so kind to help assimilate us into your community. We can only hope if the roles were reversed someone would have been as open to welcome strangers in our midst.”

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That's great! You've given them something to think about, and it seems to have worked. Now, if only they use that knowledge for good, instead of evil... :-)

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

This couple reminds me a but of my sister and brother in law from Colorado. They're both doctors and quite intelligent, however they have what is essentially a fear of guns. I have no idea where my sister picked it up (I suspect from her husband) considering guns played a large role in our family growing up.

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I only wish all like minded "antis" would take this route and actually
learn about what they do protest about the loudest.
Congratulations on the way you and your department handled the
whole situation sir.

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Professional Law Enforcement at it's Finest


Thanks You for the update.




.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

Nice bit of work. Parts of this country seem almost like different natons. I'd be very uncomfortable where they came from.

Faulkner,

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this story for us. You fellows have done a marvellous job, and your sheriff is a real class act.

I'm still shaking my head over the things the Bradys said they had believed/hadn't believed before they moved. Don't know what to think or say about it right now. Texas Star nailed it when he said it's as though we live in different nations.

Andy

You are right, as big as our country is we think and do things differently in the various regional sections of the country. The founding fathers knew this and that's why many federal laws, like some of the restrictive gun laws, should be left up to the individual states.

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I just caught up with the story. Faulkner, great job, great write-up, great boss, great department.

So many terrific entries you posted, allow me to take one excerpt that stood out for me:

No one has said it better!

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Marty 4513TSW 13-1 642 60-10

Outstanding work, Faulkner. Thanks!

I have told folks like you have described how differently things were when/where I grew up. Your tale about the gun standing beside the door just like any other tool reminds me that the first snow was a silent signal for the boys to take their .22 rifles on the school bus for the ride into the little three room school house in Zephyr, Tx. The rifles stood in the corner behind the teacher's desk until after school when we all went rabbit hunting before the trip home. Today, I hear that an elementary student was expelled for eating his "pop-tart" into the shape of a gun. Sad how our Nation has changed.

Bob

Bravo, Faulkner!

An excellent post that I was afraid I would miss the last installment. Glad I didn't.
I don't think that situation could have been handled any better, and your reporting was spot on as well.

I'd love to see the entire series collected into a single document/thread and posted as a sticky somewhere. It's been very educational and needs to stay up front so new folks can read it.

Great story! The best part is that there are valuable lessons for both sides of the fence here.

Thanks for sharing.

Like keith44spl said, "Professional law enforcement at its finest."

Growing up, we were taught that a firearm was a tool, and just like any other tool, it can be dangerous when not respected and properly used.

Those were the days when most of us had our shotguns in the back of our pickup trucks in the high school parking lot with the doors unlocked...ready to do a little rabbit hunting or quail hunting on the way home from school. I admit, my memory is not what it used to be, but I sure as heck don't recall any of us going whack-o and shooting anybody at school.

Great post and thanks for taking the time and effort to help educate this couple. Not everybody would've done that. They would've just chalked it up as a couple more liberal bozos and would've forgotten about them. You've shown what a little extra effort can do. Again...thanks.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

It looks like we ALL may have something to learn from these posts. I've been around guns since I was 10 years old ( I'm 65 now) and I find their beliefs incredible. The effect that Hollywood had on the Bradys is amazing. I for one am going to try to be more tolerant of the "gun uneducated".

Thank you Faulkner. Your writing and story telling skills are to be commended.

I may do that.

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I too want to commend Faulkner, his Sheriff and the department. for their responses to the newcomers.

I grew up in N.Illinois on a farm and was a gun kid from as early as Dad gave me a Daisy BB gun. I went off to college and Uncle Sam then sent me to the East where I spent 20+ years. There is no one east coast culture but many depending on your background and education levels. The worst cultural divide comes from the affluent who believe you will be doomed if you don't go to the "right schools" from daycare through grad. school. This mania is excruciating!

My wife and I refused to fall into this syndrome with our children and eventually migrated to Iowa for many reasons. Our children all attended local public schools and the University of Iowa. One graduated Harvard Law, another is an MD who got all her first choices for resident and post doc training and the youngest has a Masters in Speech Pathology.

I mention all this because east coast snob/liberals would be totally unable to believe these results possible given the humble beginnings. The 'Bradys' who moved to Arkansas are struggling with a prejudice so deep it is almost insurmountabe.

They deserve a lot of credit too for making the effort to learn and maybe even to eventually fit in. Arkansas will be the richer by welcoming immigrants from around the US too.

Kudoes all around!

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

First let me commend you and your department for the way in which this has been handled over an extended period of time, it is very professional. This is the type of attitude and experience that will really change minds and attitudes. We all need to go out of our way to educate the many who are not "gun people". It will not be easy, and can sometimes be frustrating, but will be worth it in the long run. I have read many posts her bashing the anti gunners but very few willing to educate them. This is where we need to go in the future if we really want our views respected.
RichH

There is so much to say/write about this sentence alone. Humans have a tendency to assume that all other humans are like them. More specifically, they tend to ascribe to anybody else the same values and intent that they themselves possess.

In 2004 I recall having a discussion with a woman with whom I worked. She was more conservative than liberal and asked me "How can people vote for John Kerry?" My response flummoxed her. "It's easy, actually. You go into the voting booth and you press the button next to his name." I knew that she was not expressing disbelief about the mechanism of voting, but this answer forced her to begin (and only begin) to confront a disturbing reality: other people are vastly different than she.

I'm a hyperanalytic. I view everything through the intellect, teasing it into ever finer pieces of information and reasoning until I believe I have a complete understanding of it. Despite my arrogant thought that the world would be better were everybody like me, the truth is that the vast majority are far, far different from me. I'm married to one such woman, who lacks the "quantitative circuit" and cannot use precise language to describe even the simplest of concepts. It's maddening at times (for both of us) but enlightening as well.

Upon recognizing differences, one can begin to understand others with basic imagination. How are their views different? Which set of principles validate those views? How do those people think/emote/act differently than do I? At some point you will freely acknolwedge those differences, though you may never truly understand how another person can accept/embrace/espouse those principles and views.

Perhaps nowhere is the recognition of difference more important than in self-defense. When confronted with an armed assailant, we tend to think they are "having a bad day" or that they are just temporarily nuts and can be easily nudged back to reality. T'aint so. The assault begins because the assailant has already decided that your health and/or life are worth less than whatever he intends to take from you. You can't dislodge him from this position with anything except the credible threat of force against his person, and even then you might not succeed, giving rise to the mantra "Get violent enough, early enough."

Imagine now the utter lack of perception of these transplanted east coasters. First, they failed to recognize the diversity of people despite being of a persuastion that "celebrates" diversity. (Big lie, I think.) Second, when they were told of the diversity, they refused to believe that it really existed. Third, commensurate with this lack of intellectual and emotional impotence, they cannot recognize or believe that there are evildoers who are *intent* upon forcible removal of their property and/or harm upon their person.

Imagine how this new culture looks to them. People are armed to counter a threat that they do not even know really exists, and those people are comfortable with the means to project lethal force! Oh, the insanity!

Faulkner, you are doing God's work. (Another concept which they probably deny and cannot understand how others accept.) I've got a rapidly-devaluing five spot that says in due time these people will be gun-toting freedom lovers and will be marked as "those weirdos" by the family and friends back east.

Faulkner,
In case you missed my comment in your other thread, well done. Not just the writing, but the whole thing. You would be welcome to teach in my class any day.

I'm not sure where it would fit, but may I use this story in my pistol class?

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Freedom isn't free.

Absolutely, I hope others can learn from it as much as we have.

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Man alive as I started reading your post I had to double check that I hadn't written it myself and simply forgotten I had done so.

I had a similar conversation with my son in law the other day about not being aware of how different other people's worldview can be. Interestingly for me this insight first occurred while attending a liberal arts college in western Massachusetts and the fist time in Myers I had spent more that an overnight or three day trips outside of my home state of Ohio m

Just read through the saga. Very well-played. Reassuring to see LEOs give personal attention in what otherwise seems like random routine-ness.