Quote:
Originally Posted by Geronimo '74
There just is a big cultural, historical difference between our countries.
But that does not mean we are naive.
One questions springs to mind when I hear and read on this BBS how a lot of folks believe that they need a gun to be safe from harm. What do you do when you go on vacation? Obviously, you are not taking any guns on the plane when you go, let's say, to Europe.
Do you gun owners feel unsafe then?? Kinda takes the fun out of the holiday, not?
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Interesting perspective.
I was in Brussels a few years ago attending a conference at NATO. We stayed at a hotel near the old city center and were bused to NATO every morning. We were in civilian garb.
The third day we ended a bit early and the dedicated bus wasn't due for aver an hour. Two of my buds and I decided to take a local bus back to the hotel.
I have been all over the world without incident...Europe, Asian, South America, parts of Africa, Australian, etc. Zippy issues. I even lived in the Middle East for over a year, traveled widely there. Nothing.
So, here I am on a local bus in Belgium, headed back to the hotel.
Oddly, the bus is full of mostly young Middle Eastern men and women...from the back of the bus we hear, "F'ing Americans"...not once, twice but four or five times, each chant given as the bus rolled to a designated stop. At least two different voices. We exchange looks with each other and decide not to look behind us for the moment.
We are sitting near the front and do a quick sitsum: Foreign country, interesting part of town, not sure who is mocking us, and from the bus drivers body language, on our own. What we do want is separation and room to move.
We get off at the next stop...as do at least ten other people. We head down hill in a residential/commercial area, fairly wide sidewalks. We see no police at all. We hear it again: "F'ing Americans".
We all turn at once, each of us over six feet tall. There are three of them, two in their very late teens or early 20's, the other no more than 14/15. We stride towards them.
"What do you want?"
The look on their faces was an interesting mixture of defiance and apprehension. We all knew then (we talked about it later) that they posed no real threat. They backed-up and turned, repeating their little mantra as they walked away, glancing over their shoulders as they delivered their epithets.
We resumed our trek downhill.
I can tell you that whatever you think your cultural heritage is, your historical perspective, it is being slowly subsumed. Good luck.
I don't CC, BTW and haven't been in a fight since flight school.