And what kind of lesson is that?

People have funny ideas about manners these days.

For instance, yesterday I went with Shootin' Buddy to see Iron Man 3 again at the local cineplex. In the row ahead of me, two seats to my right, was a woman who spent the entire movie using her smartphone to post Facebook status updates, apparently along the lines of "zomg totally at the movie pissin off everybody around me luv u l8r"

Because I have manners, I resisted the temptation to wash out her little screen with 80 lumens of Fountain Valley's finest and then when she turned around, say "Annoying, isn't it?" I didn't do it mostly because it would be rude, and partially because it could have had unforeseen consequences, like her boyfriend getting all physical and then where do things go from there?

In a similar vein comes a thread at the Indiana Gun Owner's forum where, with name and location omitted to protect the innocent, a poster relates a tale that has such a great possibility for going pear-shaped that the more I think about it, the more mind-boggling it gets.

Allegedly, the way it went down is like this: Some young guy is standing there in his local gun shop, minding his own business, with his hands full of prospective purchases and a pistol openly carried on his hip. The store was apparently moderately crowded with patrons, one of them being an older guy who apparently felt it was his duty to teach this young guy a lesson in the perils of open carry or situational awareness or something.

Anyhow, supposedly the old guy yanks the kid's gun out of his holster, drops the mag, clears the piece, tucks it under his arm and thumbs the rounds out of the mag while delivering some rambling lecture to the stunned kid about "Suppose I wanted to kill you now? Huh? What then?" Then he sets the kid's piece on the counter and stomps out of the shop leaving everybody standing there slack-jawed.

It is at this point that some in the audience are applauding the old guy for teaching the kid a lesson.

I'm thinking it's just a matter of luck that the old guy didn't learn one himself. Suppose the holster had been a retention holster whose appearance he was unfamiliar with, and his little grab turned into a wrestling match on the floor? Suppose the kid had felt the hand on his gun and arm-barred him while pulling out the little fixed-blade knife on his off-side that the old guy didn't see? Suppose the kid carried a pistol openly on his right hip... and another one not so openly in his left pocket?

Suppose... ohmygod ...that an employee had watched the gun snatch happen and, fearing some psycho was about to try and shoot the place up, blew the would-be-teacher out of his shoes with the shotgun behind the counter? Suppose the kid had done what he had every right to do, and called 911 and had the old guy charged with assault? A lot of lessons could have been learned in this incident; fortunately only the cheapest one was.

You know, as fun as it would have been to shine my Surefire flashlight right on that cell phone, I'm feeling really glad that I didn't now. I'll leave the rude teaching to someone else.