WTF?

[pecunium]

Recently, at work, something odd happened.

Guy came in, and started to ask me questions about knives. So far all is normal. Selling knives is a lot of what I do. We talk about this and that, and he starts being discoursive. He then asks me one of those questions I've had, now and again, though not here; at SLT.

"What do you think of women using knives?"


"I don't have any problem with it."

He went on, saying from things he'd seen them doing in the kitchen it gave him the willies. I said he ought to see the things I see men doing with knives. Then I tried to point out that it was more a matter of preconceptions than anything else. I told him I'd been in the army for 167 years, and I taught firearms handling, as well as knife skills. This was to lead into telling him that I far prefer to have female students (in firearms) than I do male ones (in knives it doesn't have the same gender skew, though there are traits I think I see more in women than in men. There are other traits I think I see in men more. some good, some bad, in both sexes).

That did, so I thoght, derail the conversation, but it was being a bit strange, and I wanted to done with it. He started asking me questions about guns, and I started actually moving him out of the store. On the way he started asking me about my thoughts on "open carry". My thoughts on the carryng of firearms are pretty simple. Most people shouldn't do it because they don't think it through carefully enough (for more detailed ideas of my thinking you can read the post/comments in places like Making Light (where the subject has come up, more than once).

I tried to say this, gently, but I was starting to get an odd vibe. I actually started pushing him out of the store (my boss actually noticed this). At the door he kept going, and then it happened, he explained why he was looking into things like "open carry" (which right he didn't know we had in Calif. never mind that as configured it's a mess... asking for trouble and conferring no real benefit to anyone who isn't willing to spend lots of time getting a number of drills down to pure muscle memory. Even if that's done the requirements still make you much more target than anything else... all of which I mentioned to him).

It's because of the political situation now, and the "trouble we have coming with the blacks and the browns".

I was croggled. He'd just given me what can only be described as the tea-bagger's secret handshake. I wasn't certain until he added, "You know I used to be a liberal."

The next say, he was back. Asked if I had a card, and then (when I said I didn't really. Which was true, in context. I don't have a card for my work, and I had no intent of sharing my personal one with him). That, it seemed was ok. He had one to give me, with a slightly conspiratorial leaning in as he said, "I might have some work for you."

Comments

[packbat]

What do you do with something like that?

[onyxlynx]

That's...pretty chilling.

[tsotate]

"What do you think of women using knives?"

I can't follow the logic of this question at all. The only answers for it I can come up with are things like, "Well, most of them will prefer a smaller grip than I find comfortable." Obviously from the rest of the (creepy!) context, that's not what he meant, but I just can't wrap my head around the assumptions needed to make that a reasonable question.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Cripes. No fun. The least creepy scenario there is he wants you to train his militia. And that's pretty creepy.

I have, btw, heard over and over again heard knife and firearms instructors say the exact same things you have here about male vs. female students. Over and over and over.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it was the Army thing that twigged him to thinking you might, you know, be *dangerous*. And therefore an asset to whatever white militia he's imagining he's in charge of. Hopefully he's a harmless loon.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

My god. That's actually a little scary.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

How long were you in the army, Terry?

Ye gods and small fishes. I can only hope the idiot's dumb enough to shoot or stab himself in a few delicate places.

[redbird]

Oh, dear. Odd is about the least troublesome description I can think of there.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

"What do you think of women using knives?"

"I don't have any problem with it."

I love you madly, but... you get an opinion?

*kisses you*

And, SERIOUSLY. Do we need to get you some IVAW shirts of something?

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

fuck.

have you called the cops? if you haven't, might you consider it?

[nelc.livejournal.com]

How's your boss with all this? Can you refuse to serve white-militia-guy if keeps on showing up?

[goshawk.livejournal.com]

*makes face* Ew. Even if he's just one wild-eyed conspiracy hack, that kind of thing can throw off your whole day. And it's scarier when you think the tea-baggers seem to actively recruit these kinds of racist loony toons.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

This would be a helluva opening to a noirish drama.

Creepy creepy creepy

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

Sounds like someone looking to make trouble somehow.

[mtgat]

Good God.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Women using knives? Like, say, that customer's mother making her kid's dinner? That customer's grandmother feeding her family? WTF? Even if one believes women should be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen, how the hell will they get anything done in said kitchen without wielding a knife?

Arizona (as you prob'ly know) allows open carry. People in town almost universally don't take advantage of that. People in the country mostly don't carry handguns on their hips, unless their work requires that they be prepared to kill a hurt animal or protect their critters from predators or varmints.

The exception is tourists in places like Tombstone. They wear their holstered pistols over their polo shirts and Bermuda shorts and think that gives them a connection to the gunfighters of long ago.

Not, perhaps, the worst reason to carry ever. But pretty close.

I always want to stop them and ask, "You do know that nobody's going to ride in and shoot up the town, right?"

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Hey, if he comes in again, tell him you're sorry, but you're too busy getting ready for the invaders to help him out. You know, the real invasion. *jerk thumb toward ceiling* The meteors are just testing our defenses, making sure we're not prepared. They'll be pretty goddam surprised when they get here.

*g*

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Creeeepy. But very, very interesting to read your report of being approached like this. I hope you can find a comfortable way to not interact with him if he starts showing up at the store regularly.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

I told him I'd been in the army for 167 years

Wow, you _are_ well-preserved. :-)

[janetl.livejournal.com]

It's so hard to imagine this in an upscale cookware store in the city. Ick.

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

I bloody hate running into things like that, and it seems to be getting more common again. Good luck and good skill defusing the mess.

[tfcocs.livejournal.com]

My goodness. This is a scary story.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

"What do you think of women using knives?"

I guess I lack context or experience, because my reaction is "Huh?" It wouldn't have occurred to me that people would have a gender bias on that one. Except, I guess, if someone is freaked out about the possibility that a woman might be using any kind of possibly-dangerous tool. I suppose that referring him to Neil Gaiman's "A Girl Needs a Knife" (e.g. as performed by the Flash Girls) would be a bad idea.

This sounds like a really creepy guy, and I hope he was possibly offering work, not "work".

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

*boggle*

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Well, not much left to say. Except "Let's be careful out there."