American Tourist Scared of Canadians Wants Gun

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  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    I'm American. I read the posts about the women in Canada running at night and got instantly jealous. Unless I'm with a group of friends, we NEVER go out at night. Maybe to check the mail.

    And I've just come to automatically assume that everyone I don't know is carrying some form of weapon. I live in the South...gun culture is religion somehow. I spent a lot of time in europe, so NONE of this makes sense to me, even so many years after returning to the States. Guns, baseball bats, hockey sticks, frisbees, people, water...there's so many causes of death already. =.=

    There are still *kitten* out there that will hurt someone for no reason, I see young women running at night and walking their small dog after midnight. I actually forget to lock my car most nights and my front door is never locked, sometimes not over night(I know I forget and I'm dumb lol)

    It's a cultural thing, when I was in Florida, we were walking with friends and saw a group of black guys in an alley talking and drinking. one of my friends(also canadian) saw that one of them had nice grillz, like gold teeth. Walked over and said hello and commented on his grillz. Our American friend was freaking out, he said they could have guns or rob us. We struck up a conversation and we all hung out for an hour and they said no one ever comes up to them like we did. Don't judge a book by it's cover

    I think your country has a lot of history and poeple don't let it go. The fact that a lot of people can carry a weapon designed to kill people also doesn't help!
  • ambrwaves27
    ambrwaves27 Posts: 206
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    This letter was published in the Calgary Herald. It was written by an American cop who freaked out when 2 Calgarians wanted to offer him passes to the Calgary Stampede on Nose Hill, a public park on a big hill in Calgary. This is his letter:
    +++
    "I recently visited Calgary from Michigan. As a police officer for 20 years, it feels strange not to carry my off-duty hand-gun. Many would say I have no need to carry one in Canada.

    Yet the police cannot protect everyone all the time. A man should be al-lowed to protect himself if the need arises. The need arose in a theatre in Aurora, Colo., as well as a college campus in Canada.

    Recently, while out for a walk in Nose Hill Park, in broad daylight on a paved trail, two young men approached my wife and me. The men stepped in front of us, then said in a very aggressive tone: “Been to the Stampede yet?”

    We ignored them. The two moved closer, repeating: “Hey, you been to the Stampede yet?



    I quickly moved between these two and my wife, replying, “Gentle-men, I have no need to talk with you, goodbye.” They looked bewildered, and we then walked past them.

    I speculate they did not have good intentions when they approached in such an aggressive, disrespectful and menacing manner. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ they did not pull a weapon of some sort, but rather concluded it was in their best interest to leave us alone.

    Would we not expect a uniformed officer to pull his or her weapon to intercede in a life-or-death encounter to protect self, or another? Why then should the expectation be lower for a citizen of Canada or a visitor? Wait, I know – it’s because in Canada, only the criminals and the police carry handguns.

    Walt Wawra, Kalamazoo, Mich.
    +++++

    My sister and my nieces and nephews walk on that hill all the time. It's a neighborhood park where everybody is friendly. I am SO glad that this feral man didn't have his gun on him.
    /
    My question is, do you think that he was behaving normally? Do Americans carry firearms with them when they go hiking in public parks in case they encounter strangers who might talk to them?

    http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/09/walt-wawra/



    Oops he was from Kalamazoo? I went through there once.... it was a scary city maybe that is why he is like he is!

    I am from Kalamazoo. . .scary city???? Um which part. . .the art hop or the college campus?. . .seriously.
  • Lsufan22
    Lsufan22 Posts: 33
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    :noway:
  • m60kaf
    m60kaf Posts: 421 Member
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    It never fails do amaze me that people like this don't get the reason they need a gun is because everyone else has guns.

    I am about to drive home 20 mile in the rush hour in the UK - I have more chance of winning the lottery than being shot on that journey

    Why - hardly anyone does or can have guns in England

    If you live in a place where they are everywhere and you have a god given right to have them it is just impossible to comprehend places that get along just fine without them
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    The argument is only outlaws and police will have guns...which I think is completely fine by me lol
  • kimad
    kimad Posts: 3,010 Member
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    I ran at nose hill park a few times last month. (I'm American).
    I loved it. And felt totally safe.

    This cop kinda scares me. :smile:

    Agreed, I live within walking distance of Nose Hill Park, and although I am not one to speak to anyone I don't know -- this cop scares me too. Everyone askes anyone if they have been to stampede yet during same... it's normal.
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
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    Wow, this reminds me of the time my wife and I were visiting Toronto. Some hooligan at a local park approached us as we got out of our car and aggressively offered us the use of his parking pass, which he said in the harshest way still had usable time on it. We were so terrified that we took the pass and trembled in fear for the rest of the day.
  • RhonndaJ
    RhonndaJ Posts: 1,615 Member
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    In reading that I find myself thinking that the guy may not be crazy, just a product of his 20 years on the force. He feels vulnerable without is handgun. He was in a strange, to him, environment. He's witnessed and heard about far too many things to view two strange men approaching him and his wife as anything but a threat.

    The only worrisome thing is that he felt the need to write a letter to the paper about it, instead of thinking about it later calmly and realising he'd probably over-reacted.

    Me, I'm not a fan of guns in the hands of anyone, and I don't for a moment think that the vetting process for licencing people to own is strict enough, in any jurisdiction.

    But I will say that I do understand people feeling the need to protect themselves.

    It's not an issue for me here, however, as guns are illegal and it's only recently that some of the cops have started carrying them. Pretty much only because the criminals had them.
  • rlmadrid
    rlmadrid Posts: 694 Member
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    Thanks for the laugh! If this is normal behaviour of an American citizen, perhaps we should be confiscating their guns at the border!
  • Sox90716
    Sox90716 Posts: 976 Member
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    do you think that he was behaving normally? Do Americans carry firearms with them when they go hiking in public parks in case they encounter strangers who might talk to them?

    He was not behaving normally. Most Americans do not carry weapons with them. I'm a deputy sheriff and I think his letter was uncalled for.
  • paigemarie93
    paigemarie93 Posts: 778 Member
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    Pfft talk about paranoid, sounds to me like the two men were just making conversation, so ofcourse, ignoring them is going to make them ask again & then get a little miffed when you're rude back to them.
    The Police & citizens of the UK don't carry guns, I don't see the need, like if this guy would have had his gun, he might have shot two innocent people because he's socially awkward & paranoid, that would probably happen a ton over here if we all had guns.
  • KarmaxKitty
    KarmaxKitty Posts: 901 Member
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    I'm American. I read the posts about the women in Canada running at night and got instantly jealous. Unless I'm with a group of friends, we NEVER go out at night. Maybe to check the mail.

    And I've just come to automatically assume that everyone I don't know is carrying some form of weapon. I live in the South...gun culture is religion somehow. I spent a lot of time in europe, so NONE of this makes sense to me, even so many years after returning to the States. Guns, baseball bats, hockey sticks, frisbees, people, water...there's so many causes of death already. =.=

    I think your country has a lot of history and poeple don't let it go. The fact that a lot of people can carry a weapon designed to kill people also doesn't help!

    Unfortunately this is true. It's also true that it won't be going away in the next ten years either. There isn't a lot of progress when people keep going backward. :sad:
  • GuruOnAMountain
    GuruOnAMountain Posts: 489 Member
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    I'm from the UK where guns are a very rare sight and laws concerning all types of firearms are pretty strict.

    I can fire a gun (I spent time in the OTC and then as an Army Cadet instructor) so have fired assault rifles, .22, air rifles and pistols. Personally, growing up in a country where guns are not seen frequently, they ALL make me uncomfortable. The smaller the gun, the more uncomfortable I feel about being around it (seems much more easy for someone to mess up and shoot someone or themselves (!) with a pistol than it does with an assault rifle). I would honestly not want a loaded gun on my person unless I was in a war zone and therefore had a loaded assault rifle.

    Also, although I'm aware that there are bad people out there who do nasty things....I tend to prefer to live my life optimistically rather than being paranoid about the intentions of those around me. So I wouldn't want to carry a gun or a knife to protect myself even if it was legal. I'm reasonably sure that I could defend myself fairly well with self-defence techniques, a good ol' strong punch or by running like a crazy person if I had to and would much rather do that than shoot or stick a knife into someone, anyway.
  • rlmadrid
    rlmadrid Posts: 694 Member
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    Wow, this reminds me of the time my wife and I were visiting Toronto. Some hooligan at a local park approached us as we got out of our car and aggressively offered us the use of his parking pass, which he said in the harshest way still had usable time on it. We were so terrified that we took the pass and trembled in fear for the rest of the day.

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • 600racer
    600racer Posts: 149 Member
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    The guy was a cop for 20 years and always carried a gun. If I had something with me for 20 years I would feel uncomfortable without whether is was a gun, wallet or cell phone. Cut the guy some slack for putting his life on the line to make this world safer for others. He felt threatened being in an unfamiliar place with his family approached by a stranger who was overbearing and disrespectful. I completely understand where he was coming from.
  • LaurySch
    LaurySch Posts: 277 Member
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    I don't think this is about gun laws or who is more crazy - Americans or Canadians. We could argue these points forever! This guy over reacted, plain and simple. And I might have done the same thing on a visit to the States where I didn't know what the strangers were referring to. The idea that this dude would have pulled out a gun if he'd had one worries me, but I'd hope that with his training he wouldn't have fired it. I have a feeling that if it had gone that way, the two 'menacing' individuals would have backed off immediately and offered their friendliness to other less jumpy tourists.

    As far as the lady who is jealous of me being able to run at night alone because I live in Canada - I can't step outside after sunset or I will be eaten alive by various insects, please don't envy me this pleasure.
  • rlmadrid
    rlmadrid Posts: 694 Member
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    The guy was a cop for 20 years and always carried a gun. If I had something with me for 20 years I would feel uncomfortable without whether is was a gun, wallet or cell phone. Cut the guy some slack for putting his life on the line to make this world safer for others. He felt threatened being in an unfamiliar place with his family approached by a stranger who was overbearing and disrespectful. I completely understand where he was coming from.

    The issue is more that he didn't realize he over-reacted and proceeded to publicize his fears. He was a little paranoid.
  • tipadoo
    tipadoo Posts: 104 Member
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    On Alberta global news they said the two men were hired as promoters and roamed the city giving away stampede tickets...they were not just ramdomly talking to strangers for no reason
  • nascarted10
    nascarted10 Posts: 300 Member
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    Have you ever been sleeping in your own home and been robbed? Have you ever opened your garage door in the morning and been greeted by a person covered in blood from head to toe as they were running from the police. Have you ever come home to find your house broken into? I have. I live in a very good City, I would say middle class City in Ohio, and every day there is a person assaulted and robbed in a Kroger or some grocery parking lot - these are statistics reported by police.

    I don't know if this letter is true of not. It does sound over reacting to me. However, to judge someone and never been in their shoes is wrong, very wrong. What ever stance you take on firearms is between you and your own thoughts. What ever you think about our US Constitution is between you and your own thoughts. I just choose not to judge a person (no matter what Country they are from) until I have walked in their shoes and I can say been there and done that.

    Just happy all turned out well and the two gentlemen and the family are all safe and sound. (It doesn't always come out that way.)
  • dane11235813
    dane11235813 Posts: 684 Member
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    Wow, this reminds me of the time my wife and I were visiting Toronto. Some hooligan at a local park approached us as we got out of our car and aggressively offered us the use of his parking pass, which he said in the harshest way still had usable time on it. We were so terrified that we took the pass and trembled in fear for the rest of the day.

    LOL
    this happened to me last week. luckily i escaped with my life as well.

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