Are these people oblivious?

Treo

Treo

Bullet Proof
The other day on my way home from work I got cut off in traffic, on a road that was essentially empty. The guy pulled up in the right lane even w/ my fender looked right at me and came over had I not stepped on the brakes he’d have hit me. Then he proceed to slow down to about 5 miles under the speed limit, I followed him for a while then he slammed on his brakes and turned right w/ no turn signal.

I’m not sure why but I suspect he was deliberately trying to antagonize me.

A week or two ago I was on my way to work, I ended up behind a car that was going a little under the speed limit until I pulled into the right lane to pass, then they sped up and prevented me from getting around them. When we stopped at the light the passenger informed me that I’d “Better watch how the [blank] I’m driving”

Now here’s my question; in both cases I had a gun and while I recognize that neither situation called for any thing like an armed response, I’m not the only person out there that carries. Do these people not think before they decide to try to piss off some random stranger? I mean, what’s going to happen when they try that crap w/ another Vern Smalley?

Maybe it’s because I’m a gun owner that I stop and think that the people around me might be armed and I behave accordingly but it makes no sense to me that anyone would risk such an interaction w/ a random stranger in today’s society.

I guess I’d like to discuss the mindset that goes w/ that kind of stupidity and how we, as responsible gun owners, deal with it.
Any input would be appreciated.

P.S In case you're wondering I highlighted the sentence in the third paragraph because somebody will mis read this post and castigate me for wanting to draw in those situations, I'm just preparing for it in advance
 
As a truck driver, I can tell you these idiots are everywhere. Not only do they think that a confrontation or accident can get them a court ordered settlement for injury, they are willing to risk life and limb playing with heavy trucks to get it ...

Sure, i'd like nothing better than to yank 'em outta their vehicles and beat them to within an inch of their life ... but I'm not gonna risk my hard fought right to carry on some pathetic loser.
 
I have very little tolerance for idiots on the road. I live in S. Florida where half the drivers didn't get their first pair of shoes until they were 12 and probably never saw a paved road until they came to this country. After 15 yrs down here I have learned to greatly appreciate the drivers in other parts of the country in spite of what I used to think of them.

That being said, I found that I'm much more patient since I began carrying. The last thing I want is to get into a situation where I have to defend myself with my pistol. No more yelling at people or flipping them the bird. We recently had a "justifiable" road rage killing down here. Basically it was "Dumb" shooting "Dumber" because the latter reached into the former's car during a RR incident. Stupid stupid stupid. If just one of these idiots had just taken the high-road, there wouldn't have been a dead guy in the middle of the street that day.

Not too long ago I read a book by an avid motorcyclist who has ridden tens of thousands of miles all over the world. He admitted that he was the type to freely dish out "advice" to idiots on the road. After one paticular time in Florida, one of his riding companions told him that buying a gun in this state wasn't much more difficult than buying a pack of cigarettes, and that many motorists carry firearms in the vehicles. Ever since then he's kept his mouth shut and simply turned the other cheek.

Good advice as far as I'm concerned.
 
Off any gun issues. Were you not passing or about to exit/turn left when you were in the left lane? Most states that I know of have some type of law stipulating that you should be in the right lane if neither of these apply. Ohio's simply says something about slow traffic to the right. You do/should know that the courts have interpreted this to mean what I pointed out above. I personally think they need to rewrite the law to be more explicit.
 
I drive most of the day, most every day. The things I see people doing, often maliciously and unprovoked, amaze me. The common word you gentlemen have used is stupid. This is the answer: stupidity. It's a plague that has our society in its grasp. Some of it is genetics. Some of it is sloven, mental & social laziness. Bottom line - I don't care why someone's stupid, I just care if they are stupid and I have to interact with them.
Let's face it: we all interact with stupid all day, because it's everywhere...and stupidity is the reason that we are aware, alert, concerned, and armed. The violent career criminal is stupid, practicing stupidity to an extreme.

For us that choose to think, to pay attention, to try to live as responsible members of society, our lives are (for the most part) lived setting an example. We who choose responsibility become the high thread-count fabric of society.
The next time (probably tomorrow) that I'm deeply frustrated by some bipod attempting to place their cranial mass in their sphincter cavity, I will think of you gentlemen as a reminder that I'm not alone.

The meek will inherit the earth, from the assertive thinkers. We'll leave it to them when we find someplace better, knowing we can always take it back if it doesn't work out.

Peace-
 
"The meek will inherit the earth, from the assertive thinkers. We'll leave it to them when we find someplace better, knowing we can always take it back if it doesn't work out."

I LOVE this line.

Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I have a distinctly different view of road rage vis-a-vis defensive driving. I've in one day I experienced all three of these on my commute to and from school:

1) On an obviously two-way street, some idiot thought the on-coming lane was the left turn lane until I needed to turn left up it. I made him back up back into his appropriate lane.

2) The opposite, mistaking a one-way street for a two-lane street when I come face to face (or grill to grill, I guess, with them. Luckily for them, it was at an intersection (though how they knew to stop there without the traffic light directing them to, I'll never know), and they were able to get turned up a side street going a legal direction.

3) Guy driving a red Pontiac Gran Prix with a passenger's side mirror that's broken off and left to dangle, jumps out from the left side of the same one-way street as in #2, where he parks. If you have no functional passenger's side mirror, why park on the left side of the street?

If some guys experienced all of these in the same day, I'd expect him to lose it. Every time I encounter these things, I just sit there, quietly, patiently, until the stupid realize their stupidity and extricate themselves there from. Sometimes, I've had to shift into park because that wait can be pretty long.

It's not a matter of my ego. It's a matter of my safety.
 
Cathy, why is it that most women when they get behind the wheel they start to fard. (Applying Make up) I have seen women with a cell phone up to their ear in one hand and farding with the other.
 
wooddoctor said:
Cathy, why is it that most women when they get behind the wheel they start to fard. (Applying Make up) I have seen women with a cell phone up to their ear in one hand and farding with the other.
Click to expand...

Guys aren't exempt from this sort of juggling act either. I've seen one guy hold a cup of coffee in the right hand, a donut in the left, reading an open map propped up on the steering wheel, and steering with his knee. It was one scary ride in the church van with that joker at the wheel.
 
Booga said:
Guys aren't exempt from this sort of juggling act either. I've seen one guy hold a cup of coffee in the right hand, a donut in the left, reading an open map propped up on the steering wheel, and steering with his knee. It was one scary ride in the church van with that joker at the wheel.
Click to expand...

Sooo true, I drive a box truck and see some pretty scary things that people do while driving.
 
Women do fard.

I think it's the push to be everything men are, professionally speaking, but do it while looking supermodel gorgeous and in heels. It pushes women to multitask at all times, and that includes driving.

I'm more natural. I only wear make up on special occasions, and never... almost never... apply it behind the wheel.
 
B2Tall said:
I have very little tolerance for idiots on the road. I live in S. Florida where half the drivers didn't get their first pair of shoes until they were 12 and probably never saw a paved road until they came to this country. After 15 yrs down here I have learned to greatly appreciate the drivers in other parts of the country in spite of what I used to think of them.

That being said, I found that I'm much more patient since I began carrying. The last thing I want is to get into a situation where I have to defend myself with my pistol. No more yelling at people or flipping them the bird. We recently had a "justifiable" road rage killing down here. Basically it was "Dumb" shooting "Dumber" because the latter reached into the former's car during a RR incident. Stupid stupid stupid. If just one of these idiots had just taken the high-road, there wouldn't have been a dead guy in the middle of the street that day.

Not too long ago I read a book by an avid motorcyclist who has ridden tens of thousands of miles all over the world. He admitted that he was the type to freely dish out "advice" to idiots on the road. After one paticular time in Florida, one of his riding companions told him that buying a gun in this state wasn't much more difficult than buying a pack of cigarettes, and that many motorists carry firearms in the vehicles. Ever since then he's kept his mouth shut and simply turned the other cheek.

Good advice as far as I'm concerned.
Click to expand...
Living down here too, I have to agree.

But as the saying goes" You can't fix stupid." fits many of the drivers who can't even speak or read English..
 
I think JohnnyReb had the answer . . . .
There are a lot of folks out there that are out looking for an accident.
Believe me when I say that I have actually heard them talking about what to do and how to do it. They want an accident to happen . . . . The looking for "something for nothing" crowd . . . .

I keep myself in the right lane, just under the speed limit and remain totally and completely aware of what is around me at all times. The strange drivers that change lanes with no signal, the bob-and-weave drivers, the always having the foot on the break drivers . . . . you all know the ones . . . .

Just stay away . . . . Use the same approach as when walking.
Avoid ANYTHING that might be a confrontation . . . . :no:
 
A couple of weeks ago a guy pulls onto the highway in front of me (could have waited until I passed - about 2 seconds) then he does not get up to speed. I came up on him pretty close because of this and he proceeds to slam on the brakes - guess he was irritated at my temporary tailgating.
The first thing I thought was if he knew I was carrying would he have acted the same way.
And second thing was I'm glad I'm not generally reactive or hostile at things like that.
It was his lucky day.
 
Here goes another one of those things that I will likely get scolded for.

It would seem to me that people who are responsible enough to legally carry a weapon have enough self respect to keep from throwing their lives away on some piece of trash that got their DL's out of a cracker jack box (If they have them at all). Not to mention that those that legally carry have a high value for human life, as opposed to the thugs that think that poppin a cap in someone's a$$ is the coolest thing they could ever do.

Aside from that, everyone wants to be tough. Some people just think that this means you have to treat others like crap. I have ridden side by side with some of the nastiest bikers (according to the discovery channel) in the world, and I have yet to see one of them act like that. I have however seen them pull guys out of their cars and scare them till they pi$$ their pants for doing stuff (like in your examples) that could get people hurt.

Finally, I think it is important to note that I have personally driven a stick shift while eating a sandwich, smoking a cigarette and trying to open the bottle of soda that I had in my lap. I have also text ed while riding my Harley on the freeway. But somehow I manage to keep control of both myself, and my vehicle. And it is all because my mother taught me how to drive!
 
CalicoJack10 said:
Here goes another one of those things that I will likely get scolded for.

It would seem to me that people who are responsible enough to legally carry a weapon have enough self respect to keep from throwing their lives away on some piece of trash that got their DL's out of a cracker jack box (If they have them at all). Not to mention that those that legally carry have a high value for human life, as opposed to the thugs that think that poppin a cap in someone's a$$ is the coolest thing they could do.
Click to expand...


I think you miss the point. My question wasn't in reference to legal carriers. My specific point was don't these people stop and think , before they shoot their mouths off, that the guy in the car next to them could be one of those " thugs" that will kill them for "disrespecting" them?

Of course it occurs to me that I look like a safe target and maybe that's why I see it where an obvious banger wouldn't
 
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