Exposed!

I went to the doctor for a minor procedure yesterday. I just had my physical last Thursday and for some stupid reason I didn’t think I would be asked for my weight and other vitals again. Wrong.

I was carrying my usual self-defense tools, utility tools, and a double handful of keys (how can this be? Yet, I can go through them one by one and claim a need for all of them) rather than putting them in a fanny pack I could dump quickly while on the scales. I told the nurse she didn’t want my weight. It would be about 15 pounds more than last week. “17”, she corrected.

Then she wanted my blood pressure. I was wearing a unbuttoned light-weight denim shirt over a t-shirt with my STI Eagle 5.1 (link is to the very similar 5.1) with a spare 18 round magazine on the off side in between. She had some trouble getting the cuff to go over my arm and shirt so I took the denim shirt off and tried to drop it part way down in such a way that it still covered my gun. It went all the way to the exam table and left my gun fully exposed in the Kramer IWB #2 holster. The nurse had to see it. She was working with the cuff just a few inches from the gun but she didn’t comment or stare. She did her business with the vitals and other stuff then left saying the doctor would be in shortly.

After many minutes the doctor was still not there and I became concerned. I thought maybe they were waiting for the police to arrive or something. The doctor has a bit of an accent and I wasn’t sure where it was from. I thought she might be from England and I worried she would refuse to see me. Bitter tried to reassure me but I wasn’t all that reassured. After a few more minutes she came in and there was no indication of concern about the gun on my hip. Whew!

As she prepped for the procedure she made small talk and I had a good opportunity to ask about her accent. South African she said. Ahhh! Much, much more gun friendly than England. Maybe that partially explains it. I didn’t ask.

I’m with Robb, I expected something once I lost concealment. But nothing? I guess that’s good.

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12 thoughts on “Exposed!

  1. Once, when I had a concealed permit, I stopped by a friend’s place to drop off some BBQ related dishes he had left at my place. I only expected to be a moment. But as it turns out, he wanted me to come in and hang out a bit, show me his new PS2 game and TV and whatever. Well, his girlfriend was sick and so the heat was on much higher than it would normally, but my only concealment was my jacket.

    I was there almost a half hour before he noticed that I was sweating like mad and asked if I wanted to remove my jacket. When it came down to it, I placed myself between him and the door and asked if he or his girlfriend would be freaked out if I took my jacket off and found I had a legally concealed weapon. Turns out she grew up in a house full of gun carrying men and women, and he just didn’t care.

    That really the closest I’ve ever gotten to exposing my sidearm to a stranger, if you don’t count carrying my rifle over my shoulder through downtown Moscow. But after a news story many years ago about a guy who had his gun spotted from bellow while he was in the bleachers watching his son play baseball, ad then being gang tackled, citizen arrested, disarmed, and then later set free by the police, I have always been really really careful and concerned.

  2. At the doctors, if you need to take anything off, just ask for privacy while you remove your shirt. They’ll think you’re weird, but they’ll give you privacy. Then put your gun in your shirt.

    Or, take this tack: you did everything asked of you to conceal your gun. They asked you to remove your shirt, and if they get scared because you were concealing a gun, they shouldn’t have asked you to strip.

    Or, just do what I do and tell people that carrying a gun is the only way you can keep the voices from stuttering.

  3. Well, most of us have seen far scarier things than a completely calm and rational man carrying a firearm.

    Here’s my favorite:

    ER, many years ago. 400 plus pound biker, obvious Ghost Rider/Hells Angel type. Involved in a bike vs car crash. Bloody, but very much alive and a little belligerant. We had him stripped down to his underwear and were looking for IV sites.

    In the process, X-ray was trying to get a portable view of his chest and abdomen. Big, nondescript blob in his right lower abdomen. Density made it obviously metal. We started lifting the folds of skin, and, lo and behold, there was a very nice .45 tucked right in there between the folds, wrapped in a burrito style holster!

    Not completely unexpected to find a weapon, but this was AFTER we had already removed a very nice matched set of custom Kimbers from his twin shoulder harnesses!

    He actually turned out to be carrying legally, and was only belligerant because of his head trauma. He calmed down and was discharged, (with all his weapons) about 2 days later.

    Car driver was charged and found guilty of running a stop sign.

    Turns out he was a “Bikers for Christ” guy.

  4. What i gotta know is how in heck you can carry an STI and extra mag IWB and keep your pants up!

  5. Oh puhleeeze! You are in f**king Idaho! The nurse probably wondered “How many more of these is he packing? How much more weight should I subtract? Is he stashing magazines in his pockets?” Why even carry if you are going to be so paranoid?

    And don’t forget — Nurses have seen it all. Doctors have too. They wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow if you told them you were wearing your wedding ring on your penis.

  6. Thanks for that fascinating story, Joe. You described it so well I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the end. I’m glad you weren’t the victim of anti-gun hysteria. That stuff doesn’t do anybody any good.

  7. That’s EXACTLY how it should have played out. Utterly transparent. Would other minorities like comments, either positive or negative? “My, what rich dark skin you have!”

  8. Regardless of “blue,” isn’t Washington a “shall issue” state? “Shall issue” means everyone who qualifies gets a CCW.

    Do you think you are somehow “special”?

  9. What does getting a CCW have to do with someone freaking out that doesn’t know or understand the firearms laws? I live in Washington, have a CCW, and let me tell you. The scenario that Joe talks about, I know of going completely the other way.

    Dismores in Pullman (red part of the state kind of…. it’s complicated). Guy runs down the the store with his concealed weapon as he enters the store he notices he’s unconcealed slightly exposing the weapon. Manager sees, freaks out, and calls 911. Manager tails CCW holder around the store, telling him he’s breaking the law and going to be arrested. Won’t say how he’s breaking the law, just he’s in trouble.

    Officer arrives, ends up CCW holder knows the officer. The exchanges goes as follows:
    Officer to manager: “What’s the problem?”
    Manager to officer: “He’s carrying a gun.”
    Officer to CCW: “You have a permit to carry concealed?” (He already knew the answer)
    CCW: “Yes”, turns around so the officer can see, withdraws wallet and hands license and CCW.
    Officer to manager: “Ok so what’s the problem here?”
    Manager to officer: “What, you’re not going to arrest him and take his gun!?”
    Officer to manager: Pointing at gun on his hip, “I have a gun, he has a gun, what’s the difference!?”
    Manager to officer: “I guess none.”
    Officer to manager: “Go on about your business.”
    Officer to CCW: “So what happened!?”
    CCW to officer: “Came in to the store to get some milk for the wife, as I entered I notice my shirt came up and I re-concealed.”
    Officer to CCW: Shakes head “Say hi to the wife, and have a nice day.”
    Manager continued to follow CCW until he left the store.

    That’s what joe was expecting. As an FYI, I know that story first hand, there’s another reason I was happy to move out of Pullman. Pullman PD is great, the people though…

  10. Barron, it’s a college town, thus red by infection from all those liberal professors!

    And yes, I know whereof I speak, two siblings graduated from there and are professors. They are constantly at war with the liberal bias on the college campus.

    But Joe was in the red part of the state and go no reaction. Maybe there is hope!!

  11. ubu52, It is a “shall issue” state but there is still a lot of bigotry. The Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says he is going to defy the law and prohibit concealed carry in parks and on other city property. Many stores, malls, and parks have “no guns” signs up. Many other businesses have policies that prohibit guns on their premises even though they don’t have signs up advising their customers (in my area Costco and the Pro Club for example) and nearly all businesses prohibit employees from even having a gun in the trunk of your car on company property.

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