There are only two ways for humans to deal with each other- voluntary interaction or coercion. In a voluntary interaction, both people are free to choose whether or not they will do things with or for each other.
In a coercive interaction, one party chooses to use force (or the threat of it) to control the other. A great example of the two follows:
A man asks if I mind that he smokes a cigar while sitting next to me in the restaurant. I am free to say yes, or to say no.
Or he can do this:
There are those who would see the actions of the steak diner as being the coercive one, but that is not correct in my opinion. By lighting the cigar and smoking it in a restaurant, he is forcing everyone around him to smell his smoke. His actions are affecting others whether they like it or not. The only response to this is to respond with force of your own. The steak eating man asked nicely, but the smoker felt that he would be protected by society’s rules, and used them as a weapon to force others into smelling his cigar.
Now apply that to those who stand in the road as a form of protest. They have taken their right to protest and turned it into a form of coercion: society is being forced to bend to the protesters’ will, or the protesters are not going to allow anyone to get where they need to go.
People are using the rules of a polite society as weapons to be wielded against the very society which protects them and their right to protest.
There are those on the right who would do the same. Carrying an AR-15 into Starbucks, simply because it is legal to do so is a similar tactic.* Don’t be an asshole, and don’t lecture me about how it’s your right.
It’s possible to have the RIGHT to do something and still be an asshole.
Just food for thought…
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*You carry a handgun because you might be in a gunfight. If you WILL be in a gunfight, bring a long gun. Also remember that the best way to survive a gunfight is not to be in a gunfight in the first place. If your local Starbucks is that dangerous, perhaps you could get coffee elsewhere. There is a difference between being armed and being provocative.
13 Comments
nones · January 7, 2026 at 6:52 am
I think that if you feel you need to carry a gun to go somewhere, don’t go there…
Divemedic · January 7, 2026 at 7:59 pm
I carry a gun in case I could get in a gunfight. If I know I will get in a gunfight, I generally won’t go there.
Tree Mike · January 7, 2026 at 7:50 am
Funny how important manners, courtesy, consideration for others are, in a high trust society.
Hope my OODA loop reactions are up to the task of appropriate escalation, with the changing demographics and even the crass coarsening, of younger white folks.
Jay Dee · January 7, 2026 at 8:26 am
I borrow an admonition from SCA; Don’t go freaking the mundanes.
Danny · January 7, 2026 at 1:58 pm
“If you WILL be in a gunfight, bring a long gun.” Well said — that is the truth.
I was on one of the forums and the post was something like “what’s your backup gun?” – meaning a handgun. One commenter said “all sidearms are backups” I guess I’d have to agree with that.
Peter B · January 7, 2026 at 3:29 pm
Back in the day when you could smoke on an an airliner a friend of mine would respond to a nearby passenger asking “mind if I smoke ” with “Not at all! Mind if I fart (or puke.)
Dirty Dingus McGee · January 7, 2026 at 7:36 pm
Smoothbrains are welcome to try to block me on the road. They, like a couple of cars have learned,will discover that the front bumper made from a piece of steel guardrail and my home made “‘roo bar”( grill guard) on my F-350 ,will not even be scratched when moving them out of the way. If they aren’t attacking my vehicle I will move them gently. As soon as someone strikes my vehicle in anger, I will start moving them rapidly. If they start shooting they need to make the first one or two count, as I will already have a weapon in hand.
Do I want this scenario? No. That’s why I try to stay as much as possible in my little podunk corner of the planet. There are however times when I have to venture inside the “ring around the congo” (I-285 around Atlanta) so I stay prepared. Taurus Judge Magnum with .410 Federal Speed Shock shells “truck gun” and Ruger P-95 as EDC.
Chuck · January 8, 2026 at 12:03 am
Your comparison is wrong. Unlike the cigar or the idiot in the road, someone with an AR-15 in a Starbucks has absolutely no effect on anyone else. While it may be an asshole thing to do, it doesn’t impinge on anyone else’s rights.
Divemedic · January 8, 2026 at 7:17 am
Part of the reality here is optics matter. Public opinion matters. If you want to go hold a parade with a long gun at Starbucks, you are going to look like an asshole to the very same people whose support you need. Suzie Soccermom isn’t going to want you carrying your AR-15 to Starbucks. That is the effect, and it influences how she feels about gun owners in general.
Similarly, calling a black man “nigger” doesn’t really hurt anything but someone’s feelings, but using that word doesn’t win you any converts- it preaches to the choir without converting anyone to your flock and may very well drive some out. Carrying a long gun to Starbucks does the same thing: hard core gun owners will cheer you on, but the mom with a pink pistol in her nightstand or the woman who thinks it might be nice if her husband had more than a golf club with which to protect her kids will be put off by it, and you will lose potential supporters.
In all communications, there are two parties- the sender and the receiver. The AR toting at Starbucks is sending a message, and the receiver is getting one. The receiver is then going to express their opinion to their representatives. If you want to win elections and gain ground, that is where it’s done.
You can win, or you can be an asshole. I don’t think you can do both.
YourAverageJoe · January 8, 2026 at 2:38 am
In the area where I live, people wave to each other when passing on a road.
Not so much that they may know each other, but because probably everyone is armed.
Big Daddy · January 8, 2026 at 11:10 am
I carry a gun because I go all over the place and don’t know the safety profile of every little nook and cranny. I know most of them, and plan accordingly. If I have to go to the hood to take care of some sort of business, I do it early in the morning before all the ghetto rats get up.
I’m still armed just in case, but I minimize my chances of running into a confrontation. The same areas are more dangerous the later in the day it gets.
There is absolutely no profit in getting into a confrontation with anybody in most circumstances. There are only downsides.
That being said, if it comes to me, people will be dealt with in an appropriate and legal manner consistent with good judgment on my part. Been there done that. I’m still here!
TCK · January 9, 2026 at 1:54 am
If you go to a restaurant that you know allows smoking, you are consenting to the fact that it is ok to smoke at tables next to you.
Aesop · January 11, 2026 at 3:38 pm
You have an absolute right to smoke anything, anywhere in public.
Just don’t exhale.
Once you cross that Rubicon by sharing your noxious emanations, you are bound to accept what gets delivered.
Dennis Farina, ex-cop turned movie star, was kind to this guy in the scene, as all it cost was a couple of cigars and a glass of brandy. Introducing his face to the table would have been equally justified, once he declined to cease polluting the atmosphere.
Thus with many interactions in public.
Society gets coarsened when public @$$holes don’t receive the punch in the throat their actions merit.
And when children never hear “No”, at home, and never get a spanking when they disobey, they only learn where the boundaries of civility lie when introduced to them suddenly, usually by someone with a gun and a badge and the mandate to enforce “No”, in a corporeal manner.
This is the full explanation of the ex-human in Minnesota who got introduced to Agent Not A Road Cone’s Glock happystick, for the first and last time in her life, as she learned the difference between “protest”, versus violently resisting arrest and assault with a deadly weapon. You may beat the rap in court, but escalating things on the scene will empower – with the full protection of all law since Hammurabi -the person with the gun to becoming judge, jury, and executioner in 0.2 seconds. Darwin wins again.
If she’d instead gotten the shit kicked out of her earlier in life a time or three, perhaps she might have understood that at some times and places, your shenanigans won’t end well, because some people aren’t playing. Sic Semper Podexii
If we had more such interactions, we’d have less such interactions, and both public churlishness and recidivism would drop to fractional percentages. As it is, one can doomscroll FAFO videos on YouTube for days and days,and die of laughter at the antics on display.
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