It was Canada for the love of god! I don’t care what small town in the USA you come from Canada is NOT a exotic and threatening foreign nation, it is an English speaking essentially identical to the USA place.
I mean I could understand him feeling threatened strolling through low income areas of Venezuela or something, but Canada?
http://21stcenturysocialism.com/files/thumbnails/caracas.jpg
If he’d not been there before, surely. 
That’s right - of course, it would then be replaced by him being grilled by the Calgary police about the assault with a restricted weapon that he just committed. I think most people would find that grilling a bit more worrisome.
I think you’ve been whooshed, NP.
Good question. Have the two guys been interviewed by the local media?
Not that I’ve seen.
The root of the problem is that police work hones ones perception abilities and instincts pretty finely. At the same time it can, encourage bravado, ego and even a little paranoia. If you know any cops, you probably know this to be true. (You’d have to be inhuman not to grow a tad paranoid, dealing with what the average police office must see, over the course of a career!)
But that’s a deadly combination, in truth. When someone begins to convince themselves that their perception of a threat is so certain, it’s sufficient to take preemptive action, we got a problem.
Now this cop didn’t say he’d have drawn his gun, but his letter screamed of the exact thing.
Ducati’s post did too. They might have wanted to ask him what he paid, since they were intending to buy gallons of it. There are a thousand innocent reasons for one guy to go a different direction, on the approach. While he didn’t point or fire his gun, he did use it to intimidate, two possibly entirely innocent, citizens into retreating, possibly in confusion and fear. Damn straight I’d have jumped in my car and bolted too!
But I’m really talking about the blindness. His experience forces him to see it only one way. He was threatened, he was justified in showing his weapon, and he’s the hero because he certainly averted a crime and avoided being a victim.
Perception of a threat is not enough, it has to be demonstratively harmful or threatening in some way, or you’re the criminal. I don’t know any place where unexpectedly being spoken to would qualify, in Canada or the US.
Ok, I don’t want to get all up in your grille in an unusual Canadian way, but is talking to someone in a park, in broad daylight, in a friendish way UNUSUAL?!?! I mean, I’ve traveled to the US a lot. I’ve been approached in greeted in a friendish way pretty much every time I’ve been, by total strangers (oddly, this happened a LOT in Minot, ND. Why Not Minot, indeed!).
At no time, when approached by these strangers being friendish did it occur to me that I should shoot one of them.
I have to say, it sounds a bit like you’re defending a total loony. Now, it’s your prerogative to do so, but it seems a bit odd. I mean, when I read a story about one of my countrymen or countrywomen doing something retarded abroad I cringe, roll my eyes, and hope that people don’t assume that everyone from here is so much of a boob.
Wawra is clearly a boob - I just think you should rethink your defense of his boob-ish-ness.
Jeez, Canada looks pretty shitty. 
BTW, hasn’t the “they were handing out free tickets” rumour pretty much been disproven? Can’t find the link I was looking at yesterday but the oil company named had denied any knowledge.
Good thing they didn’t ask him for a foursome.
While I agree with your post in general, in defense of all [sane] US gun-owners I must point out that the second thing they teach in gun safety classes, is not to do things like that [see emphasis above]. You draw your weapon to fire it. You fire your weapon to severely injure some-one. You make damn sure you have good cause to do the second before you do the first.
[The first thing they teach is how to make sure the gun is unloaded.]
Two good rules for guns:
Never point a gun at somebody unless you’re willing to shoot them.
Never shoot somebody unless you’re willing to kill them.
But the point of these rules are they’re supposed to cause restraint. They’re supposed to make you realize how serious pulling out a gun is and make you stop and think if it’s really the best choice.
The problem is some people get it in reverse. They pull out the gun and point it at somebody and then, belatedly remembering the rule, they come up with a reason for what they just did.
“Huh, I’m pointing a gun at this guy…I guess he must be threatening me or something.”
Yes. Drawing your gun to show someone in a threatening manor or to scare some threat off is a crime in itself known as ‘brandishing.’ You can lose your concealed carry permit that way.
You do not draw your weapon until you believe that you must respond to the threat, and you draw and shoot.
Hell I’m shocked there aren’t more dead panhandlers and proselytizing christians the way some people get on.
That’s just Vancouver - the rest of Canada is pretty nice.
Wait a minute, is that Canada or a whoosh?
It looks like everybody in Canada lives there if so.
No, it’s Caracas, says so right in the file path.
Well, yeah, but the bad guys in not the op went away, and are still alive.
That sounds like a win-win thing.
You don’t know that, and if it were me, I would have left, too. There are plenty other places to buy cleaning supplies, and most of them don’t have people standing around who think guns should be used as pointing devices.
As stated up-thread, his 20 years of experience and judgement were dead wrong.
Given that you pulled your gun out when somebody was NOT being rude to you, it’s not that great a leap to think you might if somebody WAS being rude.
I just wish the Canadians would invade San Diego so I could enjoy their healthcare and culture and not have to leave my sunny climate. 