My excitement for the day.

[Sava]

So I'm at Home Depot with my mom today, helping her buy lots of stuff for our basement that we are having refinished. The contractors are almost done. Probably next week everything will be finished. We are having a bathroom put down there, Pergo flooring, some other stuff like closets redone,etc.

So anyways, I'm at Home Depot and we're in the parking lot loading stuff in the car. I get finished loading everything and I'm about to get into the car to drive home. My mom is already sitting in the passenger seat yapping on the cell phone with her work stuff, as she usually does. About 20 feet away there is this white Chevy suburban. The parking lot is pretty empty, there weren't many other cars or people around us. A few, but not many.

Before I get in the car, all of a sudden I see FOUR COPS WITH M4 ASSAULT RIFLES DRAWN QUICKLY APPROACHING THE SUV.

They were on foot and just came out of nowhere.

I was shocked to say the least!!! I ducked down and whispered to my mom... "Mom... there are cops with assault rifles... get off the phone, get down."

She wasn't really paying attention to me.

There was also an asian woman with a small child about 5 feet away from me. She was covering up her child and ducking behind the car.

The cops are looking inside the big white SUV. By this time I could see at least 5 of them. Four had M4 assault rifles (WITH REALLY COOL LOOKING ACCESSORIES) and the 5th guy was an overweight detective with body armor on. He was walking kind of in the direction of our vehicle with his gun drawn (but not at us), there was a Hispanic guy walking from Home Depot.

The overweight guy yelled "GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF YOUR POCKETS!!!"

The Hispanic guy was scared ****LESS!!! He quickly threw his hands up!

The detective guy asked if the SUV was his, the Hispanic guy said no. There was some radio chatter and then all the cops quickly got into an unmarked blue Chrysler van and sped off to an adjacent parking lot where there was another white SUV. By then I saw there were a lot more cop cars and they appeared to have a guy in custody, but I couldn't tell.

I have no idea what this was about. There was nothing on the local news or anything.

But needless to say, it's not everyday you see a whole bunch of cops with assault rifles like 10-20 feet from you.

And OF COURSE my mom is TOTALLY UNAWARE and just talking on the cell phone the whole time this is happening.

Afterwards my mom was like, "You should have seen the look on your face."

Well yeah, SEEING COPS WITH ASSAULT RIFLES KIND OF DOES THAT TO ME!

I wasn't scared though. I didn't get the "fight or flight" adrenaline feeling that I've gotten before like when I've been in a fist fight. In fact, it was kind of cool. But I did have sort of a gaping mouth expression on my face. I just didn't expect to see a bunch of cops with assault rifles when I went to Home Depot to buy light bulbs and door knobs, you know?

The whole experience was actually pretty cool.

So that was it. My excitement for the day.

Now I want an M4 for Christmas. The ones the cops had WERE SO COOL.

[Guynemer]

A little over a month ago, the LL and I went on a little mini-vacation to a cabin with some hiking trails a couple hours outside of the city.

One night, we were driving into the nearest little town to have dinner; the main drag through town was blocked off by a cadre of cops. There were countless cop vehicles in the WalMart parking lot; it wasn't at all clear what was going on.

The next day, the LL discovered what had transpired: the police had found a mobile meth lab in the WalMart parking lot.

Ahh, rural Ohio.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Guynemer
in the WalMart parking lot.

[Zkribbler]

We see weapons on TV, we think we've become immunte to them. But whenever a sheriff carries a shotgun (or some such) through my courthouse, you should see the looks on people's faces. Even a shotgun being benignly carried by a sheriff to be presented as evidence focuses people's attention remarkably

Seeing a small hoard of police with assault weapons would have certainly got my attention.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
We see weapons on TV, we think we've become immunte to them. But whenever a sheriff carries a shotgun (or some such) through my courthouse, you should see the looks on people's faces. Even a shotgun being benignly carried by a sheriff to be presented as evidence focuses people's attention remarkably

Seeing a small hoard of police with assault weapons would have certainly got my attention.

Oh, I know exactly what you mean.

I play tons of games like Counter-Strike and Battlefield 2.

And in addition to that I've known how to shoot since I was ten. I own two handguns and I've built an M14 that I shoot maybe once a month at a range and also at my Godfather's farm in Wisconsin.

I've fired M16's before and seen other assault weapons.

I fully understand and respect what such weapons can do to people.

If anything, I think I have a greater respect and appreciation for the deadly potential of such weapons.

So when I actually see one in my daily life like that... it's like.... uhmmmm yeah... get down and hope that nobody starts shooting.

and get my mom off the GOD DAMN CELL PHONE

Now I have proof... not even men with assault rifles will get her off the cell phone.

[Sava]

oh yeah, and assault weapons should not be legal to own for civilians... PERIOD

[civman2000]

Now I have proof... not even men with assault rifles will get her off the cell phone.

That'll be a good one to tell your grandkids (as they laugh at the idea of people using old-fashioned cell phones).

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
We see weapons on TV, we think we've become immunte to them. But whenever a sheriff carries a shotgun (or some such) through my courthouse, you should see the looks on people's faces. Even a shotgun being benignly carried by a sheriff to be presented as evidence focuses people's attention remarkably

Seeing a small hoard of police with assault weapons would have certainly got my attention.

Hm. I didn't react much when I went past the British embassy in Berlin and saw it guarded by a minor horde of greenclad guys with assault rifles.


I did react, however, that time in Norrköping, when I saw policeman put a pistol to the back of a guy lying prone on the ground and ask him whether he wanted to die.

[Sava]

Did he?

[KrazyHorse]

Re: My excitement for the day.

Originally posted by Sava
I ducked down and whispered to my mom... "Mom... there are cops with assault rifles... get off the phone, get down."

She wasn't really paying attention to me.

If that happened to me my mom would sure as hell be paying attention to me because I'd have pulled her ass to the ground with me.

[KrazyHorse]

I have had a gun drawn on me twice and levelled at me once.

Both experiences are burned into my memory.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I have had a gun drawn on me twice and levelled at me once.

Both experiences are burned into my memory.

"leveled at me" ?

Not familiar with the expression.

[Zkribbler]

That means pointed at him.

[Jaguar]

I see big groups of police cars all the time, but it just means that some self-important politician is taking a motorcade somewhere.

Nothing cool like that has ever happened to me.

[KrazyHorse]

I was playing a game of capture the flag on Acadia University's campus in July 1996 when PM Chrétien was there to speak to the national association of girl scouts. I came up running to the velvet rope blocking off the red carpet. One of the RCMP (?) guards drew his weapon and shouted "stop, kid!". I panicked, vaulted the rope and looked backwards to see him pointing the gun at me. I took a hard left into a copse of trees, got through to the other side and tore off until I got to a large set of bushes, which I hid in for the next 15 minutes.