If you are “scared” of the lawful exercise of my rights then perhaps the problem isnt me.
If you are exercising your rights (gun, speech, association, whatever) because it is reasonable and convenient for your well-being, fine.
If you are exercising your rights AT ME (carrying big awkward long guns in a coffee shop, screaming religious/political rhetoric on a sidewalk at passers-by, encouraging an angry mob to block traffic, whatever) because you are trying to make me think about something to my inconvenience/annoyance/concern instead of merely going about my business while you go about yours, not fine - and the problem isn’t me.
It’s not that I’m “scared”, it’s that you’re injecting yourself & your issue into my headspace and you’re wantonly pissing me off. You know the difference between exercising your rights because it’s appropriate vs exercising your rights because you want to make people deal with something they don’t want to deal with when they’re doing something else. You know there’s a difference between carrying a rifle into a coffeeshop because you’re walking to the woods to hunt, vs carrying a rifle into a coffeeshop because you want all the otherwise apathetic people to LOOK AT YOUR BIG F”IN RIFLE AND RESPECT YOUR RIGHTS which means you’re just being an @$$.
Two thumbs up
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. It certainly doesn’t mean it’s in your best interest, my best interest or the second amendment’s best interest. To put a finer point on it, people who think they need to openly carry assault rifles into the grocery store are nucking futs that are undermining past and future progress and this is coming from someone who owns 3 AR15s, an AR10, an FAL and an Uzi and more handguns than I can remember. If you see me carrying one of these rifles around openly, it’s because I need to, not because I want to.
Bravo! Well said.