[spunkets]

"I was fortunate that there was a uniformed officer to my right that I saw out of the corner of my eye"

You were oblivious to your surroundings. A bad guy would have taken your gun. Given it's NH though, they had no justification for the ambush.

[mvpel]

I admit freely, and with a definite measure of shame, that I was in "Condition White" - a mistake on my part. I wound up getting absorbed in the book I was looking at, and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.

Two object lessons, then: don't spook the sheep, and pay attention!