AZ: Armed Biker Displays Gun to Open Carrier in Yuma

I stopped to fuel up at a local gas station. The price was $1.93 a gallon.  I was open carrying my old Glock 17.   As I came out the door, the biker was standing beside this beautiful Indian motorcycle.  I said “Nice bike”, and he replied, “What are you carrying?”

Glock 17, I said, and he pulled open his vest to show me his S&W M&P.   His vest proudly proclaimed that he was a Vietnam Vet.  I said that while I had been in service during Vietnam, my tour was in California, at Hunter-Liggett Military Reservation (now Ft. Hunter Liggett), mostly shut down in one of the several rounds of base closures in the 90′s .  But, hey, somebody has to be a REMF (Rear Echelon type).  He said he didn’t meet many Army Vets in Yuma, they were nearly all Marines… and he was right.

Then he offered me a Bible, as he was handing them out at the gas station.  So we had quite a few things in common:  Armed, veteran, Christian, motorcycle riders.  We hit it off.

Jimmy hands out bibles quite regularly.   He had been wanting to carry for quite a while, but had been putting off getting a permit.  It just stuck in his craw a to ask the government for permission.   Then Arizona passed Constitutional, or “permitless” carry, and he started carrying regularly.   He says it is a major reason why he loves Arizona.

He was half-way apologetic about not carrying openly.  It’s just, well, on a motorcycle… he said, and I understood.  Your options on a bike are more limited.  The shoulder holstered S&W worked for him.  He said that when the gun shop owner saw that he was a Vietnam Vet, he immediately dropped $100 off the price.  Jimmy said “Sold”, and walked out the door a happy biker.

This S&W M&P is the Shield with the 8 round magazine.  It disappeared under the vest, and the vest absolutely fits with Jimmy’s overall style.   I did not detect an iota of a print.

In the common vernacular, Jimmy is a “Bitter Clinger”.  I will take Jimmy at my back any fair, or foul, day of the week.

Maybe the whole “State loyalty” thing, that took such a hit back in 1865, is starting to make a comeback… I feel positively proud of Arizona.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch