Are these people oblivious?

[Treo]

The other day on my way home from work I got cut off in traffic, on a road that was essentially empty. The guy pulled up in the right lane even w/ my fender looked right at me and came over had I not stepped on the brakes he’d have hit me. Then he proceed to slow down to about 5 miles under the speed limit, I followed him for a while then he slammed on his brakes and turned right w/ no turn signal.

I’m not sure why but I suspect he was deliberately trying to antagonize me.

A week or two ago I was on my way to work, I ended up behind a car that was going a little under the speed limit until I pulled into the right lane to pass, then they sped up and prevented me from getting around them. When we stopped at the light the passenger informed me that I’d “Better watch how the [blank] I’m driving”

Now here’s my question; in both cases I had a gun and while I recognize that neither situation called for any thing like an armed response, I’m not the only person out there that carries. Do these people not think before they decide to try to piss off some random stranger? I mean, what’s going to happen when they try that crap w/ another Vern Smalley?

Maybe it’s because I’m a gun owner that I stop and think that the people around me might be armed and I behave accordingly but it makes no sense to me that anyone would risk such an interaction w/ a random stranger in today’s society.

I guess I’d like to discuss the mindset that goes w/ that kind of stupidity and how we, as responsible gun owners, deal with it.
Any input would be appreciated.

P.S In case you're wondering I highlighted the sentence in the third paragraph because somebody will mis read this post and castigate me for wanting to draw in those situations, I'm just preparing for it in advance

[johnnyreb]

As a truck driver, I can tell you these idiots are everywhere. Not only do they think that a confrontation or accident can get them a court ordered settlement for injury, they are willing to risk life and limb playing with heavy trucks to get it ...

Sure, i'd like nothing better than to yank 'em outta their vehicles and beat them to within an inch of their life ... but I'm not gonna risk my hard fought right to carry on some pathetic loser.

[B2Tall]

I have very little tolerance for idiots on the road. I live in S. Florida where half the drivers didn't get their first pair of shoes until they were 12 and probably never saw a paved road until they came to this country. After 15 yrs down here I have learned to greatly appreciate the drivers in other parts of the country in spite of what I used to think of them.

That being said, I found that I'm much more patient since I began carrying. The last thing I want is to get into a situation where I have to defend myself with my pistol. No more yelling at people or flipping them the bird. We recently had a "justifiable" road rage killing down here. Basically it was "Dumb" shooting "Dumber" because the latter reached into the former's car during a RR incident. Stupid stupid stupid. If just one of these idiots had just taken the high-road, there wouldn't have been a dead guy in the middle of the street that day.

Not too long ago I read a book by an avid motorcyclist who has ridden tens of thousands of miles all over the world. He admitted that he was the type to freely dish out "advice" to idiots on the road. After one paticular time in Florida, one of his riding companions told him that buying a gun in this state wasn't much more difficult than buying a pack of cigarettes, and that many motorists carry firearms in the vehicles. Ever since then he's kept his mouth shut and simply turned the other cheek.

Good advice as far as I'm concerned.

[father-of-three]

Yes, being a gun owner can help keep things in perspective, especially emotionally antagonizing things!

[mappow]

You answered your own question "Maybe it’s because I’m a gun owner that I stop and think"

[XJ_MAC]

Off any gun issues. Were you not passing or about to exit/turn left when you were in the left lane? Most states that I know of have some type of law stipulating that you should be in the right lane if neither of these apply. Ohio's simply says something about slow traffic to the right. You do/should know that the courts have interpreted this to mean what I pointed out above. I personally think they need to rewrite the law to be more explicit.

[kevin mosley]

I drive most of the day, most every day. The things I see people doing, often maliciously and unprovoked, amaze me. The common word you gentlemen have used is stupid. This is the answer: stupidity. It's a plague that has our society in its grasp. Some of it is genetics. Some of it is sloven, mental & social laziness. Bottom line - I don't care why someone's stupid, I just care if they are stupid and I have to interact with them.
Let's face it: we all interact with stupid all day, because it's everywhere...and stupidity is the reason that we are aware, alert, concerned, and armed. The violent career criminal is stupid, practicing stupidity to an extreme.

For us that choose to think, to pay attention, to try to live as responsible members of society, our lives are (for the most part) lived setting an example. We who choose responsibility become the high thread-count fabric of society.
The next time (probably tomorrow) that I'm deeply frustrated by some bipod attempting to place their cranial mass in their sphincter cavity, I will think of you gentlemen as a reminder that I'm not alone.

The meek will inherit the earth, from the assertive thinkers. We'll leave it to them when we find someplace better, knowing we can always take it back if it doesn't work out.

Peace-

[wooddoctor]

I'm sure these stupid Radical Liberals conducting road rage voted for the Community Organizer. Liberals have no rational thoughts process.

"Liberalism is a Metal Disorder"


Are Americans Really That Stupid? - Video

[CathyInBlue]

"The meek will inherit the earth, from the assertive thinkers. We'll leave it to them when we find someplace better, knowing we can always take it back if it doesn't work out."

I LOVE this line.

Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I have a distinctly different view of road rage vis-a-vis defensive driving. I've in one day I experienced all three of these on my commute to and from school:

1) On an obviously two-way street, some idiot thought the on-coming lane was the left turn lane until I needed to turn left up it. I made him back up back into his appropriate lane.

2) The opposite, mistaking a one-way street for a two-lane street when I come face to face (or grill to grill, I guess, with them. Luckily for them, it was at an intersection (though how they knew to stop there without the traffic light directing them to, I'll never know), and they were able to get turned up a side street going a legal direction.

3) Guy driving a red Pontiac Gran Prix with a passenger's side mirror that's broken off and left to dangle, jumps out from the left side of the same one-way street as in #2, where he parks. If you have no functional passenger's side mirror, why park on the left side of the street?

If some guys experienced all of these in the same day, I'd expect him to lose it. Every time I encounter these things, I just sit there, quietly, patiently, until the stupid realize their stupidity and extricate themselves there from. Sometimes, I've had to shift into park because that wait can be pretty long.

It's not a matter of my ego. It's a matter of my safety.

[wooddoctor]

Cathy, why is it that most women when they get behind the wheel they start to fard. (Applying Make up) I have seen women with a cell phone up to their ear in one hand and farding with the other.