your opine, fellahs:

At lunch today my girlfriend noticed two ladies walk into the diner, and one was dressed in casual clothes, and sporting two holstered pistols, one under each arm.

I called down to Bismarck's Finest after lunch, and asked the lady on the other end (we'll call her Officer Secretary) of the phone if she could clear a gun-lady scenario up. I offered the best description I could based on the limited amount of glancing I did (she had two guns, after all -- don't need to stare too hard).

Officer Secretary wondered if it might be a probation officer, because they sometimes carry. I said, "Do probation officers pack double heat?" She didn't know. She then said, "Did you ask the lady to show you her badge?" I said, "No, she had two guns..." Officer Secretary said, "Good point."

The paradox was profound: if someone has a number of holstered guns, and dons something that looks like a badge, does the public have a right to demand their credentials? Even more disturbing, does the public have a right to eat in a diner where pistols in horizontal holsters aren't pointing at everyone's head?

I then told Officer Secretary that with all the Dog Bounty Hunter shows on television today, one tends to wonder if this wasn't some variation on the theme. She said to call down to the Bismarck PD if anything of this sort was ever encountered again. "We'll send an officer up right away." ...and then I wondered: is it better to just leave someone with holstered weapons alone rather than bring a uniformed officer into the mix, especially in a crowded public dining room?

Strange lunch...