I kept my knowledge of firearms pretty quiet in general....just safer that way. For years. Concealed means concealed. And it can make you a target for theft.
One week I'm sitting with a bunch of my friends playing poker. Two of them are police officers. They're both talking about guns, all night, like they know a lot. These guys are smart guys--good guys--but they don't really know much about firearms. Seems like ever month I hear another myth out of them.
So one of them is talking to the other and says, "yeah, I gotta go to the gunsmith, which is X hours away to get my gun fixed. Safety is coming loose." They talk for another twenty minutes about how 1911s are impossible to work on, but now much they love them, etc. And how he just doesn't want to spend $100 on a gun smith.
Finally I just can't keep quiet any longer. "May I see it?" I ask.
"Uh... do you know how to handle a gun?"
"Something like that," I reply. He unholsters the 1911 (he's off duty) and hands it across the poker table. Everyone is now watching us and not saying a word.
Immediately I drop the mag and press check. Nothing. I grab the beer bottle opener and use it to get the spring and bushing out. I drop the thing down to parts in 10 seconds flat. I ask for a tool, get one, and then take apart the ambi safety. I show him the bur that was keeping it from connecting and seating properly. I file it with a file on a leatherman. Put it back together and hand it back. Safety fits just fine. Whole thing took a minute or two, tops. Really funny.
Everyone's just staring at me. No one's anti gun in that group, quite the opposite, I've just never talked guns or shown any interest in the conversations to date.
"I had no idea." He says, probably going over all the stuff he's said in the last year trying to sound like an expert on his gun stuff (which is what he later admitted to me).
"That'll be $100, Jim."
