It's happened (or will happen) to all of us. We're walking into our favorite
movie theater for the 50th time and happen to notice the 30.06 sign that we "swear couldn't have been there last time I checked!"

     Relax, take a deep breath, turn around, and take the pistol back to your car. It's as simple as that. There's nothing like that gut wrenching paranoia of knowing that you are or have been walking around in a place where concealed handguns are prohibited, and you are packin' some serious heat.

     It's a lot like the paranoia during that very first time you carried concealed
after your license just showed up in the mail, and you could feel that everyone
around you KNEW you had a gun. I remember the first time I got my CHL in
the mail. I was on my way to get some gas and stopped by the mailbox. There in
the stack of useless crap and bills was the most beautiful state seal of Texas on
the envelope that I had been waiting on for months. I opened it, ran back inside,
grabbed my favorite pistol, and went to the gas station.

     When I got out of the car to pump some gas, I got really nervous. "Holy
crap," I told myself… "I'm carrying a gun in public!"  I'm not kidding, I was absolutely certain that everyone around me could see that dang gun even though it was hidden deep in my zipped up coat pocket.

     Fast forward a few years. I'm walking into a movie theater and noticed this
small 30.06 sign in the lower right corner of one of the doors that I normally didn't
use. That original tummy tingling paranoia crept into my insides. I stopped, turned around, and walked right back out to my car.

     After securing the gun in my car (I had a safe bolted to the floor of my
truck), I went back into the theater. But, this time I went in a different door. Guess
what? No sticker! That's right my friends. It wasn't posted on all the doors….just
one of them.

     Is it legal for a business to post only one 30.06 sign you ask? You can bet your bail money it is. That theater made the effort (albeit the most minimal amount of effort) needed to inform the public of their intentions. the law does not stipulate that a business must post more than one sign.

     Here's the bottom line folks. Mistakes happen to the best of us. There is no
way around that fact. Since 1990's when the great state of Texas passed its CHL
laws into place, gun nerds (like me) and the self defense minded among us have
been unintentionally printing and accidently carrying where we shouldn't. It's the truth and the nature of system like ours.

     Fortunately for us, we live in the Promised Land where everyone and their
florist carries and/or owns a gun. But, believe me, there are weirdos everywhere that won't allow us to carry in their places of business. And they have every right to
prohibit us if they want.  Business owners have rights, too.....  They are, however, forgetting that we are the sheepdogs that are willing to go through the red tape, expense, and training needed to save the lives of the very store owners who are denying us. But, I personally vote with my dollars. They don't like me, then I have to assume that they'd hate to have my money….but that's another article.

     Don't forget that the Color Code of Awareness that we talked about in our
CHL class is the thing that will most likely save your life. Take it very seriously.
That means being a good observer in all respects. It's the same if you're keeping
an eye on that weird guy walking towards you down the street, not parking near
that strange van in the darkest corner of the parking lot, or keeping an eye out for
30.06 signs.

     Make no mistake…. intentionally printing is illegal. Carrying where it's prohibited is illegal. But, if you mistakenly find yourself in that situation, don't freak out…..  relax, take a deep breath, turn around, and take it back to your car.