Here’s a little trip report: we were on a hike today, a popular hike in an Oregon state park. A young woman was chatting with my wife and I on the trail. As we passed a bee/wasp/whatever nest, that woman got stung on the leg. She had relatively thick leggings on, and I think the stinger got stuck there and she didn’t get much of a sting.

She told us that she had a bad reaction to a bee sting last year, and she normally carries an EpiPen, but she didn’t have it with her. I had a little first aid kit with some Benadryl, which she took, along with some after bite wipes, which she used.

While we were doing that, I noticed that she was open carrying a pistol. She seemed to be doing fine, so I joked that she should go shoot the bee nest. She told us that she carried the gun because she was worried about mountain lions and bears, though as my wife remarked there was a worse predator in large supply on the trail, the American male.

We ran into her on the trail a couple of times and she was clearly OK. But, man, talk about misjudging danger. She also wasn’t carrying her pistol securely, as far as I’m concerned — she basically had it jammed in her leggings. I hoped she didn’t have one in the chamber (I’m pretty sure it was a Glock, and Glock pistols do not have a safety. You pull the slide to put a round in the chamber when you’re getting ready to shoot, but some people think that danger is so omnipresent that they need a round in the chamber at all times.)

I certainly think that firearms need far more regulation in the US, but I’ve shot pistols, rifles and shotguns. I can see why people think it’s a fun hobby. But I’ve chosen not to own a gun of any kind because there are very few situations in life that can’t be made worse by the presence of a gun (or a police officer). I just don’t think they’re worth the risk. I don’t even have bear spray with me right now (I lost it somehow), but that would be my choice for self-protection if I thought my self needed protection. There are just too many accidental discharges and suicides among gun owners.

A little later on the trail, we came across an annoying teenager who was blasting tunes on his Bluetooth speaker. I wish the young lady would have taken her pistol and put a round into the speaker, because that’s the proper response to that annoying breach of trail etiquette.

While I’m writing about my trip, tonight we ate at a restaurant that had a co-ed bathroom. There were individual stalls with lockable doors, and everybody shared the sinks. I thought that was an awful idea. The poor women frequenting the establishment had to be exposed to the disgusting pig habits of men, most notably their terrible aim when they’re trying to hit the toilet while standing and peeing. This raises the question of why we think the average male with a pistol would be able to reliably hit anything, since they can’t seem to do it with an appendage they’ve had all their life and use multiple times a day.