As I was driving back from Washington D.C. after attending a basketball all-star game, I headed down Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway in Baltimore. The streets were still relatively busy.I pulled up to a stop light and stopped to wait for the light to change. I must admit that I have a general personal rule that I don't look at other people in cars around me. Not sure why that is, but I just never get anything out of gawking at other people around me. If anything, you end up getting a stare back from someone you don't know wondering why in the world you're staring at them.
For some reason, I looked over at the car to my left while sitting at the stop light. The people in the car were not looking back, so they didn't notice my brief look. When I looked over, I saw the passenger in the car holding a .44 Magnum. He was clicking the trigger over and over, so it obviously wasn't loaded. He was pointing it out of his front windshield at the car in front of him. I didn't bother to look for more than a split second for quite obvious reasons. I also left in a big hurry as soon as the light turned green. No need to wait to see if he knew how to load it.
A few thoughts:
1) That will most definitely be the last time I violate my personal rule of not looking at people in the cars around me at a stop light.
2) I'm really glad that the people in the car in front of him didn't look in their rear-view mirror at the time he was pointing the empty gun at them. It could have got messy in a real hurry.
3) The vast majority of people living in that area and Baltimore in general are good people. It's a shame that a few idiots make it such a tough town.
4) While there are certainly some bad apples in Kansas City, I believe that I'll take my chances back in Missouri or Kansas over Maryland any day. There are some wonderful people in this area and some wonderful things to see, but high levels of drug use and poverty are a recipe for disaster.
