U.S. police officer handgun calgary

U.S. police officer handgun calgary,Two men, unknown to each other, took a hike up Nose Hill Park Friday morning.

One wore a faded Yankees T-shirt, the other man tugged his red Canada Olympic hat.

The man in the T-shirt went up one trail, the Olympic hat wearer went up another path.

If looking for symbols of one of the more bizarre and talked-about stories to hit Calgary this summer, those two hikers may fit the bill perfectly.

Last month, a visiting American police officer from Kalamazoo, Mich., lamented the fact in a letter to the Calgary Herald that he was unarmed and felt vulnerable when approached by two young men.

In what Walt Wawra described as an “aggressive tone,” he was asked by the men what many Calgarians hear the first two weeks of July: “Been to the Stampede yet?”

Wawra said it felt strange that he was not allowed to carry his handgun while off-duty in Calgary.

“A man should be allowed to protect himself if the need arises,” he wrote

That encounter he described and the sentiment Wawra expressed have made him an Internet and Twitter sensation.

Suzanne de Mos, who has walked along the trails of Nose Hill Park for 45 years, believes the question was nothing more than a greeting.

“This man is a police officer and he does encounter criminals but this is a park in Calgary and there is no need to be so paranoid,” said de Mos. “When he thinks they were being forceful and repeating the phrase, I can’t see that being anything but young men trying to be polite to someone they thought were visitors.”

A quarter of a million Americans visited Calgary in 2010, mainly from California, Texas and the border states of Montana and Washington.

Hala Dehais, a spokeswoman with Tourism Calgary, said during marketing trips in the U.S., potential American visitors used to ask whether they could bring their guns to Calgary.

“We don’t get that question as much any more, I think that’s because Americans are becoming more educated that it’s not the same here,” she said Friday.

Lois Crossman, walking her three border collies, said when she lived in Arizona, a fellow nurse had been raped and left for dead in the desert. Her colleague carried a gun with her at all times in her handbag.

“It just seems so different than our reality here,” said Crossman. “This police officer was probably upset that he couldn’t carry his gun like he was used to and he was just looking for a reason to feel threatened.”

Former American resident Tracy Gwilliam, who lived for two years in a small-town in Colorado, said as a Canadian she never grew accustomed to the desire of her neighbours to arm themselves.

On a shopping trip to Denver with a friend, Gwilliam said she spotted her friend’s concealed weapon.

“We lived in a town of under 2,000 and it surprised me that even in a small town, she felt unsafe and the need to protect and arm herself,” said Gwilliam.

“Here we were in a minivan with kids and this gun underneath the seat. It really made me aware of the difference between Canadians and Americans.

“I felt very Canadian then and this guy probably felt very American when he was here.”

source: thestar