!!!! Now I want a bloomin ONION!!!

Susan, I think it would only be vas if the orderer and the orderee were on a first-name basis or the orderee was very inferior in rank (like, parent to child is vas). If they aren't intimates, it would be allez.

The orderee is a camp follower, the orderer a colonel, so a pretty huge difference in rank. But they don't know each other.

ETA--I'm going with "Allez!"

Carrying a concealed weapon is like leaving a job off your resume.

I guess I only care if someone is carrying a weapon when they pull it out to use it. Until that moment, it doesn't bother me and I'm not sure why it would bother anyone else. It's just sitting in your purse/pocket like pepper spray or a pocket knife. I think the gun only becomes an issue when everyone can see it - then people are uncomfortable.

Of course, people/churches/other institutions certainly have the right to set policies as to whether weapons are allowed.

Would you be offended to learn he knows fluent Mandarin, can kill you with a plastic knife, has only one testicle and hates battered onions?

With the possible exception of the plastic knife, none of those things have the potential to affect me in quite the way a gun could.

I guess I only care if someone is carrying a weapon when they pull it out to use it.

And if that's likely to happen, I'd appreciate a little advance notice.

I guess I don't care as much about concealment of weapons as I do about who gets access to them.

With the possible exception of the plastic knife, none of those things have the potential to affect me in quite the way a gun could.

So do you need to know about the plastic knife thing? Are you offended to find out that someone could kill you who has no intent of doing so, and quite probably won't even injure you, even by accident? Do you need to know who has a knife in their purse too?

I guess I don't care as much about concealment of weapons as I do about who gets access to them.

This is so true. Guns are scary in the wrong hands.

I guess I don't care as much about concealment of weapons as I do about who gets access to them.

That is precisely it. If, in a perfect world, you're allowed to carry a gun, I don't need to see it. In an imperfect world, you'll probably hide the fucker anyway.

Would you be offended to learn he knows fluent Mandarin, can kill you with a plastic knife, has only one testicle and hates battered onions?

Probably not. Can Mandarin, solitary testicles or onions kill me? No.

As for the ability to kill with non-obvious weapons, well, I'd be pretty put off to discover this ability without his saying anything about it; like, if he killed someone else (say, for a good reason), and then turned to me to explain this heretofore unknown ability, I would have a powerful sense of "whoa, I don't know you, stay away from me" going on.

Maybe I'd manage to restrain myself and be politely grateful, but underneath that would be, "What I don't know could hurt me."

I guess I don't care as much about concealment of weapons as I do about who gets access to them.

Yup. I can think of good and bad reasons for both concealing and displaying weapons. They all depend on who's carrying, and what for.