"An Armed Society is a Polite Society". Miami, as an intensely urban place, is not particularly friendly. But I have noticed something about the gun ranges that I have visited over the last several months, following my 2nd Amendment "conversion". People are very polite at gun ranges.

The gun ranges to which I refer are establishments connected to a gun shop. (I haven't been to a range that is part of the county park system.) The shooting range is not out in the open, but inside a building, usually in an industrial area. The people there are predominantly men, younger men, but some middle aged and older. If there is a woman there, she is with a man and is usually a younger woman. There may be professionals among these people, but none of them look it. Some of them look pretty tough, but most look pretty normal. Everyone is serious about what he is doing. Everyone is polite. No one ignores anyone; you are definitely noticed and appraised; people deal with each other with respect, they speak, they move aside, they are patient with one another, they are careful to clean up their spent shells and their empty ammo boxes when they finish. This kind of polite behavior is not what you see day to day on the streets of Miami - or even of Miami Springs.