Pretending to have a gun in 2017 – really?

To the gentleman at the King Farmers Market who came up to a farmer (who perhaps he was antiquated with), pointed his finger through his shirt, and said to staff “I have a gun under here and so I am going to need you to hand over all of your [insert lame vegetable comment here]”. The farmer was not amused, looked uncomfortable, told you to “get the fuck out of here.” And then the two men made it clear they knew each other. They hugged, awkwardly. No said gun. I was waiting to pay for my eggplant and watched this interaction both with horror and anxiety. My gut told me that this was 99.999% some stupid yet ignorant joke, the other tiny cells of my gut nudged, “is this about to be a headline: SHOOTING AT PORTLAND FARMERS MARKET”? It isn’t as if things aren’t weird enough around here lately. There has been gun violence in my life, so I might be just a bit sensitive to gun humor. But would if I was just plain reactive, and yelled in that moment, “HE’S GOT A GUN” – what would the next hour or more of YOUR life been like? Threat of harm with a real or “fake” firearm is illegal, FYI. Also, other people exist.