I want to tell you all a story. For almost 9 years, I worked as a manager at a boutique wine shop. There was an elderly customer - we’ll call him Bob - who came in from time to time, and sadly, it became apparent over the years that he was mentally declining.

The very last time I saw Bob in the wine shop, he approached the counter, and placed a small pistol on it. I stared in horror at the gun and then I looked at Bob - I was frightened and bewildered. “I need bullets for it,” he said. I said, “Mr. _________, you’re at the wine shop.”

Bob said, “Isn’t this the gun shop? I need ammunition.” I again repeated that he was in the wine shop, and not the gun store. I was scared, and he was so confused, and I didn’t want to frighten him by making him feel panicked about where he was versus where he thought he was.

All of the context clues were around him that indicated he was not in an ammo shop, yet he couldn’t see them. Bob picked up the gun from the counter and left. He had come in alone; I knew he had driven himself, and I was terrified for his safety as well as anyone else’s.

I immediately found my boss and told him what happened. We scrambled to find the phone number of a relative, and I called them to tell them what had happened. A week later they called to say they’d locked away his guns and that he wouldn’t be driving anymore.

Did I handle it ok? Could I have handled it better? I’m sure there are many other ways I could have handled it better, but nothing that day could have prepared me for a man placing a gun in front of me and asking for bullets for it. I’m just so glad no one was hurt, Bob included.

I tell you all of this so that you understand how I felt to see a confused older man lay a gun before me. To this day, I don’t know if it was loaded. I was terrified - for my safety, for his safety, and for the safety of anyone else he encountered when he left.

But Bob was one man, with one small gun, standing in front of only me, blinking in confusion at his surroundings. Now consider one man, in front of all of us, with the nuclear codes & all the power of the office he holds, not in his right mind. And you thought I was scared then?