RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And now this. We have the story of a man with a gun.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And another man with a gun.
MARTIN: William Coleman of Gresham, Oregon, bought a 22-caliber pistol. He was openly carrying the gun, as he's allowed to do in Oregon.
INSKEEP: The saying goes that an armed society is a polite society. And apparently that is true because a man with a more powerful weapon approached Mr. Coleman and politely said, I like your gun. Then he said, give it to me.
MARTIN: Mr. Coleman surrendered his weapon to the robber, which points to a ruthless reality, carrying a gun can make some people feel safer.
INSKEEP: But if confronted with another armed person, you may have to make the perilous and quite possibly fatal decision of whether to reach for your weapon. William Coleman decided it was safer to let it go. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.