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Yeah, I feel fairly certain that if for whatever reason I got caught, if I just told them that I was getting my car keys so that I could head straight back out to put it up, it PROBABLY would have been a non-issue. But if not and they called the cops, I still feel I would have been able to explain my situation and instill confidence that I wasn't about to shoot up the place.

This happened on Thursday and I thought about it some more this evening. I inadvertently got myself in a bit of a catch-22 with my firearm and thought it would be interesting to see what others would have done in my exact position. Thursday morning my wife went to her doctor after dropping my son off at school because she had been experiencing some abdominal pain. We have one car and she drove herself while I stayed home to work. She called saying the Doctor was sending her to the ER to get x-rays and a CT scan to make sure it wasn't her appendix, and she was worried so she asked if I could go up there to be with her. I was already dressed and (as is my habit) was wearing my firearm. I called a neighbor who gladly drove me to the hospital and dropped me off at the main entrance to the ER. As I was walking up to the door, I saw a nice big fat 30.06 sign. So now I'm stranded outside in the cold, the neighbor drove off, my wife didn't answer her phone, and I couldn't go in. I could see our car as she parked close to the entrance. I just decided that I would go in, quietly get the car keys from my wife, and go back out to the car to disarm. Of course nothing happened. I went to her room where the nurse was running her I.V. and I stood patiently to the side until I could get to her keys. I was cringing inside hoping my wife either wouldn't pick up on why I needed to go back to the car, or would realize and know that she needed to keep her mouth shut. A couple of minutes later, I snuck out, disarmed and came back in, no one the wiser.

Looking back, I don't know what else I could have done other than call the front desk and have them retrieve the keys from my wife, but I really didn't want to explain myself or raise any eyebrows.

And regarding the 30.06 sign, it wasn't there last time we went to that hospital and I was in a bit of a rush to get to my wife so I didn't think to disarm before hand or check the 30.06 site first.

So, did I do the right thing? What would you have done?