am i wrong for this?

[TexasCajun]

It's none of my business what other people think about me. If I adopt a defensive posture when somebody that "doesn't look right" comes near, I don't care if they notice & get offended. But you can be sure that they will be offended from a defensible distance! If I'm wrong, then everybody gets to go on about their business and my goal of surviving another day on this planet without getting robbed, assaulted, or hurt gets to be fulfilled. And if it turns out that I'm right, then I hope that the awareness has given me enough of an edge/head-start to come out the other side unharmed.

Good job in noticing what's happening around you, liberty! I know that it seems like time is practically standing still while you wait for your plastic. But you can use that time to ready yourselft for when it does arive. Practice being aware of your surroundings & watching people. Run through various what-if scenarios in your head & then evaluate what you're doing within those scenarios. For instance, when you pump gas, do you simply watch the numbers tick by or are you casually scanning the parking lot to asses potential threats? If a potential threat becomes a real threat, are you in a position to quickly take cover? Where are your blind-spots? Etc.

[VMI77]

Everybody profiles, including the people who claim that profiling is wrong. They just believe that due to their "moral and intellectual superiority" how they profile is good, it's just YOUR profiling that is wrong. Profiling makes sense and not profiling is stupid. That said, it's the profile that makes the difference. If your profile consists of something like black man = bad, then your profile would be synonymous with racism and it would be incorrect; and even if you harbored no racist impulses, the fact that it was incorrect might well cause you plenty of problems. If your profile is: young, black, male, prison tats, outnumbered, night, gas station, possible high crime area, etc, caution is just common sense. Political correctness makes it difficult to say it, but it's a fact that young black males commit crimes in a significant disproportion to their percentage of the population. Whether you are black or white or purple, to disregard this fact when there are other indicators of a plausible threat could potentially put your life in peril.

[fickman]

This. People who think that profiling is wrong also think that the world is populated with unicorns that fart rainbows.

We use all sorts of physical characteristics to make judgments. It's automatic. We shouldn't do it solely based on skin color (which wasn't referenced in this thread), but when somebody is dressed and adorned in an attempt to broadcast a message or profile to you, you are doing nothing wrong when you pay attention to what they are trying to communicate.

The best example of naive mentality of those who decry all types of profiling (not referring to LEO profiling) is the documentary "Grizzly Man". It's about a guy who thinks all of nature is innocent and pure - and we've done an injustice to these wild beasts by mischaracterizing them as brutally savage and dangerous. He spends a few summers in the remote Alaskan wilderness to be around grizzly bears. Spoiler alert: he gets eaten by a grizzly bear.

[K.Mooneyham]

To paraphrase an expression:

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to defend yourself from everyone you meet.

[03Lightningrocks]

Set aside for a moment the superficial details (rap music, tattoos), your in a strange town with a child, in a vulnerable position-(pumping gas) when approached by one of several strangers-(out numbered) and asked a seemingly innocent but anachronistic question-(possibly being "interviewed") so you move yourself in a position to access your firearm and assertively deny being "James' friend".
Based on those facts I would say moving to condition orange was reasonable and you handled it well.
I guess there are a few possibilities:
1. You looked like a friend of James and they wanted to introduce themselves and enjoy the warm glow of a mutual friendship
2. You were being assessed as a target or perhaps a threat
3. They were there to meet someone for a "deal" of sorts and the "friend of James" was just code

Now if this had been a group of church ladies or something, all the other details would remain true but only you can say for sure if your alarm would have gone off

You bring up the code thing reminds me of a funny situation I was in several years back. I went to meet a friend in the parking lot of a gas station. I back into a parking space and turn off my truck. I have been known to keep a weapon stuck between my seat and the console with a wrap thrown over it. This muscle bound guy gets out of the car beside me, walks around the front of my truck to the passenger side and hops in. Before I can say anything, he unzips his bag and asks me what I needed. I was stunned. He was selling steroids and thought I was a guy he was meeting to sell to. I told him he had the wrong guy. I laughed and said, " do I look like I do steroids?". He apologized profusely, hopped out of my truck... And got out of there as quick as his lady friend could drive. I'm not sure which one of us were more flipped out by the episode. It happened so quick I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't some weird dream.

[K.Mooneyham]

Set aside for a moment the superficial details (rap music, tattoos), your in a strange town with a child, in a vulnerable position-(pumping gas) when approached by one of several strangers-(out numbered) and asked a seemingly innocent but anachronistic question-(possibly being "interviewed") so you move yourself in a position to access your firearm and assertively deny being "James' friend".
Based on those facts I would say moving to condition orange was reasonable and you handled it well.
I guess there are a few possibilities:
1. You looked like a friend of James and they wanted to introduce themselves and enjoy the warm glow of a mutual friendship
2. You were being assessed as a target or perhaps a threat
3. They were there to meet someone for a "deal" of sorts and the "friend of James" was just code

Now if this had been a group of church ladies or something, all the other details would remain true but only you can say for sure if your alarm would have gone off

You bring up the code thing reminds me of a funny situation I was in several years back. I went to meet a friend in the parking lot of a gas station. I back into a parking space and turn off my truck. I have been known to keep a weapon stuck between my seat and the console with a wrap thrown over it. This muscle bound guy gets out of the car beside me, walks around the front of my truck to the passenger side and hops in. Before I can say anything, he unzips his bag and asks me what I needed. I was stunned. He was selling steroids and thought I was a guy he was meeting to sell to. I told him he had the wrong guy. I laughed and said, " do I look like I do steroids?". He apologized profusely, hopped out of my truck... And got out of there as quick as his lady friend could drive. I'm not sure which one of us were more flipped out by the episode. It happened so quick I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't some weird dream.

WOW! And I thought a guy randomly trying to sell me hash on a median in the Central City part of London was weird. You got me beat by a mile, or two.

[03Lightningrocks]

Set aside for a moment the superficial details (rap music, tattoos), your in a strange town with a child, in a vulnerable position-(pumping gas) when approached by one of several strangers-(out numbered) and asked a seemingly innocent but anachronistic question-(possibly being "interviewed") so you move yourself in a position to access your firearm and assertively deny being "James' friend".
Based on those facts I would say moving to condition orange was reasonable and you handled it well.
I guess there are a few possibilities:
1. You looked like a friend of James and they wanted to introduce themselves and enjoy the warm glow of a mutual friendship
2. You were being assessed as a target or perhaps a threat
3. They were there to meet someone for a "deal" of sorts and the "friend of James" was just code

Now if this had been a group of church ladies or something, all the other details would remain true but only you can say for sure if your alarm would have gone off

You bring up the code thing reminds me of a funny situation I was in several years back. I went to meet a friend in the parking lot of a gas station. I back into a parking space and turn off my truck. I have been known to keep a weapon stuck between my seat and the console with a wrap thrown over it. This muscle bound guy gets out of the car beside me, walks around the front of my truck to the passenger side and hops in. Before I can say anything, he unzips his bag and asks me what I needed. I was stunned. He was selling steroids and thought I was a guy he was meeting to sell to. I told him he had the wrong guy. I laughed and said, " do I look like I do steroids?". He apologized profusely, hopped out of my truck... And got out of there as quick as his lady friend could drive. I'm not sure which one of us were more flipped out by the episode. It happened so quick I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't some weird dream.

WOW! And I thought a guy randomly trying to sell me hash on a median in the Central City part of London was weird. You got me beat by a mile, or two.

Yeah... It was right up there. I guess I am lucky he wasn't violent. I would have been cleaning his brains off the interior of my truck. When he walked in front of my truck looking at me, I had reached beside me and had my weapon in my hand under the wrag. But yeah... The guy was proof that muscles can squeeze the brain and make you stupid. He was seriously jacked!