As i was getting ready to pick up my choice of rifle for the night (this is where it starts getting interesting..), in came a middle-aged guy wearing a keffiyeh as a scarf and of arab descent. This was the tipping point where the whole atmosphere of the range turned from a seemingly relaxed state to one which is pretty intense. The group of off-duty police officers that came in before me, watched intently while the counter staff were extremely "vigilant" this time with the documents passed over to them. (Point-in-view: I was holding on to a Singapore Passport and it took me less than 5 minutes to be in-processed)
Just when the counter staff decide to pass over his identification papers, the group of police officers approached the desk and demanded to see the documents, while one of them chimed in to his partners to "checked the Hajji out carefully" blatantly. In-dignified by that derogatory term used as well as the paranoia, the man exclaimed that he is an american and should not have been subjected to such atrocious racist behaviors.
The situation ends, with the man asking to leave the premises on the grounds of public disturbance by the police officers. However, it was more appalling to realize that some other group of customers walked up to thank the group of officers for doing their job!
The media portrayal of people with arab descent has not only created a misdirected knowledge of this racial group but in essence created a sense of fear amongst groups of people in the U.S., how is it that a non-american citizen is able to possess a firearm and ammunition for less than 5 minutes of paperwork clearance while an american (in this case of non-white descent) was denied and rediculed in the process?
I only stand to wonder, if the situation was different and had the individual not enter the range that night, would i be seen as a "gook" and be asked to leave the premises immediately?
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