Dad shows a gun to show OP he's a badass. Op doesn't realize and shows his gun.
Common American culture is that you're supposed to show your gun on the third date with the family, not the first. You're also supposed to have a Mexican standoff when you walk into the house, with dad aiming at you, you're aiming at dad, dog aims at GF, etc. And if he's lucky, they have a rousing game of Russian roulette before tapas.
Totally understandable if you didn't know. Just basic 2A knowledge every American learns about during elementary school.
I guess this is where the concept of the "nuclear family" comes from then? After the initial courtship hostilities, the escalation of the arms race is inevitable.
Yeah, it does Give them a slightly unfair advantage over the active shooter, that's why the cops had to wait, they were required to give them a head start.
Cheapskate parents, actually. Most parents get their kids a BALCS carrier with level III soft inserts, some ESAPI plates, and a level III or IIIa helmet. But some parents cheap out and just get their kid a backpack and split a set of plates between kids.
The first sentence is real, the rest is just a fun bit of hyperbole. It really is not that common for an overprotective father to brandish a gun at his daughter's new boyfriend, but it has happened enough times to become something of a trope.
To give you a slightly more serious answer, there's a trope in America of the girl friend's dad doing something to "subtly intimidate" the boy friend by casually cleaning a gun or having one within sight the first time they meet. The implication of course is supposed to be something along the lines of "I've got this and if you try anything funny with my daughter, I'll use it on you"
It's dumb but I've also known more than a few people who have experienced this first hand.
Yeah, I went to senior prom with my friend. I didn't have a license or a car yet, so my aunt drove us there in her baseball team van, and she was gonna drive us both home too. Suuuper romantic. Her dad met us there, pulled me aside to show me his little pocket knife and threatened to castrate me. I just laughed at him. We were both virgins, so far as I knew. While in hindsight she had a crush on me, I was way too awkward, nerdy, religious, and oblivious to realize. Sex never even crossed my mind as a possibility.
It's a thing that basic dickhead fathers look forward to doing; threatening their daughter's boyfriend in case he ever thinks he and his girlfriend might ever want to have sex.