Apparently, American dads have a tradition of threatening to greet their daughter’s dates by meeting these suitors on the porch while cleaning their guns. As far as I know, these threats aren’t often put into practice. 

A former coworker of mine, let’s call him Vaughn, did once greet his daughter, Wendy, and her date as he cleaned his gun on the porch. 

His daughter’s date, Xander, struggled to control his bowels. Wendy was unimpressed with her father’s actions and told Xander to wait with her father while she went inside. 

Vaughn and Xander had a polite and friendly conversation while Vaughn continued to clean his gun. Neither one of them mentioned the gun in Vaughn’s hands. 

A few minutes later, Wendy came back out with her own gun and started to clean it. I guess I haven’t mentioned that Vaughn had been taking Wendy to the shooting range since she’d been big enough to hold a gun. 

Whatever message Vaughn was trying to send to Xander, Wendy was answering it.