A Kansas waiter has said he was made to fear for his life after last week asking an armed and face mask-less supporter of President Donald Trump for proof he was exempt from the state's face mask requirement.

Arlo Kinsey, an 18-year-old former server at RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack in Mission, Kansas, told the Kansas City Star that the middle-aged man entered the restaurant wearing a MAGA hat and no mask.

• Kinsey said he asked the man, who has not been identified, to put on a mask in keeping with statewide mandate enacted earlier this month to address a spike in cases in the state and across the country.
• The man responded by lifting up his shirt to reveal a holstered firearm, Kinsey said, causing him existential fear.

"I was looking at the gun thinking he was going to shoot me," he recounted. "My first thought was, I work in customer service, and this is really what’s going to happen? ... Wow. I make $8.50 an hour, plus tips — for this?" 

Bob Palmgren, the owner of the restaurant, confronted the customer after Kinsey reported the situation to him.

• The man responded by showing Palmgren his MAGA hat, and even though the owner likes Trump and is used to customers who concealed carry, he gave him the boot, he said.

"You don’t have a mask on. And I’m like, your gun’s not going to kill coronavirus, now get the hell out of here," Palmgren recalled saying

Trump's longtime refusal to wear a mask in public and his rhetoric against anti-pandemic restrictions have helped make the accessory a culture wars symbol.

• Officials reversing themselves on the need for the public to wear masks, as well as sometimes-ideological policy responses, have fueled skepticism about government guidance and edicts, especially among conservatives.

Still, mask-wearing is becoming more widespread and less partisan, according to polls.

• Even Trump, in a CBS News interview on Tuesday, advised Americans to follow CDC guidelines on wearing masks in public.
• Days earlier, the president donned a mask in public for the first time during a visit to Walter Reed National Medical Center.