Is society pushing guns out?

[gallo]

Most countries in the world have strict gun control laws. Most people from those countries have been indoctrinated that guns are bad. Those people emigrate to the US with those ideas and eventually vote accordingly. Do the math? We are doomed.

I went to school in the field of IT, which is strongly dominated by Chinese and Indians. Very close minded individuals when it comes to the 2nd amendment. They have never known or experienced such liberty and are afraid of it. Most of those people are currently in line waiting for a green card. Great guys to have a beer with, but I see a dim future for the 2nd amendment in their hands.

Even people I know that like guns support 'common sense' gun legislation. I was one of them and perhaps some of my earlier posts in this forum reflect that. It was until I read more about how any gun legislation erodes the 2nd amendment did I came to understand the viciousness of the Brady bunch.

I am not optimistics about the future of the 2nd amendment. We are the minority in a country where self reliance has almost become a thing of text books.

 

[YK]

good for you Zack. I had a friend get fired because he mentioned that he went shooting down at the range. Somebody filed a complaint to HR and said they felt like it was "intimidating" hearing somebody talk about their use of firearms and they wanted for management to "do something about it". He got the pink slip since he was "creating a hostile work environment...''

I had the same thing happen at my work, HR takes that ''touchy feely'' stuff real seriously.

Provided that your friends said nothing threatening towards their co-workers or humans in general, this would be an inappropriate reason for termination and grounds for meritorious law suit.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I still feel that I have to be carefull who I talk about guns with. I tend to feel them out with some very neutral questions, don't want people flipping out one me, going into a tirade. Its a real shame, our media has made guns taboo, it ticks me off. Guns are a great hobby, very fun, builds comraderie, and instills responsibility and discipline.

 

[grimjaw]

From 2000-2004 I worked on a military base as a contractor. Since my conversations with people there sometimes happened in a room full of mock up weapons, I will not take that as representative of the population.

From 2005-2007, I worked as a contractor for DoE in Washington state, in an area that was liberal for the nation but conservative for the state. My workplace was very PC on some subjects but not on others. For example, religion and gun ownership conversations were avoided and/or viewed as somewhat extremist. However, crude sexual jokes were commonplace, even with a very gender-mixed environment.

Since 2008 I've been in the health care field in Arkansas. In general, if I start talking firearms with a nurse her eyes are going to glaze over and she'll start thinking about injecting herself with a narcotic.

I find that in general my interest in guns provokes one of three reactions in people.

- They share an active interest in the subject.
- They have no interest beyond what utility firearms provide in their daily life. If the person doesn't hunt, the only other use they usually have is self defense. Since most people aren't regularly having to defend themselves and don't want to think in those terms, they don't want to talk about it. Any interest beyond that is viewed as "gunnutism."
- Last view is that firearms provide no utility and are only a danger. Firearms and people who handle or own firearms are irresponsible or dangerous and are to be avoided beyond what's absolutely necessary.

There are so many things competing for your time today, including your leisure time. I think that the harder (i.e. litigious) it gets to own and operate firearms (harder and harder as the population continues to increase), the easier it is for people to choose other avenues. I don't know that it's US American society specifically that's doing it.

That's my uneducated $0.02.

jm

 

[Bill_Rights]

Grimjaw,

Good context, but

Any interest beyond that is viewed as "gunnutism."

Huh? "gunnutism"? Please define....

 

[grimjaw]

Huh? "gunnutism"? Please define....

It was probably a poor choice of words.

For people who view firearms only as useful as it applied to their everyday lives, any excess interest in the subject (and for that matter any subject) beyond what is required is excessive. They might view the interest as nerdy, fetishism, paranoid, etc. For example, a person who uses firearms to hunt but sees no other use for them might see someone who takes an interest in firearms beyond that as frivolous, but otherwise harmless.

jm

 

[Geno]

I went to Target Sports today to have a "blast". Their MCPL course had standing-room-only. The cash register-line ran from the door the register. Seriously, there had to have been 40 to 50 people in that line! Every shooting lane was full, and even members could shoot only for 30 minutes.

If society is pushing guns out, I saw who is taking up the slack.

Geno

 

[EHL]

Provided that your friends said nothing threatening towards their co-workers or humans in general, this would be an inappropriate reason for termination and grounds for meritorious law suit.

Yes, they do have grounds for a law suit. But this is a college town that I live in, they know that there is a slim chance that this college guy is going to put his education and life on hold while he goes attorney hunting, fills out affidavits, gives testimony, helps the lawyer gather witnesses, go to motion hearings, etc.... when they could put it behind them and go get a job at any of the local places right away and get the bills paid.
I got fired from this same place for simply having empty brass casings in my backpack. I thought if I didn't talk about guns and keep my hobbies to myself, I'd be just fine. But..I had just got back from the range and opened up my back pack to grab my pen out (I kept my empties to reload later and my backpack was the only thing handy as I was trying to get some range time in and then go to work immediatly afterwards) and somebody was standing over me as I opened it. She noticed a few empties on the bottom of the bag. I had security swarming my desk within 2 mins. They thought I had complete bullets in my bag. I explained to them that they were inert and there was no powder, projectile, or anything dangerous. The guy next to me saw me produce the empty and he told security and the supervisors that they weren't bullets either, that they were harmless. They didn't listen and they canned me right there on the spot since they defined a bullet casing as "part of an exploding device" and thereby in violation of their HR handbook that states "no exploding devices". That and the girl who reported me was "shaken" is what they told me, and that "could constitute harrasment".

Tell me that there is no anti-gun sentiment in the workplace!

 

[grimjaw]

Keep in mind also that many of the restrictions for firearms have been in place for the entire lifetime of many people today.

For instance, one of my ex-girlfriends was born after 1986, and was still very young when the 1994 bans were put in place. She lived in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, and probably heard about guns more through media reports of criminal use or the movies than through personal experience.

In my limited experience people who have never experienced certain freedoms, especially if those freedoms were demonized throughout their life previously, are afraid of those freedoms once they or others have them. Just like there are many millions of us who grew up going to schools that weren't like Columbine, there are millions of young people who were born after 1986 in places like New York and California who have never known what it's like to possess a gun without that possession automatically being criminal.

You tell me what that might be doing to "society."

jm

 

[YK]

Tell me that there is no anti-gun sentiment in the workplace!

Depends on a workplace, I guess. Couple of month ago I offered to take a guy who works as our office manager to shoot an AK. And then one of our PR guys wanted to tag along. And then another guy from HR really-really wanted to join us 'cause he'd never shot an AK...