You know, I think I explained pretty clearly my feelings on this in my first post, but it made me think of something similar that really does get on my nerves in a big way. People not listening. Let me give an example:
Big group of us went shooting. My normal shooting buddy brought along a bunch of his college classmates who had never shot before. He told me that he envisioned us just sort of showing them the basics and then letting them plink away and have fun, which I was OK with. This buddy and I gave them the safety lecture, and we were off. One guy took one of my rifles and wanted to shoot at a post up on this hill, which was fine. I casually told him how to aim at it, because it was pretty far off and about 100 feet higher than where we were, and he started arguing with me. This guy had never shot a round in his life that I was aware of, and he was arguing with me. Moreover, he was shooting MY rifle, loaded with MY ammo and using up MY time. I let him prove himself wrong, then I took my gun and told my buddy that I didn't want him shooting my stuff. The rest of the group was fine, to the extent that a couple of the guys ended up becoming friends.
I am no expert firearms instructor, but I am perfectly capable of teaching someone the basics of shooting safely and well. Fact is, if that guy would have listened to me, I guarantee he would have at least gotten close to that post. I had plunked away at it myself for some time on previous trips, and I knew about what the holdover was to at least get close enough to get excited. Everyone of the other guys that tried it and listened to either me or my buddy was dropping them in on it, but that guy never did because he didn't want to listen. Maybe I didn't handle it the best way, but I was surprisingly and deeply annoyed at the guy.
What these two things have in common is simple respect. In terms of those guys handling my guns, there wasn't a problem. Even the guy that annoyed me acted in a safe enough manner. There were a couple of genuine mistakes made, but I can live with that. I mean, none of us were born perfect shooters, you know? The key is that they were all respectful of my stuff and were appreciative that I and my buddy were willing to supply ammo. Thats all this really boils down to. It's not even a trust issue to me. It's simple respect and common courtesy.
Safety issues aside, Treo, you should see how people treat electric guitars. You would be shocked to see how they will pick them up and just start absolutely wanging on them. Never figured out why that was, really, but I have had to tell people not to touch my guitar when they come over, and it isn't even particularly valuable. The worst is little kids. My nieces and nephews all learned pretty quick that Uncle Timmy's house and Papa's house are two entirely different places with entirely different rules of conduct. They can do what they want to Papas junk guitars, but Uncle Timmy's guitar is a "no touch" item.