How many of you would open carry to a job interview?
I'm not bashing open carry, the point is that we well recognize that open carry of a gun to a job interview may not even be allowed. The company policy could well be stated on the front door - No Guns. Our intuition would tell us that those in charge of our selection might have an extreme bias about guns - we sense they may not be gun-friendly. And we want the job. No sense "shooting ourselves in the foot." We got an interview, we aren't there to blow the opportunity.
I believe, in fact, that a lot of us would be pleasantly surprised to even get considered for a job that obviously had guns on the property. Our experiences in life would have us already aware that there is an extreme bias against guns in the workplace.
When was the last time you saw a gun openly carried in a retail chain by an employee who wasn't working security or near a firearms display?
Pretty rare, isn't it?
Employees aren't allowed to have guns on company property, by and large, coming to an interview with one would be considered by many to be an indication they aren't sharp enough to get the job. "What, are you kidding, you open carried to the interview? You applied for a job posting photo shoot appointments for a kiosk on the Mall! You don't need no stinking gun for that!"
Of course no one would show up holstered. We already know and accept Corporate bias against our 2A rights, and we acquiesce to get the job. Tuck our tail in and mumble a lot of pleasant agreeances nosing up.
Oh, yes we do. We are trying to sell ourselves and don't want any perceived negatives. We know that "gun" is negative - extremely so. In fact, if the next 100,000 citizens came to a job interview WITH a gun, it would hit the media so fast there would be concerns about a revolution. People would be hiding in their offices, and hiring would come to a halt.
A lot of people think the .gov is against them and their 2A rights. Not really - just show up with a holstered gun for a job interview and see where your rights are REALLY being restricted. In fact, just don't, until you really figure it out, because if the idea is that attractive, we don't need another gun rights poster child making our case in the public forum.
It's that bad, lets start recognizing it for what it is - most people really don't have a gun within eyesight most of their lives, and when they do see one, it's not a pleasant situation. Like seeing the nurse handling a hypodermic syringe at your doctors appointment, we get to wondering what is happening next.
It takes a lot of time and effort to overcome that - if you do open carry, keep that in mind when and where you do. There very much IS a problem with the public seeing guns, and blindly disregarding it can be extremely unprofitable.
Which is why the majority of us never even mention guns during the hiring process, and many tend to rewrite previous work experience to reduce the impact.
It's real, and we aren't stupid. But it is a good indicator of how far we are from real open carry.
I'm not bashing open carry, the point is that we well recognize that open carry of a gun to a job interview may not even be allowed. The company policy could well be stated on the front door - No Guns. Our intuition would tell us that those in charge of our selection might have an extreme bias about guns - we sense they may not be gun-friendly. And we want the job. No sense "shooting ourselves in the foot." We got an interview, we aren't there to blow the opportunity.
I believe, in fact, that a lot of us would be pleasantly surprised to even get considered for a job that obviously had guns on the property. Our experiences in life would have us already aware that there is an extreme bias against guns in the workplace.
When was the last time you saw a gun openly carried in a retail chain by an employee who wasn't working security or near a firearms display?
Pretty rare, isn't it?
Employees aren't allowed to have guns on company property, by and large, coming to an interview with one would be considered by many to be an indication they aren't sharp enough to get the job. "What, are you kidding, you open carried to the interview? You applied for a job posting photo shoot appointments for a kiosk on the Mall! You don't need no stinking gun for that!"
Of course no one would show up holstered. We already know and accept Corporate bias against our 2A rights, and we acquiesce to get the job. Tuck our tail in and mumble a lot of pleasant agreeances nosing up.
Oh, yes we do. We are trying to sell ourselves and don't want any perceived negatives. We know that "gun" is negative - extremely so. In fact, if the next 100,000 citizens came to a job interview WITH a gun, it would hit the media so fast there would be concerns about a revolution. People would be hiding in their offices, and hiring would come to a halt.
A lot of people think the .gov is against them and their 2A rights. Not really - just show up with a holstered gun for a job interview and see where your rights are REALLY being restricted. In fact, just don't, until you really figure it out, because if the idea is that attractive, we don't need another gun rights poster child making our case in the public forum.
It's that bad, lets start recognizing it for what it is - most people really don't have a gun within eyesight most of their lives, and when they do see one, it's not a pleasant situation. Like seeing the nurse handling a hypodermic syringe at your doctors appointment, we get to wondering what is happening next.
It takes a lot of time and effort to overcome that - if you do open carry, keep that in mind when and where you do. There very much IS a problem with the public seeing guns, and blindly disregarding it can be extremely unprofitable.
Which is why the majority of us never even mention guns during the hiring process, and many tend to rewrite previous work experience to reduce the impact.
It's real, and we aren't stupid. But it is a good indicator of how far we are from real open carry.
and concealed carry *is* a self defense strategy, not a political statement )
