The Gun Guy @ Work

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I got outed as the gun guy in my office when my picture showed up on the front page of abcnews.com last summer. Who knew that Kyle's book would get so much press?

Anyway, it's been pretty good so far. It turns out that there are a couple of other gun folks that work here and we'd never have found out about each other if it weren't for that.

Coincidentally, my boss moved here from Connecticut a couple of years ago. She found out I was a gun guy around the same time as the Petit murders, which happened about 15 miles from where she lived in CT. She went from "I don't really like guns and couldn't see myself owning one" to "which gun do you recommend?" overnight.

As for dispelling myths, ask him how many times he's shot a deer and seen it blown back 10 feet. Then ask him how a shotgun could throw a 180lb man across a room but doesn't even consistently knock a 180lb deer down.
 
Well, at the moment I'm working for myself, so I guess I'm the gun guy by default...

But my last "real" job I fell in with a bit of a kook with a lot of crazy ideas, and while he was a ridiculously nice guy, if anyone thought of co-workers with guns, it would have been him, and the thoughts would have been akin to "Oh god how do we hide/get away when he finally cracks and comes in shooting"

Which is kind of sad, because he only ever made semi-violent remarks about his ex-wife, who he was in a fun custody situation with over his son at the time, and he never made them in mixed company that I ever heard.
 
It's hard to be "The gun guy" here in Idaho - because we have so many people in to firearms at work we all tend to be the gun guys.

My first week in the job my boss (at the time) made a comment to one of my guys about a rifle, I jumped in to the conversation (to help break the new guy blues) after an hour of about 6 or 8 of us yakking about long guns and handguns we broke for lunch and had an impromptu gun show in the parking lot.

Literally a tailgate gun show - I'll show you mine if you show yours type affair.

Ahhhhh Idaho.
 
I am one of a couple of gun guys here... However, My terminal faces the highway here in the office so people are constantly walking up behind me commenting on the gun pics I am looking at.
 
A: Assumes that since I have an interest in firearms, I'm somehow involved in illegal activities that would get my house raided.
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I used to get that a lot. Then I had a cop turn around and come after me, he caught up to me in the parking lot and hit the lights. Not far behind him was another, one I knew.

Officer one asked me about my busted headlight, officer two let me check out his new duty rifle. I think the fact that a cop handed me an AR15 pretty much put an end to the myth that I was doing something illegal.
 
Jorg noted
It seems unfortunate that there isn't some kind of standardized certification test to ensure one is qualified to be "the gun guy" at work.
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This is too true.

I've had a few jobs where the self-nominated "gun guy," often the one everyone else thought of as The Gun Guy, was simply an idiot who tended to spout off too often on gun "facts" of which he was not nearly the expert he thought he was ...

Better to be the low-profile Gun Guy ... be low-key in allowing others to tap your fount of knowledge, careful with whom you share your opinions. Better to detect someone's motives first before talking firearms issues, but when you do detect sincere interest, be honest, but never, ever let people think you know more than you really know. Be quick to refer folks to real experts if you're asked questions you might not really be qualified to answer.
 
Having the CMP deliver several rifle boxes and two ammo cans worth of Lake City 30.06 probably blew any "cover" I ever had.

I had one guy bring the two ammo cans back to my office and ask me "what's in the ammo cans?" When I told him ammo he laughed and said, "No really, what's in here". I told him to open one and see. He was flabbergasted to find ammo in an ammo can.

Nobody was shocked or scared. A few people came "out of the closet" and let me know they were shooters as well and a coupleo f folks that had never fired a gun started asking me a lot of questions about shooting. The level of misconception and false information that makes it's way into otherwise smart people's brains is amazing! So in the end it turned out for the better.
 
So far I don't seem to be known as the "gun guy", more as the "safety scenario guy". Far more encompassing and to me much more palatable as I try to put all safety equipment on a more or less equal footing and try to downplay the "he's got a GUN" aspect of firearms ownership.
 
I attend a liberal arts college, so I'm one of just a select few 'gun guys' on campus (around 6,500 students).

Most of my friends know it and understand that it's just part of who I am and will frequently come to me with questions and the like.

The part that I always find entertaining is talking about guns in a public place on campus. I don't reveal anything too specific about what I own, just basic conversations explaining to my friends the differences between a magazine and a clip, direct impingement and piston driven gas systems, and the various differences between 7.62x39mm and 7.62x51mm, and other things like that. I get the strangest looks from people and have a few times been met with outright hostility. But it's worth it all in the end because I'm the one who comes out laughing.

So in the end I don't mind being the 'gun guy'.
 
#shooter said:
I work at a university.…
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As do I. While I don’t advertise my firearms ownership, I also don’t hide the fact. My letters in reply to anti-RKBA articles have appeared both in the university newspaper and in a well-known national academic newspaper.

~G. Fink
 
I'm the resident gun guy, but I'm also the resident Security Guy so it kind of evens out. I haven't had any major issues, but like to believe I've impacted a few people with my stance. Notably, nice young lady in her mid twenties, we talked frequently during the course of the day. One day she mentioned to me a not too friendly breakup with her boyfriend at the time. As precaution a security broadcast was sent around. He showed up and was "very" physical with a few of the guards and got even worse when he saw her walking to her car.

I talked to a few of the local LEO for awhile, sat down and talked to her and suggested she apply for a Concealed Carry just to be on the safe side. She wasn't anti-gun by any means, more of someone who just never saw the reason for one. She was reluctant at first, I found out the local LEO's response time, would often leave my National Riflemen open on the desk to the armed citizen section when I knew she would be coming by. She was coming around to the idea slowly. Ex showed up at her house one night, she had to lock the doors and barricade herself and her kid in the closet as she called the cops. Took the police 15 minutes to show up. Thankfully he only marred the door up and then left but that was the major turning point for her. I helped her with the paperwork, character references, helped her research online what type of firearm, introduced her to the range officers and showed her the local county run range. She's one of the few I know that managed to get a CCW in this county. She was denied in the beginning, appealed it and brought a copy of the police report when he was at her house as well as one of the responding officers. Judge granted it after that. Last time we talked she was buying a Target pistol in the 1911 style, she's at the range probably every other Sunday and has begun bringing up the topic of reloading with me. "Hard to do? Is it Safe? I can make them myself for HOW much???"

There was only one time I got into a somewhat heated debate with someone while on the job. Was one of those smarmy, holier then thouh types who I didn't get along with (he was always trying to circumvent the security procedures, gotten written up for it 2 or 3 times) Anyhow he was talking to someone, I heard him raise his voice so I could hear and mentioned "how the second ammendment only applied to militia's and the government should interpret it as they see fit, they had no idea what types of guns we would have now'a'days when they wrote it anyway". I just kind of smirked, which got him all sorts of angry.

"Do you dispute this then?"

"Of course I do"

"Oh, I can't wait to hear this epiphany"

"You're a writer, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes"

"Register your computer with the Feds then. Everytime you want to buy a new one you'll have to fill out a document stating why you need it. Then once that's approved you can go back the next day to get your computer. They'll put it on your paperwork then and there. If you want a new harddrive you'll have to show that same paperwork to the guy at the coumter, who will then register it into his computer what drive you bought, when and how much it can store. You'll have to store it properly so only you can have access to it and no one else. Fast typing speed is prohibited. Sounds absurd doesn't it?"

"Of course it does, why on earth would I go through all that trouble? There's no need for that"

"All the bad things that are done with computers now'a'days? Pornography, counterfitting, Identity Theft, ruining marriages, exploitation, cyber bullying and you don't see the need for this? The founding fathers couldn't have anticipated what they would be used for. First ammendment was written at a time when there were newspapers and high tech was a quill pen, it couldn't possibly translate to computers as well could it?"

The guy he was talking to (The guy who gave me some very good turkey hunting tips) did his best not to laugh but couldn't avoid it... He didn't make any more comments after that day.
 
I'm definitely the gun-guy, but the conversation rarely comes up unless its with the 2 or 3 other guys I shoot with. I have managed to take a couple folks out to the range who hadn't shot since their M-16 qual/ M-9 familiarization. They knew very little total, and next to nothing about anything other than those two weapons. I still gotta remind one guy that even though the charging handle on my SKS is round, its not a bolt-action. I don't see him getting into it, but he enjoys the range time every once in a while.
 
I work at a university.…
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You think that's bad, I work at an elementary school. Of course very few know me as a gun guy. Although the fact that my wardrobe consists of black shirts, black pants, black shoes and a black trenchcoat means that most of them aren't surprised when they find out. What's funny is that nearly every teacher I have talked to has agreed that even though they may not like guns, it is just a tool, and the responsibility is on the shooter. Of course I usually have a feel for how "smart" they are before I bring it up anyway.

I have been trying to get the librarian to stock gun magazines (reading) for a while, but for soem reason she doesn't want to:rolleyes:. I try explaining to her that guns are no more dangerous than the monster trucks or dirt bikes she regularly stocks periodicals for, and she agrees, but can you imagine Guns and Ammo in an elementary library? I have contemplated leaving my old issues in the teacher lounge, but I don't want them to just be thrown away.

I did get one of my fellow technicians to buy a Glock and go shooting. the plan is to get the rest of them. Also, I am friends with one of the campus police and he has promised to take me on a ride along and go shooting with me with his AR. There's just something special about knowing a cop will hand you a loaded AR to look at in front of an elementary school, and show you where the emergency latch to release it is.:)
 
I'm not too sure about that wardrobe...I think people would automatically assume you're a gun guy, and not in a good way.

As for leaving magazines in the teachers lounge, I think it might be a good idea even if you do have to lose a couple; you never know who it could start a converation with.
 
First off, to all the Gun Guys (and Gals)... thank you. You are in a very real sense the most important ambassadors of gun ownership in the world. You put a normal, everyday, and (one hopes) friendly and respectable face on something that is popularly demonized and unfamiliar. That's important.

I grew up in southern California. SoCal is a place where nobody admits to owning a gun and where, when a new gun store opened, people in the area literally protested in front of the store. A very "anti" place.

You know what? There are a lot of gun owners there. A lot of alone, silent, and disenfranchised gun owners who hide because everyone hides. They are a secret repressed minority without even a symbol to identify each other. They can't even scratch fishes on the ground.

My signature line, "Don't hide arms, get sidearms!", was chosen in part because of that. I think the collective silence of most gun owners is very dangerous. We stand silent and seeminly alone, often outright lying about our gun ownership, while surrounded by others who own and enjoy firearms. We own them, they own them, but nobody talks. They won't talk about it because nobody does, we won't talk about it because nobody does, and the very fact that something is taboo (not to be spoken of) tends to lend menace and attract abusers.

I did that, hid my interests, for years. I enjoyed talking to my parents about them but if we were in public we would literally talk in code, as though we were talking car engines and never using "scary" words. It was ignition (lock/hammer/primer), cylinder (barrel/chamber), fuel (powder), pistons (bullets), and so on down the line. I didn't talk to friends about gun ownership. I wasn't the ambassador. The perceived costs were too high... professional damage from being the gun nut guy, social damage for the same reason, added security risks of people targeting you to steal guns, etc... all of it added up to a price I didn't think I was willing to pay.

Then I started thinking about the real cost of silence. The real costs. Short term costs like not being able to go shooting with friends and coworkers. Long term costs like allowing more and more restrictions to gun ownership.

I started talking to people. I took some friends shooting. I talked to coworkers. My ultra-left (I refuse to call them liberal...I'm a liberal...I believe in liberty, freedom... they want restrictions) friends gave responses like, "You own guns? You are as far from violent or a nut as anyone I can think of, why do you have a gun?" Yes, that's an actual quote. Some coworkers didn't care, others were anti, others wanted to go shooting.

Moving to Texas from SoCal has been an education for a lot of people. They assume, me being one of those California types, I must be anti. I enjoy disabusing people of that myth. I recently had a coworker (who has been in Texas for 10+ years) come to me asking about concealed carry courses. I gave him the card of an instructor and had two other coworkers (who both have CHLs) talk to him about why he should take the course. I've had others ask me about Texas gun laws (specifically the new car carry law). It is funny but gratifying that I, a Texas resident for a year now, am bringing Texas natives up to date on their own laws. I'm no shotgunner but I've got an open invitation to two coworkers who have never fired a shotgun at all to go shotgunning whenever they have some free time. It's fun. There are other upsides. I've had a chance to buy guns I never would've known about if I'd kept quiet.

Still, it's a balance. I still don't like visibly carrying a firearm to/from my home. I don't want to be a target, I don't want to get into trouble at work. Nobody does. Sometimes, though, you've just got to take the risks. The cost of silence is just too high.

I can't really help on the "how to bust myths" front. I generally don't try to educate about that sort of thing. I'll just laugh and say "only in the movies" but I won't really try to convince people that physics is physics. Physics is physics, people learn those laws eventually. At this point I'm more interested in breaking the silence and getting them shooting.
 
your list of their ideas of why someone finds firearms important, shows a general over active imagination on the part of the people who bring those things up.
You could let them know that an overactive imagination is often a sign of either Genius, or insanity, and that Geniuses usually find a way to make alot of money.
the above insinuation can be taken either way.
So your coworkers might not be focusing on their work hard enough.
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I am not a lawyer, or psychologist, or psychiatrist, i just read alot. :)
 
I'm the gun guy at work and all day I hear people that believe the lies that are on the news and the BS on CSI.
 
Hmm I don't really see the harm in being the gun guy at work.

I live in MA and work at a university. I don't rabidly spout off and brag about guns to anyone who will listen, but at the same time everyone eventually finds out one way or the other. I'd rather set an example as a normal(ish?), well-adjusted professional in his late 20s, instead of hiding my hobby like it's some sort of dark, dangerous fetish. I've worked with everyone from the ultra liberal to the ex-military. No one has ever said a single negative thing about guns to me. *shrug*

Dope
 
I work at a large non-profit educational institution in Cook Co. IL. Can you guess they type of people I am surrounded by? I get in frequent arguments about guns....and I enjoy them. :evil:
 
im that kid at school lol which i think doesnt sound very great for a 17 year old kid


we sit at lunch and talk about hunting shooting trap things like that

heck i even have some of my teacher asking about new guns or what they should buy for the next up coming deer season


they always get a kick when say "hey im not gonna be here tomorrow im going bear hunting all day, can i get tommorrows work?"

my favorite history teacher asked me if i was serious and when i told him i was the only thing he said was "lynrd skynrd was right, a country boy will survive"



it came to bite me in the tail one day when the school security guard found some spent shells int he bed of my truck and i got called up to the office and they searched my truck for a gun which i didnt have. then they tried to suspend me for having the spent shells in my truck all i said was "hey saturday was dove opener"
 
I would suggest just letting it go. People do not go to work to learn about guns. There is a time and a place for everything and your workplace isn't the time to teach people about firearms.

I am one of the gun guys at work.
I recieved the "Most likely to go Postal...for owning an excess of camo, ammo, guns, and underground bunkers in the midwest."
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Somebody must have been talkin' to someone for the above to happen ??

Lots of non-work subject come up and this could be at lunch or on breaks. The conversations do not have to cut into work time. Guns can be just one of them.
 
Well, the recent spate of shootings has raised concern on campus once again. Looks like I will have to revive my proposal to authorize concealed carry for faculty and staff.

~G. Fink
 
I was the gun guy at work for some years before I retired. I dealt with the stereotyping by being completely different from what most people expected. It didn't hurt that we were a Fortune 200 corporation and that I was a vice president and one of the senior lawyers. Those factors alone blew most stereotypes out of the water.

Personally, I think its a good thing if all of us shooters, especially the "gun guys at work" started to think of ourselves as ambassadors for guns and shooting. And we do that by demonstrating through our actions and the ways in which we conduct ourselves that the common stereotypes are indeed hogwash.
 
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