The Gun Guy @ Work

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I've been stung one too many times by stupid, petty people and (very) localized politics. I'm keeping mum about myself from now on. I've always been a hard person to gain the trust of, but from now on it's likely going to be hard to get to know me, too.

Last place I worked, I surprised a lot of people. They initially took me for a granola-eating lefty because my wife and I really enjoy organic and locally grown/raised foods (they taste better and typically are better). The fact that I'm avowed enemy of socialism, a gun owner, and a friend of small government really threw a couple people for a loop.

From now on, when people bring up politics or politically-heated topics, I'm keeping mum unless it's a small group of people I already know to be like-minded. No more firings for me.
 
Another problem I run into is the fact that while I'm a well armed individual and have an interest in firearms, everyone thinks I'm either
A: Assumes that since I have an interest in firearms, I'm somehow involved in illegal activities that would get my house raided.
B: Going to end up like the Montana Freemen or Ruby Ridge, or Branch Davidians in a standoff of epic porportions with the .gov.
C: Believe that I will shoot anyone that comes into my house (or when I'm back home, my property).
D: Walk around my house with belts of ammunition strapped on me like Rambo and at least 10 guns somewhere on my person.
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Wait, you don't do these things?

/backs out of the conversation quietly
 
If you balance the talk about guns with talk about another unrelated topic, like say, the arts or fashion, it makes it seem less scary. It's when all you talk about is guns that it sounds like an unhealthy obsession. Everything in moderation... except for magazine capacity that should ALWAYS be excessive :evil:
 
I just started a new job, and heard there were already three "gun guys". It turns out one has one shotgun, one "wants to get an XD" and doesn't understand why I would have an AR or AK, while the other one simply has LEOs as family members. I am the new, true "gun guy" at work, but its pointless. I asked them where they went shooting around here, what kind of shooting they did, etc.

Just a bunch of "Oh not much" and "Oh you know, whatever", and nobody wanting to go shooting. Kind of a bummer.

Tonight I was subject to this:
Co-worker (who knows I'm into guns): "Yeah man, I'm excited to look for a new car. What are you gonna do with your tax return?"
Me: "I think I'm gonna get this new rifle this weekend that I've been looking at."
Co-worker: "What kind is it?"
Me: "Its an AR-15. You know, like the M16..."
Co-worker: "Oh right on. You gonna kill some people?"
 
Gun Guys no More

I am a gun guy. I hunt with my guns. Shotguns, rifles and pistols. Problem is I am obsolete and new models are taking my place. The newer ones do not hunt, do not shoot and generally hate guns. We gun guys are a minority in this country and even more of a minority world wide. We are not growing in numbers but losing gun guys all the time. How do I know this? When I was 9 years old my dad bought me a .22 rifle. Every kid in my neighborhood had a
.22 rifle. We all hunted or used the guns on crows or rats in the barn. Since I was 9, the English gave up their guns, the Austrailians gave up their guns and the rest hardly had any guns anyway. No nine year old in my present neighborhood has a .22 rifle nor will they be bought one by their parents..We gun guys are told every day about how guns are bad....we don't listen because we know better. Problem is most people in the World do listen and believe the propaganda. I really believe when its all said and done, the present generation will be last of the cowboys.....Brady, Clinton, Obama, Schumer and so on will win....its a fact.
 
No nine year old in my present neighborhood has a .22 rifle nor will they be bought one by their parents.
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Do you know this? Or do you assume it is true because nobody talks about guns?

I went to a hunter's ed class a while ago... there were a lot of kids there. Eight, nine, twelve... all the usual kid ages. The instructors wanted the kids to sit up near the front, and spent extra effort trying to teach those kids.

You know what they taught?

"GUNS ARE NOT FOR TALKING ABOUT!" Yes, they yelled it. "YOU DO NOT TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT GUNS!" They yelled it loud and often. "YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT GUNS AT SCHOOL!" It wasn't just a casual message. "YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT HOW YOU WENT HUNTING!" It was a very important part of the message. "YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR PARENTS HAVE GUNS!" Imagine a shouting fat man, short buzz cut hair, yelling at a bunch of kids. "THIS IS SOMETHING YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT WITH ANYONE!"

Frankly, I don't think you can possibly know how many parents in your neighborhood give guns to their kids. Nobody talks about guns. Walk around tomorrow, go somewhere public, and realize that a lot of the people around you own guns. One in four, give or take... maybe half of them. Even in an anti-gun place you can't stand in a crowd without being within sight of a bunch of gun owners. They don't look any different than non-gun owners. They don't have name tags or symbols on their shirts. They don't advertise... but they are there. In some states quite a few of the adults you see (perhaps as many as one adult in 15) are licensed to carry concealed weapons. They can be walking down the street with a gun in their pocket, perfectly legally, and you will never know because nobody talks about this.

To steal blatantly from another oppressed minority with a very similar problem: SILENCE = DEATH
 
I work a state government job alongside mostly older women. Chances are I'm the only 'gun guy' at work but then again I don't know this for a fact. Only one person (out of 30+) that I work with knows I have guns and she's fine that, we even have a few interesting conversations about them.

We do have patrolling security guards that I see occasionally. It makes me a little uncomfortable that its their job to carry a sidearm while for me its illegal. I've been on the cautious side and never started any gun conversations with them yet but who knows, might be worth a try.

edit*yay, I've been promoted to senior member, so what do I get?*
 
Oh yeah! I am "one" of the gun guys here at the office where I am now. There are a LOT of hunters and other firearm symptathetic people where I work, but I only talk about matches (Cowboy Action, or Bullseye) and collecting old WWII bolt rifles. I don't really talk self-defense matters. Although I think I am pushing it with my current position.

At a former job, I had just started my collecting and my boss was a former Marine. We'd talk about it from time to time and have a good conversation.

When all of us were sitting down at lunch one day, we were talking weekend plans. I mentioned I was going to an outdoor shooting contest in MD for Curio and Relic rifles. My boss asked what I was planning on using. I stated something along the lines of either my M-44 Mosin, or my Albanian SKS. I explained the course of fire, and how I wish they did something similar with Curio and Relic Handguns.

Well, one part of the table got quiet really quick. It turns out she and two other anti-gunners were contemplating filing an HR complaint against me for "violent behavior". My boss talked them out of it, but gave me a friendly off the record warning to not talk about firearm activities around them. They were extremely anti-gun.

So instead, I started talking about possible hunting trips at lunch time. This time, they went around my boss and went straight to HR to file the same complaint. The HR manager laughed them out of the office and told them to can it. I ran into the HR manager 2 days later and she filled me in. I asked what I could do to stop this as I mentioned a duck hunting trip, a deer hunting trip, and a possible rabbit hunt with my friends. She shrugged and said not a lot, because they could legally file a complaint if I wore the wrong cologne. She instead asked me to extend an olive branch and have a "mediation session" file a harassment counter-complaint against them to cover my butt. I did, and when their salary reviews came up, it reflected negatively on them.

That's my crazy story.
 
What you should assume, is that you NOT be the 'gun guy' at work. Nothing can come out of this except maybe your ego getting stroked or your getting into an argument.
Neither is good.
My advise is to keep your thoughts to yourself. Safer, and happier all around that way.
 
Lucky for me we have three gun guys on my team. One has already stated he is building a bunker for when the Zombies come so he wins the readiness contest hands down. This keeps the heat off the rest of us so we are teaching the others. We also hold three of the top four positions on the team and are pretty far gone into our careers so we don't have to put up with any nonsense if we don't want to.

Something else that helps a lot is that the boss, even though he is not a gun guy insists that we go to the range every two weeks whether we need it or not :D ! For the first time in my career I shoot more on the job than I normally would have at home.... we also shoot at the Zombie targets a lot....
 
I would be the 'gun gal' - without a 'gun guy' to keep me company. but I guess it's just one of my 'eccentricities' I'm known for. Too bad it's considered and eccentricity but hey - I work in downtown Chicago - what do I expect!

And I'm called a trollop just as often as my affection to guns are mentioned....
 
Mr. Ames, yes I know each child in my neighborhood. There are five boys under the age of 12, two girls over the age of 15 and one girl under the age of 12. I know their parents as well. None have a .22 rifle. My point in my post, maybe not clearly stated, is that parents and children now are not introduced to hunting or even plinking. Our NRA is pleading nationally that kids are introduced to hunting. Young people are the future of gun ownership and frankly that is why antis will win the battle. My grandson attended the school training as you pointed outl on gun use in order to obtain his hunting license. I asked how many children were in the class.....his response was five boys. His school has 1400+ students....do the math. We are the last of the cowboys.
 
Seems that I have become "the gun guy" at a company where I'd have to say that 75-85% of the people are gun owners and all of those call themselves hunters to some extent. The reason I get questions at work and phone calls at home seems to be because of the basic gun knowledge I have.
I've been very surprised by questions about gun problems and basic how-to's from people who have owned a gun or two and hunted with it annually their entire adult life. A couple didn't own gun cleaning supplies because they admittedly didn't know how to take their gun apart much less how to clean it. They've owned guns as long as I have but know nothing more than how to load it and pull the trigger. Some of their "funny" stories make me shivver. Two of these guys are now buying .22's and such for their kids and I try to get involved in every gun conversion I can, stressing safety and basic gun stuff while trying not to literally smack some sense into them.
I guess I owe my dad for teaching me the basics of gun ownership and safety and I hope I'm passing some of it along.
 
I'm the gun-guy at work but I've also been experiencing the feeling of the "Mark of Cain" that Mass Ayoob mentioned; I'm a friendly, laid-back guy to everyone but I get a constant cold-shoulder from a lot of people and from others I get the "animal in a zoo" type of effect - that I'm on display.

It certainly doesn't help when the office goofball says "Yeah, man, you don't wanna mess with Andy, man - he'll kill you 50 different ways without lifting a finger, man..." :cuss:

It's gotten to the point where it's been seriously bringing me down; I've been looking for another job for a while and I'm starting to think that I won't be able to work with regular folk any more, just ex-military folk where I won't be seen as something out of the ordinary.

Bloody annoying.
 
as with all things, moderation. I learned this from some other kinda nerdy hobbies. Don't just talk about one hobby or interest. Have quips ready to compare your hobby to other hobbies.

-the reason I own so many guns is you guys don't pay me enough to afford a single boat!

-yea, but my girlfriend as 4 pairs of shoes for every gun I own, she better never set foot in a car again if she ever plans on wearing them out.

-yea, I have a lot of guns cuz I am planning something illegal, kind of like all those people who have horses as a hobby are planning on the world supply of oil running out any day now....no dufus, I have them simply because I like having them, variety is the spice of life you know.


Jump in with a semiaccusitory statement about their hobbies, set them on the defensive "What do you need a motorcylce for? planning on outrunning the cops or something? why do you need to outrun the cops?" and then roll into 'oh, I see, I guess that's the same with my hobby, I might not need it but it is kinda fun'
 
Akodo has a great point about avoiding fixation...

I talk about all sorts of things... photography, astronomy, sailing, flying, motorcycling, music, and so on. I think that helps in a lot of ways... they talk to me about whatever their interests are and see some common ground, then hear me talking guns with someone else and it gives them a bit of a "but we're pretty similar..." feeling.

I've worked with a few people that were called "postal" and the like... some of whom never talked about (or, to the best of my knowledge, owned) guns.
 
Well at least you can rest assured you are not the only one. Apparently for me I own and love guns witch means apparently I am going to go psyco killer some day.
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Hell, I was never allowed even a BB gun back when I was a kid, and in HS I got expelled because someone said I was going to bring a gun to school. I'm not sure where I would have gotten it, but apparently I was going to use it.
 
Tonight I was subject to this:
Co-worker (who knows I'm into guns): "Yeah man, I'm excited to look for a new car. What are you gonna do with your tax return?"
Me: "I think I'm gonna get this new rifle this weekend that I've been looking at."
Co-worker: "What kind is it?"
Me: "Its an AR-15. You know, like the M16..."
Co-worker: "Oh right on. You gonna kill some people?"
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You: "You going to run somebody over?"
 
/sigh...

yeah i guess im the "gun guy"

came in last week with a sore shoulder, was talking about how much fun my first time shooting clays was... was surprised that at least 6 people expressed interest in trying that... several more have said that they wanted to know where to take a beginners class... of course i told them that if they waited about a month and a half, i would have my instructors cert and could teach them... :D
 
Definitely a gun guy at work. Not the only one though. Seems to be the norm here, at least in my little corner of the world. Casual talk usually turns to that direction one way or another.
 
There's a couple of us Gun Guys at work. A few others on campus that I know about. Only a couple of us hunt.

I do have a 99 score slowfire bullseye target hanging on my bullitin board. It is sometimes an ice breaker/converstation piece. Most everyone here knows that I'm a competitive shooter and hunter.

I was accused once of saying someone at work should be shot. And that struck a cord with me. All the way to HR for a formal complaint. I never did say that in a verbal altercation with a coworker. (I had witnesses)

I'm in the 'computer management' field, so you don't expect too many of these geeks to be gun savy.

Makes it nice around hunting season. -Nobody fights for the vacation days I want.

-Steve
 
I'm in the 'computer management' field, so you don't expect too many of these geeks to be gun savy.
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I think you are wrong there. While it may not be expected, I've found a LOT of shooters in the IT field. I work for one of the top 3 banks and within my "sphere of co-workers" we have enough people that shoot USPSA that we can usually field our own squad at matches. I've found that in several places that I have worked.
 
I'm in the 'computer management' field, so you don't expect too many of these geeks to be gun savy.
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most of those guys grew up on Duck Hunt, Doom, Medal of Honor, Half-Life etc... we grew up shooting the crap out of digital bad guys with every imaginable weapon... now that we are adults, we are legally allowed to own many of the toys that we loved to play with virtually while growing up... Hell, the primary reason i got a garand is because of shooting many thousands of digital germans with one...
 
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