Are shooters "uneducated rednecks"?

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brianidaho

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I don't mean to start a war by this topic! My impression is that far too many of the general public and especially the media has a low impression of the intelligence of the average gun owner/sports shooter/ccw holder, etc. My experience has typically been the opposite, most shooters I have talked with have a better than average education and speak in an intelligent manner (for lack of a better way of putting it). Of course my interperation may be biased :)


I'd assume the firing line readers are a pretty good cross section of backgrounds, and was wondering if anyone would care to share their professions/education/whatever. This is a matter of personal curiosity only, and granted is really none of my or anyone else’s business. If there are strong feelings say so and I'll request that a moderator delete this post.

For myself, I'm a design engineer, graduated from General Motors Institute with BSME in 1985. Born and raised in a small town outside of Buffalo, NY, I corrected that birth defect in '94 with a move to northern Idaho.
 
I married all three of mah sisters and sometimes the sheeps looks purty, but ain't nobody gonna be callin me a redneck if'n they knows whats good for em!

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
Most of the gun club members in the private clubs I have belonged to over the yrs were above avg in education and/or income.

I think a survey of NRA members showed the same a few yrs ago.

OTOH, most of the hunting camps I've been around growing up back east, most of the shooters at public ranges were just avg guys.

A few bad apples (there always are), but much better than we are usually portrayed on TV and in films.

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http://home.att.net/~brokenarrrow/
 
NORTHERN IDAHO! ALERT! ALERT! Just kidding Brian :) :). By and large I think most shooters are intelligent, friendly, good hearted people. As mentioned, there's just a few bad apples. Best Regards, J. Parker
 
My best friend and fellow gun-owner has a Ford 350 pick-em-up with license plate "RDNK LMO". We often get either curious stares or good natured laughter when others see the plate. I borrowed it once to drive my son and his stuff to college in Boston. You should have seen the stares we got there - I loved it! Oh, and by the way, my friend is an MD.
 
I've found that gun owners come from a very broad array of backgrounds. I, for one, did graduate H.S., have some college but mostly my experience is from military service (as an enlisted). I am not an MD or even close on the professional scale. I, am a lowly Janitor. I don't make $30 an hour, only nine. I do wear camo's, but these are my old uniforms from the miliary. I don't live or even own the place in which I am living. I do take a p!ss off my back porch every once in a while and I do drink beer. But, is that a redneck or just a simple country person? What is the difference between the two? I work hard for my money. I don't go out brawlin' on saturday night; I just enjoy the simple things in life. I still have all my teeth, I don't "dip" or "chew" but I smoke and I don't care if you dip or chew. I do take pride in my attire while at work but could care less if I go to the local market/town. I don't own a pick up truck but I would like to have one. My ultimate goal: To live in a wood cabin (two rooms; one a living/sleeping/kitchen/reloading/family room and the other the bathroom. I would like to have a 4x4 truck, live on 100 acres of land with a LONG driveway, and have two outside buildings; one a garage, the other a vault (attached to the cabin). I want to grow food and have animals on the land. A creek in the back would be nice for summer baths. Redneck? Isolationist? Mental since I don't want to put up with this so called "civilized" country? Who knows, but stereotyping is a dangerous thing.

USP45usp
 
I would say most gun owners are average americans. Unfortunately it makes fairly boring six o'clock news to report that John Smith took his gun to the shooting range today, shot about average, did nothing illegal, then came home and cut the lawn. The bad apples make the news, the news forms peoples opinions.
 
Hello all. No, the vast majority of "shooters" and gun owners (not always one in the same) are not "rednecks," and those who might be are not necessarily "bad."

At the range I belong to, I frequently find fellow shooters at the pistol range who are physicians, electricians, professors, businessmen, retired folks, carpenters, architects, policemen, and so forth.

Most are what I would refer to as "the salt of the earth."

In teaching Texas' CHL course, the same holds
true except that I see more women in the course.

We are made out to be less than what we are by a news media decidedly against our Pro-Freedom point of view. It is painting with a very broad brush and it is not accidental.

Best.
 
USP45, sounds good to me too.

I am a high school dropout with my GED and a few hours of college. School isn't my thing. I am a security supervisor with a large corporation and have been promoted to at least supervisor in every job I have had. I read a lot and try to gain as much knowledge on as many things as I can. I am not a racist or hyphenated American hater. I believe everyone has the right to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.
 
We have a political cartonest here in AZ by the name of Benson.He loves his Nra pot belled cartoons of gun toten NRA members.I wish I could draw.If I could I would draw pictures of these people in there youth laying on the beaches of Normandy,Tarawa Iwo,freezing to death in Korea,dieing in the jungles of Nam
and many other places.Then I would ask him what he has done for this country that gives him the right to show people in the way that he does

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Bob--- Age and deceit will overcome youth and speed.
I'm old and deceitful.
 
Hum... Let's see...

I'm a technical editor/writer for a Fortune 500 company. I have a BA in History, a minor in Fine Arts History, and have done some course work towards my Masters.

I'm now getting ready to start classes to bolster my knowledge of computers, programming, etc., because that's the kind of company I work for.

One of my best shooting buddies has his Doctorate in History, and has written something like 20 books that are used in teaching college-level history.

My great-uncle is a Surgeon.

My next-door neighbor is a Judicial Law Judge for the Federal Government.

Another of my neighbors is a retired Colonel in the US Army, and is currently working for a national security think tank (for which he's trying to recruit me).

My father is a Civil Engineer.

My opthamalogist is a .22/.45 bullseye shooter.

An orthopedic surgeon I know is one of the BEST wingshots I have ever seen. This clown filled his 12-bird dove limit in 17 shots a few years ago! :eek:

Another guy I know who loves handgun shooting is a pain management physician in Maryland.

Stereotypes are funny things...

My personal favorite is that all liberal Democratic males are effeminate, lisping, heroine-thin homosexuals. :)

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
I may be a pineapple, but I don't think I'm a bad apple! ;) :D :D

Dude, most of the guys I know are old surfer dudes, ex hippies, etc., etc...

Seriously, the shooters that I know personally are CPA's, lawyers, people that hold senior positions or first line supervisors in organizations, good church goers, dentists, Ob/Gyn docs, etc...of course, a few LEO's, gun shop owners,spec ops folks,a few housewives,several nurses, a couple paramedics....and on and on. They are all responsible members of the community and take active roles in local government.

When I worked my way through college, I knew how to drive various size CAT's and so sometimes I plowed the north 40 of a few farms and the farmers might have been called rednecks and they were shooters...but then when I worked in the fields picking lettuce and strawberries, I'm sure that my neck was red most of the time...does that qualify me as a redneck?

If we're talking about my political views, that's another story, but I'm pretty conservative...does that make me a redneck?

If you talk about a lot of TFL'ers that write their views, then I guess you got to count me in as a redneck because I share my views with them and vice-versa.

Good luck, redneck. ;) ;)
 
I would say that most shooters are what is coined as being "average". There are a few that are well above "average", and some that are below "average". For the most part however I do tend to find that the shooting public at large are better than the rest of the population as a whole.

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Dead [Black Ops]
 
I am a Marketing Manager for a billing company in Northern Ohio. I have a Master's degree in Marketing. I am of Average Income level. Have great interest in Firearms and love to shoot.
I have seen a couple of weirdos at the gunrange, but I call them weirdos not because of their appearance but because of the way they handled the guns.

As for most of the 'gun savvy' people I have met or spoke with have been very helpful, intelligent and most of all honorable people.
Regards,
Anand
 
Don't you love it. If you're not politically correct -- as most narrowly defined by the arrogant, self-aggrandizing media and politicians -- you must be an ignorant, uneducated, unrefined, red-neck. Not that it is anyone's business, but my qualifications include:

> Father was a career FBI Agent and mother was an school teacher
> BA Physics Ohio Wesleyan University
> Career Naval Officer (selected for Captain when I opted to retire at twenty years) specializing in tactical aviation program engineering and management
> MBA Duke University
> Post-Masters study (one year) at the National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces
> Director, Lockheed Martin (eleven years)
> Three children, all college graduates and all successfully "launched" with zero criminal or social problems

Of course, I certainly understand that my background, experiences, and accomplishments couldn't possibly qualify me for any of those really demanding jobs in public policy or journalism.

[This message has been edited by RWK (edited September 10, 2000).]
 
I have a bachelor's degree in physics and an education endorsement. Part of my fascination with firearms is how they apply the principals of physics. I am eternally intrigued by the different methodologies each different make/model uses as an approach to the different problems of spinning a bit of metal hundreds or thousands of meters consistently into a very small area.
IMHO anti-firearm politicians and reporters like to portray us all as uneducated bumpkins for the same reason propagandists have always made effigies of their enemies. It scares those who are uneducated on the issues so badly that it prejudices them against the other side without benefit of real information. I think it is also an insult to the intelligence of the American people.

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Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules.Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
 
We had a lenghty discussion on this subject here about two years ago. I can't seem to find it in the archives, maybe it was lost in the server moves and crashes.
 
Originally posted by brianidaho:
I don't mean to start a war by this topic! My impression is that far too many of the general public and especially the media has a low impression of the intelligence of the average gun owner

Our government learned from the Nazi's that you first have to demonize and portray a group of people as subhuman before the rest will accept their destruction.

Learn from history, my friend, they did.


[This message has been edited by Nukem (edited September 10, 2000).]
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