Do you openly talk about firearms?

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Gun Evangelism instead of Isolationism! Sure, I talk guns, but I also hang out with them and talk their interests and my other hobbies as well. Gotta let'em know you're a well rounded, normal, everyday kinda guy that happens to like guns as well, ya know? Gotta be in the world to change it.
 
I think PalidinX13 has it right.
If the only words your coworkers hear are "fps, ft-pounds, ten-ring, double tap, crush cavity, hi-cap, etc" they might get the idea you are a psycho with a one-track mind.

But, if you also chat about the damn roof that's leaking again, picking the kids up from teeball, having lunch with your elderly mother, mowing the lawn, changing the oil.... they will see that you are a normal guy (or gal) and have firearms as ONE of your many interests, not the sole interest.

(They don't need to know that it's your main interest though. ;) )


That said, I do talk guns at work, but only a bit more than other chitchat.

(I don't get too much into "Klinton is a sleezball", as some of the sheeple are so taken in by his (yecch) charm, that there is no talking to them. The vast majority of the country however don't have much real knowledge, nor a firm stance on guns. They are largely fence-sitters.)

-Kframe
 
Of course! Silly question IMNSHO. It's not like it's a reproductive or exretory bodily funtion or something.
'course a Model 19 is purty nuff to marry and a Lorcin is $hit, and VPC&HCI do tend to pi$$ me off ;)

[This message has been edited by RAE (edited October 09, 2000).]
 
I talk about firearms every chance I get. We have been bullied over the past 8 years into being quiet and hiding.

No more! The time for being quiet is over. We are law-abiding patriotic citizens and have nothing to hide.

CMOS

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NRA? Good. Now join the GOA!

CMOS's Site
 
On my cube I have a calendar page ripped from a friend's Jeff Foxworthy Calendar. It says:

You might be a redneck if...

The local Gun & Knife Show is held in your basement.

:D
 
Yes, when its apporpriate. If a discussion re politics comes up I express my views as any American should. If people around us dont like it they can stop evesdropping. If my employer does not like it and does something about it, they I guess I will have more $$ to buy guns after I sue the cra* out of them. We need to not fall into the trap of making it seem like guns are bad. We all know they are not bad so we should stop acting like it and come out of the closet.

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"Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes."
-R.A. Heinlein
 
All the time. If I am at work and am involved in a conversation I will use gun examples if possible and explain the laws in Texas to the people of Indiana. People at work that have gun questions know where to go. I have a shooting outing planned with four of the fence sitters at work and their wives. Sat. after the Louisville gun show some of us were sitting in a restaurant openly discussing the show and some of the neat stuff that was there. If others in the restaurant had a problem with it TOO BAD. They are more than welcome to stay home and keep their heads in the sand. Neat thing at the restaurant was that GregL's two small boys were at the table involved in the gun conversation. Hope it sent every anti-constitutionalists 'tweek meter' right off the scale.
 
Prior to my retirement, one of my previous bosses was not only anti-gun, but
anti- hunting as well. He forebad me to discuss firearms or hunting with one of my co-worker, who was also an avid shooter and hunter, prior to coming down with leukemia, ans passing on. He would not allow me to take my annual leave during hunting season. I finally had to file a grievance against him, which I won, but this should not have been necessary. When he left, (retired) we got a new boss who, while not being a gun nut, at least was a hunter. We did share one elk trip prior to my retirement. No elk, but had a good trip.
Paul B.
 
Sure, but not all of the time. I do have other things going on in my life.

Heck, I've had bullets shipped to the office, and I told them what they were (what else could weigh 16lbs in a box that small). Nobody has ever said anything to me.
 
Yes, I do talk about them in public, but I am well aware of the odd looks that I get from others. I think that it is imperitive to be very conscious of how we look when we are discussing firearms in front of strangers. Things that we might jokingly say among friends may well be taken out of context fence-sitting strangers. Thus open descriptions of rage and wishes of violence, while clearly not serious, are detrimental to our cause if a fence-sitting stranger overhears that in the context of the speaker as a gun-owner.

So reconsider any public statement that begins, "Gawd, I'd like to..." when your emotion is derision or anger, and there are strangers about....

The thing about liberals, is that they're skittish, and extremist in their "logic."

--L.P.
 
I work in Cambridge, MA, with a bunch of yuppies. Most folks know that I'm the resident "gun nut." They also know that I'm a certified instructor. I talk openly about shooting and hunting. I've taken several of them shooting.

I'm not going to stay in the closet. It's kind of funny when the anti-gun types realize that I'm a shooter, because with three college degrees, I don't fit their media-fed stereotype of a gun owner. They look real hard, but they STILL can't see the horns and tail that they're sure must be there ;)

It's important that as many people as possible know that we are normal people. We're their neighbors.

M1911
 
Yeah, I talk about guns with people I work with, ( in an ER in D.C., no less). After a few months there, I just casually mentioned that I got some trigger time over the weekend, kind of like saying I worked on the car, or hit the beach. No biggie. Found a couple of the residents and staff also shared my obsession. So I now talk about guns almost exclusively with them. Once in a while, with someone else, but political and social ideology really has never reared it's ugly head.

Of course, the 3x5 card with the <1" double tap from 10yds that I taped to the inside of my locker has generated some deer-in-the-headlights looks, :eek: but...
 
I talk when the subject comes up. I usually don't start the ball rolling in the gun direction, but I'm not afraid to say what I do and believe when the time is right. I agree that gun people should have a face: You and I. People need to see that gun owners are "normal" (and I use that term loosely around here) human beings.
 
You asked that as if there were actually other things worth conversing about...


I can't believe I almost forgot!!! There's cars and gearhead stuff too!

[This message has been edited by Christopher (edited October 09, 2000).]
 
I am not too terribly concerned about discussing firearms at work. My boss is a Buckmasters member, and he bought his first handgun from me, a Norinco Makarov. My next-office coworker got his first handgun from me as well, a Taurus 606 .357 Mag. (Just doing my part to indoctrinate all the huntin' folks into the handgun owner circle.)

Our IS Director (my boss' boss and the Big Cheese around here) has so many guns at home that he can't even give an accurate count. He sold me a Titanium Airweight *&* a few months ago, and we routinely stand in the hallway and BS about guns for 15 minutes at a time. We also hit the range together occasionally.

All in all, the area here (East TN) is lousy with hunters and generally pro-gun. My company is one of those "good ol' boy" establishments where folks have NRA stickers on their company cars, and I know a half dozen folks in the office who have CCWs. We have no official policy on weapons at work, and most around here have a "don't ask, don't tell" approach about CCW in the office. Gun-related screen savers won't raise much of an eyebrow where people have .45 cartridges on their desk as souvenirs from their first range trip. :)

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"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice." -- Albert Einstein
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Glock/Benelli/Enfield -- the all-purpose threat management system.
 
I used to be very hesitant but now I'm pretty outspoken. Why? Because nearly everyime I open my mouth at work, I meet another shooter. I can't believe how many of my coworkers shoot and collect guns, even un-PC AR's and AK's. Just today I mentioned to a female coworker that I like to go to gunshows. She kinda sighed and then said that her husband is a collector and spends way too much on guns. She really blew me away when she said that she only has two guns, a Glock 9mm and a .22 pistol. We talked guns for 15 minutes, and I gave her this Webite URL and a few others. I think that we all neeed to start talking. United we stand!!
 
I work in the "creative" field of advertising, and there's a ton of liberals. Surprisingly, there's also a lot of people who are curious. So, when I mention that I spent a few hours target shooting, I often get questions such as "why would you oppose (fill in the blank)?" It's a good opportunity to change some minds, or at least have them question what the media has told them. As for the flaming liberals, as more than one person here has said: don't waste time with true believers. What really toasts me, though, is a guy I've worked with for nearly 20 years. He hunts, shoots trap, owns more guns than I do (M1's, shotguns, old pistols). But when I get a new gun, like my Remington 700 Police, he says "so who you gonna kill with that?" If it's not an antique or for duck hunting, it just isn't necessary. :(

Dick
Want to send a message to Bush? Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/monk/petition.html and forward the link to every gun owner you know.

[This message has been edited by Monkeyleg (edited October 09, 2000).]
 
TearsOfRage's comments are interesting as we live in the SF Bay area and I have taken to wearing shirts with firearms logos. I have referred to it as "coming out of the closet".

I wear three different shirts (not all at the same time, of course) which sport the ICORE logo of rounds chambered in a .357 magnum revolver cylinder (www.ICORE.org).

I also wear two other shirts which advertise the Bay Bridge Charity Classic matches held in Richmond, CA to benefit Toys for Tots. Shows shooters are normal people.

I resisted the temptation recently to look back to check the expression of a lady offering me Ralph Nader info as I entered REI in Berkeley. Might have been interesting, but then maybe I'm just guilty of stereotyping and she really enjoyed the image of a .357 magnum cylinder.
 
Two topics are routinely spouted out of my yap: guns and rugby (and sometimes opinions on the best malt beverage). Ok, make it three.
 
I like to think I don't bring the subject up myself, but i must have an uncanny ability to turn the conversation that way 'cause it always seems to end up there...funny like that, isn't it?

My boss is a pretty liberal cat, it's a small shop we have and it just sort of came into knowing that I had guns, a CCW and shoot regularly. I don't remember the actual moment. He knows my gun is in the shop everyday, and that I often have it on me as well, talking to customers or what have you.

The other day I came in late to put in some overtime and he was there, we ended up having 'the conversation' top to bottom for about three and a half hours. He's a devil's advocate by nature, but I also know he was working alot of the issues out on me that evening. At the end, I really didn't know where he stood.

The next day he went downtown and got his CCW. He picked up a G27 on my recommendation a week later and we're shopping accessories right now. I'll be bringing him and his wife to the range soon for some safety and CCW training. :)

Don't force the issue, be calm and rational, don't ever resort to shouting. If it goes south, be the first to drop the subject. It'll come up again, I promise ;)

- gabe
 
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