Poll: Do You Fear Or Have Misgivings About American Gun Culture?

[Certaindeaf]

Not to be confused with misjivings..

 

[OldBroad44]

I went back to collage at 52 years old and at the start did very bad on any test. Turns out I have AADD, causeing to me think I had to race thru the test to get done as fast as I could. Fortunately a STEM advisor discovered that in me and I got an accommodation to be tested alone with a proctor and allowed time and a half to do the test. This allowed me to think thru each question with no feelings of pressure and the funny thing is I never used the extra time.

Doesn't surprise me. Fear of not finishing hurt your ability to do test. Once assured you had plenty of time that fear was gone, and you could do the test in the ordinary time. I designed my testing philosophy because genetic analysis and creativity depends on what you can do at your best.

The hell week of boot camp is the opposite. Legitimately so. Because in combat you are often going to be under huge stress, no sleep, exhausted. The question is can you still function adequately at your worst

 

[Artilleryman]

I have concerns about many aspects of life in America these days. So called "gun culture" is among the least of them.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I have concerns about many aspects of life in America these days. So called "gun culture" is among the least of them.

But what about the unintended consequences?

 

[Aero Denezol]

I have concerns about many aspects of life in America these days. So called "gun culture" is among the least of them.

Yeah. People getting together to tinker and talk guns in the garage somewhere.. this is the least of my concerns.

When I'm waiting to cross the street with my wife and some homeless kid starts behaving erratically, that is a concern. There are 100 concerns I have that have nothing to do with the state of "gun culture".

 

[Croat]

At some point in the chain of command supervisors are hired because they will do what management tells them without question and not because they know the job

That sounds like a truism, but of course there are always exceptions. I'm a case in point. I know I was a major pain in the arse to the chain of command in an upward direction, but only because I felt "reality" (for what that word is worth) was not always being recognized or responded to appropriately. Unlike others (who indeed fell in line with your truism), I did not feel that I was being paid to be silent, so I piped up and voiced my concerns when necessary, not to be a sh!t, but to help ensure better outcomes. Of course, my views did not always prevail (more like rarely), but the interesting thing is that the higher ups came to trust me more than others simply because they knew I would give them the straight dope. Over time I became a sort of in-house consultant, sitting behind closed doors to discuss extremely confidential issues with top leadership. Trust is not easy to come by in large organizations, and you will never earn the trust of others if you're not true to yourself and thereby true to the people you work with.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Something to consider here....

Firearm owners , as a general rule , ain't a problem , issue or maybe even a "culture"....
I say that last one in quotes 'cause I ain't sure it applies to gun owners as a whole.

What can be a problem or issue is :

When folks lump all gun owners together and assign labels and such to 'em....
Or when a folks paint all gun owners with the same broad brush strokes and cover 'em with a blanket statement.

Perception , as in how folks see you and what you are doing matters....
And...
Like it or not...agree with it or not...
What you do , or say...how you act when in the pubic eye , when doing anything firearm related....
Will be seen as representing how all gun owners think , act or speak....at least for some folks.
And that can be a issue or problem.
Andy

 

[Croat]

Something to consider here....

Firearm owners , as a general rule , ain't a problem , issue or maybe even a "culture"....
I say that last one in quotes 'cause I ain't sure it applies to gun owners as a whole.

What can be a problem or issue is :

When folks lump all gun owners together and assign labels and such to 'em....
Or when a folks paint all gun owners with the same broad brush strokes and cover 'em with a blanket statement.

Perception , as in how folks see you and what you are doing matters....
And...
Like it or not...agree with it or not...
What you do , or say...how you act when in the pubic eye , when doing anything firearm related....
Will be seen as representing how all gun owners think , act or speak....at least for some folks.
And that can be a issue or problem.
Andy

Exactly. That was always our message in the military, how you behave in uniform reflects on every service member everywhere. One thing, however, is to speak about that rather squirrely word "culture." Pretty much every human activity is a "culture." There is indeed a gun culture, but that is an overly broad term that can be easily subdivided into gun competition culture, reloading culture, hunting culture, etc. Just like there is a knitting culture, golf culture, blues culture, lego culture, shortwave radio culture, goth culture, ad infinitum, and all of those have their own subcultures. Since every human activity can be deemed a "culture," and more importantly every culture is subject to being divided into an unlimited number of subcultures, the word kind of loses its meaning, which I think may have been your point.

 

[OldBroad44]

At some point in the chain of command supervisors are hired because they will do what management tells them without question and not because they know the job

Not in competently run operations. Ideally the supervisor will do what his own supervisor tells him AND knows the job. But he questions anything that doesn't make sense to him because this means something at some level is wrong. Maybe in his own understanding, or his supervisors understanding, or in the communications between them. Or maybe in the whole project.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Exactly. That was always our message in the military, how you behave in uniform reflects on every service member everywhere. One thing, however, is to speak about that rather squirrely word "culture." Pretty much every human activity is a "culture." There is indeed a gun culture, but that is an overly broad term that can be easily subdivided into gun competition culture, reloading culture, hunting culture, etc. Just like there is a knitting culture, golf culture, blues culture, lego culture, shortwave radio culture, goth culture, ad infinitum, and all of those have their own subcultures. Since every human activity can be deemed a "culture," and more importantly every culture is subject to being divided into an unlimited number of subcultures, the word kind of loses its meaning, which I think may have been your point.

My point...
Well....
I don't think there is such a thing as a gun culture.
Firearm owners are way too diverse to be put into a particular order or set , or social group.
I also don't care for labels or stereotyping.

I do agree with you on the word culture being "squirrely" .
And how it is indeed an overly broad term that can easily lose its meaning especially with overuse .
Andy

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

Not in competently run operations.

Mostly my observation was based on retail and customer service positions, I would hesitate to describe the majority of them as "competently run"

 

[OldBroad44]

What would you do with a million dollars...???

Buy a small farm and hire field hands so I can do more plant breeding than ever without being entirely dependent on collaborations with farmers. Continue serving as chair of board of the small 501c3 concerned with control of seed I am involved with. Have a duck flock again. And plenty of duck eggs. And a small flock of sheep. And a couple of Maremma sheep dogs to protect the ducks and sheep. Start breeding sheep. Develop a bigger meatier line of (mild-flavored) hair sheep. Develop a hair line of milk sheep that is also hardier and more adaptable than current milk sheep. (Hair sheep don't produce wool, which there is little market for these days, shed their hair naturally so don't need expensive laborious shearing, and don't produce the lanolin that gives older lambs and mutton their rank flavor.)(True feta cheese is made with sheeps milk.)

Sheep are ideal ruminant animals for grazing outdoors year round in the maritime NW. The right breeds can be raised entirely on pasture. They produce 2-3 offspring per year instead of only one like a cow, those offspring are ready to butcher in six months or less instead of 18 months like cattle so they don't have to be held over winter. In addition, if you graze cattle on most NW lands in winter the soil becomes compacted, ruined. Sheep are light enough they don't compact the land. They also eat a bigger range of forage than most cattle. Weeds, brush, tree leaves, etc.

Dream Farm will have a place with a good backstop were I can shoot my handguns out to 200 yards. And farm would be adjacent to some national forest or BLM land where I could handgun hunt deer. But note that gun related stuff is actually way down on the list of my priorities. That's the reality. My passion is plant breeding, which I would extend to sheep breeding if I could. And shooting for me is mostly a recreational activity.

 

[OldBroad44]

Mostly my observation was based on retail and customer service positions, I would hesitate to describe the majority of them as "competently run"

Right. Most of my early experience is with laboratories. Laboratories full of potentially dangerous equipment. And poisonous or radioactive chemicals. Fail to properly balance the titanium ultracentrifuge head and it flies off the ultracentrifuge, goes through a couple of walls, and goes bouncing around off the walls in the third room and trashes everything. And if a human is in the way they are going to be badly injured or killed. Fail to make sure pressure has returned to normal before opening an autoclave, and the blast of high pressure steam may permanently disfigure your face and maybe also damages your vision. And such equipment is used by even the undergrads doing projects in the lab and beginning Lab Tec Is. And the head of the laboratory is directly responsible for all training and safe use of equipment.

Seems to me retail stores are mostly variable. Sometimes very well run. Sometimes only variable but adequate. If it's too bad and there is competition, the store goes out of business. Where you really see incompetence is in many government controlled operations. DMVs notoriously. Post Offices. And I needed to wait several months to get an appointment the last time I renewed my CHP. And its actually impossible to call IRS these days. Also impossible to call the post office. But you can reach any business in Corvallis easily.

 

[sobo]

Start breeding sheep.

Welp, you have at least one job I can help with...

 

[sobo]

Where you really see incompetence is in many government controlled operations.

 

[OldBroad44]

Welp, you have at least one job I can help with...

PM me and tell me more, @sobo .

 

[sobo]

PM me and tell me more, @sobo .

I specialize in preserving lineage...

 

[Diamondback]

PM me and tell me more, @sobo .

I think he means the kind that walk on two legs, ma'am.

 

[sobo]

I think he means the kind that walk on two legs, ma'am.

Oh, I can work with actual ungulates, too! I have hip-waders!

 

[oremike]

Oh, I can work with actual ungulates, too! I have hip-waders!

You like'm stuck in a fence or stump trained?