I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

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TKshooter
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I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by TKshooter »

This may not be woman specific- but I am a woman shooter and feel discriminated against.

My husband always harps on me about not discussing shooting or guns at work- I understand it can be a "hot topic" and some people have views and its like politics or religion. But that bothers me- I work with a small group of people and we tend to talk most the night about personal things- I get to hear what everyone is into but I can't really share. :|

I tried talking about it a couple times- but I saw the faces- I know what they mean- have to worry that people will become scared of me or making me mad cause I have a gun, or that I am just crazy because no one else owns a gun and definitely doesn't talk about it. :cry:

Another lady at work- her husband recently got into shooting so she was asking me questions since I am the "Gun Lady" at work. I warned her though that we would have to be quiet about it and careful who we talk around. Sure enough the other day she has a flyer on her desk from a range- all it had was range prices on it and someone told her that she should probably cover it up so that "no one gets the wrong idea"!! :shock: So now we talk in code, going shooting is going to the "coffee shop" and having some good coffee.

The reason for my venting- I just can't believe that gun ownership and enjoying the sport is seen as something crazy that I shouldn't talk about, worried someone will get the wrong idea. I don't want to hide- I want to fly my gun flag high and proud! :mrgreen: ...... but I digress- like my husband said- its not for work- but I still truly believe that talking about it should be like talking about a hobby not some controversial subject.
-TK

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
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Sevens
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by Sevens »

I feel quite similarly, it seems I'm always trying to keep my "gun radar" WAY up, looking for any indication that others might be discussing guns or shooting, so that I can find like-minded folks.

Fact that we have to live with is that opponents of our lifestyle are often, for lack of a better term, WACKO on the subject. That can lead to problems with our employment, through absolutely no fault of our own. :oops: I'm also quite guarded with the idea that someone I don't know well enough should know that I'm a gun guy-- if not for the harm they might cause me, perhaps for the harm that anything they share with yet another unknown 3rd party could harm me. I've been accused of being paranoid, but that doesn't change the way I feel.

Tweed Ring has an axiom that I simply cannot subscribe to, because I feel like I must be myself or I cease to really exist. It's not that his axiom isn't a good one, it's just not for me.

I don't know if there will be a day when folks like us are mainstream... but given that I've been deeply in to this hobby/lifestyle for 'bout 25 years, it's my opinion that although we are not close -- we are closer at the moment than anytime since the late 1980s when I joined up. :wink:
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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MuzzleReport
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by MuzzleReport »

TV Shows like Top Shot help, Sons of Guns not so much...
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by captainstormy »

IMO, there are alot of topic one shouldn't discuss at work.

Actually, most topic shouldn't be discussed at work. Pretty much anything besides the weather, the ball game, or what your kids are doing in school.

I say that because I've seen countless times, in several different places how people's conversations, hobbies, political leanings etc etc are used at work as reasons not to give them promotions, or worse yet to let them go.

I may not be the best person to talk to thou. I don't believe in work friends. Work, and life are two different things to me.
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them. - John Bernard Books(John Wayne in The Shootist)
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by Jake »

Another lady at work- her husband recently got into shooting so she was asking me questions since I am the "Gun Lady" at work. I warned her though that we would have to be quiet about it and careful who we talk around. Sure enough the other day she has a flyer on her desk from a range- all it had was range prices on it and someone told her that she should probably cover it up so that "no one gets the wrong idea"!! :shock: So now we talk in code, going shooting is going to the "coffee shop" and having some good coffee.
Less talk, more work!
(reaches for cattle prod)

Sounds like fun, talking in secret code and such.
You should exercise caution though.
An anti gun boss could likely get you fired easily over something not related to your passion for firearms.

I'd imagine that if you and your co-worker are getting along well enough, to take that friendship to the range
and other social environments where you can partake to your delight in all the chatter about all the great things related to firearms.

One topic I highly suggest is firearm safety on and off the range.
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NRA Certified Range Safety Officer

Hope for the Best. Plan for the Worst.


http://www.salemhuntingclub.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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blah
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by blah »

Not really a woman issue. for quite a while I didn't talk about guns at work period. Then, one monday morning during the normal "what did you do this weekend?" discussion, I slipped that I had gone trap shooting. I try to avoid the discussion in general anymore. Although I did take one coworker and his wife to the range because they were interested in learning to shoot.
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by SMMAssociates »

Jake:

I thought Beaty took the cattle prod off you again....

(Sure got the cows down there upset anyway.... :D)

blah:

Seems to me that trap & skeet are more "socially acceptable" subjects.

Overall, I never had a problem at the former day job, but I was always pretty quiet about it, and had an LE connection that most everybody knew about.

Just keep it concealed....

Regards,
Stu.

(Why write a quick note when you can write a novel?)

(Why do those who claim to wish to protect me feel that the best way to do that is to disarm me?)

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Mrs. Daspirate
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by Mrs. Daspirate »

I think it depends on the atmosphere where you work more than the gender. I work with a lot of guys that are into hunting, fishing, and all manner of other "manly" things. One of our drivers has his CHL and everyone knows it, and I was talking about shooting AR15's with one guy during a mine safety training meeting. Working with environmentalists all day sometimes has its perks. I can't carry in the building, but that has more to do with the President and an incident with a previous employee than with them actually being against guns as a company policy. I usually just keep it to target and trap shooting to be safe though, I don't generally discuss concealed carry there unless it's to correct misinformation.
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DasPirate
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by DasPirate »

Maybe I'm crazy for doing so, but I work with quite a large number of people who partake in shooting sports of all types and not only do we discuss shooting at work, we discuss the laws pertaining to it, guns, ammo, places to shoot, and we even go to the range together. None of us make any secrets about it, and we make up a solid quarter of the department. Maybe it's a false feeling of safety in numbers, but to my knowledge nobody's gotten denied anything because of it. Hell, I got hired in the first place because I shared a passion for bow hunting with the director that was doing the interview.
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by dl1911 »

DasPirate wrote:Maybe I'm crazy for doing so, but I work with quite a large number of people who partake in shooting sports of all types and not only do we discuss shooting at work, we discuss the laws pertaining to it, guns, ammo, places to shoot, and we even go to the range together. None of us make any secrets about it, and we make up a solid quarter of the department. Maybe it's a false feeling of safety in numbers, but to my knowledge nobody's gotten denied anything because of it. Hell, I got hired in the first place because I shared a passion for bow hunting with the director that was doing the interview.
Any open spots for an IT Programmer/Analyst type that also happens to be an 1911 and IDPA fan(atic)? Currently job seeking.

At the old office, I kept things pretty quiet. A few close friends and an old boss knew but that was it for a long time. Boss only knew because he asked why I was requesting to come in late one morning when I was applying for my CHL. Unfortunately he outed me to everyone during a large meeting a few months later. Still, was nice guy and even came out to watch me at an IDPA match last year. Would ask me how I did at latest match, etc. Next boss didn't want to hear about any of it although she did know. Only boss I've ever had that never asked about anything outside of work. Last one wasn't as bad but don't think she was entirely comfortable about it. Still, I always tended to keep it fairly low key, talking softly and only to those I knew well. Didn't even bring up taking 2nd place at the 2010 Michigan IDPA State Championship for my class and division except to those same friends.
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by djthomas »

This is an interesting subject. I oversee a team of folks, all of whom happen to be women. They all have CHLs from their respective states and talk about shooting, hunting, and the like. The sense I get from management is that it's OK for them to talk about it because they're women but us guys should probably keep our hobbies under wraps.*

In fact at one point someone way up in senior management almost said that he thinks the women in our company should be allowed to carry to work. But then two weeks later a guy was talking about a new hunting rifle he'd picked up and he got pulled aside and given "the talk" about staying on the down low.

* I'm trying to use this as leverage to get my wife out to the range. With the exception of her, my sister and my mom all the women in my life are avid shooters.
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by Beekeeper »

djthomas, I work almost exclusively with women from 20-40 years of age, and most of them shoot. Quite a few of them have their CHL's too, which surprised me when I first found out.

Tkshooter, be careful about sharing certain topics at work like shooting, politics, and religion. We don't mention shooting, or guns around any of the upper management since we don't know how they'd react.
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by synack2 »

I am self employed now, but I have never made a secret out of it. Everyone knows I am a gun nut! I have even been known to hang a few good targets up in my cube after a few trips to the range. I have always found that it works in my favor of the non-gun people. They don't want to tick you off, because they are not sure what you will do. I was asked why I had the targets at my desk, I simply said because that is the best two I had ever shot and I was proud of them, just like the lady beside me was proud of her dogs.

I had one boss (owner) who was pretty much not really Anti Gun, but never saw the need to own guns and thought I was slightly nuts. He was Jewish and was razzing me one day about guns, and I told him... "If I was Jewish and my people had been through what your people have been through, I would own every gun in the world and I would use them if the govt. started trying to move my family into special neighborhoods called Ghettos just because I was Jewish."

Next thing I know he is like "Hey Look at my New SKS" I talked to him not long ago and he no has his CHL and carries. Sometimes you just have to make people realize that guns are not bad and that there were many times in history when evil would not have prevailed if there would have been armed citizens.
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by rDigital »

Where I work there are piles of gun magazines and catalogs in both the managers and hourly break areas. I purchased a Henry .22 LR lever gun and it was the talk of the town last week.

Fantastic. 8)
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Re: I like GUNS!...why should I have to hide it?

Post by dl1911 »

rDigital wrote:Where I work there are piles of gun magazines and catalogs in both the managers and hourly break areas. I purchased a Henry .22 LR lever gun and it was the talk of the town last week.

Fantastic. 8)
Sorry, but I have to ask once again, any openings for an IT type guy? At my last job, I had to be careful of so much as a Cabela's flier if there was so much as ammo listed in it. Would have loved to see the response there to bringing back a 2nd place for class & division from a state IDPA match. Sounds like everyone there would have wanted to see the plaque, pictures and possibly even stage descriptions.
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