Gun talk at work

[acpchuck]

When living/working in SE Idaho, guns and hunting where common topics at work for a lot of employees. It was just part of life in that area.

When I became president of a 1500 member gun range, I had a lot of people would come talk to me about guns and stuff at work, either as I was in the facility or come to my office. Being match director for the 3 gun, 2 gun and handgun events only added to the conversations.

An example of how gun stuff is looked at in Idaho. I had a person from from the largest credit union in Idaho call me to ask about bringing people out to shoot and then do a service project at the range. The CU encourages it's employees to give back to the community and we were able to work out an arrangement for about 20 people to come shoot and then work for a couple of hours on a project we needed done.

 

[vinniedelpino]

I'm the boss at work and we take payment in ammo and firearms.

During the ammo crunch, we had a whiteboard in my office where clients could write down ammo they were looking for and the price they were willing to pay per round. If we found it, we'd buy it and reach out to them.

I've picked up quite a bit of ammo, four or five pistols, four rifles, a surefire scout light, and a trijicon MRO as payment for services over the last two years.

 

[Longshot231]

Dear Abby,

I have a very lucrative job making well into the six-figure annual income.

My coworkers are a very eclectic group but are to the left of the political spectrum. Yet they are very friendly, caring, loving and open-minded.

Even though they are liberal to the point of making Marx look like a conservative, they are accepting of everyone’s opinions and beliefs. There are, supposedly, NO secrets between us.

I wore the pride t-shirt last June for every Friday of the gay-pride month so nobody would feel uncomfortable if I came dressed in business-casual like every other day of the week.

I also wore the United Way button during their campaign and even got a free pencil and coffee cup recognizing my sizeable donation.

My cubicle has poetry written by Maya Angelou framed with rainbow colors. Last Christmas I gave each of them an Enya CD along with an autographed copy of Barack Obama’s book “Dreams from My Father.”
In turn, each of them contributed greatly to a wedding gift for my brother and his husband to take a cruise for newlywed same-sex couples.

Last week we all chipped in to make protest signs for a transgender rights rally and sponsored a Lizzo flute playing fund raising event for a drag queen story time day at the day care center down the street.

The company that I work for contributes not only money to benefit drug addicted homeless immigrants. Every employee gets an extra day of paid vacation if they volunteer to pass out needles, cellphones, and debit cards to immigrant families while they wait for their court dates.

My coworkers are the friendliest group of people that you could ever meet. Every morning, I’m given warm hugs and friendly greetings. Someone always has a cup of my favorite cinnamon vanilla-hazelnut-caramel iced frapaccino-machiatto latte with Verona and Arabian spices with the fat free whipped topping and coconut Swiss-chocolate swirls sitting at my desk.

I get lots of compliments for my autographed portraits of Bernie Sanders and Barney Frank hanging on the partition of my cubicle.

I’ve told them all about my two mothers and that they have both volunteered for experimental hormone therapy. Even though it would mean a lot more money coming into the family, they both declined job offers as bearded women for the traveling circus just to stay close to me. I got a lot of collective sighs and hugs from everyone on that day.

The boss tells me that I’m his best employee and pays me an obscene salary for what I do. I really need this job and the money buys a lot of luxuries that I could not afford otherwise. I’ve lived in poorly furnished homes in some high crime areas before, living from paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes, I didn’t know where the next meal was coming from. I don’t want to live that way again. So, I don’t want to lose this job.

Everyone is so close knit that they usually go down to the local gay bar for drinks after work except me. They ask why I don’t join them.

I tell them that I need to take my girlfriend out for dinner before she starts the evening shift as a pole dancer and wait for her after one of her customers brings her home. I usually have breakfast on the table for her before I go to work the next day. On the weekends, I take her to her usual street corner and stand guard so nothing bad happens to her.

So now that you have all the background, here is my question.

Should I tell them that I don’t have a girlfriend that’s a pole dancer and my weekends are really spent shooting ELR, that off hours are spent contributing to threads on Snipers Hide, studying weaponized math and gunsmithing from SDI?

I don't want to lose this job. The money I make pays for all the 338 Lapua ammunition that feeds my MRAD with the Nightforce Optics.

Sincerely,

- Anonymous

 

[Trigger Monkey]

Wow, you spent almost as much time writing that as I did not reading it.

 

[Ronws]

This.

Today we had a dumb teambuilder, made (remotely, on camera! so dumb) where we planted succulents in this sorta dumb kit. I didn't do it because the wife would be mad at me. She got the kit and planted it in her greenhouse, different than the people organizing it wanted to because she's nigh on master gardener etc.

So, we're very very gardeny, whole house and environs, and... no one at work knows that. Not a divisive subject, just non-relevant conversation, none of their business. I am friendly with people, but not /friends/ with them, so they do not know what we do with our personal lives that much.

Gun (or night vision, or woodsy hiking or... etc) are naturally avoided because everything is.

Good for the algorithm.

 

[Ronws]

I find life is easier at work if I don’t mention I hunt or anything gun related. Otherwise I gotta hear 2 hours of bullshit and fuckery about how their deer was 200” but the guy didn’t know how to score correctly or how their goddamn fucking AR shoots 1/2” at 500 all day long.
Or the best one “I own a Glock 10mm it will stop any bear”
… yeah the bear is gonna stop, laugh and shove it up your ass while your pissing your pants trying to get it out of the holster.

Get a 9 mm. Pres Biden says a 9 mm will blow a lung out of the body.

 

[Longshot231]

Get a 9 mm. Pres Biden says a 9 mm will blow a lung out of the body.

 

[Maxduty]

Hell, I'm "that guy" when it comes to them asking about particular firearms or have questions about guns in general. They all know I hunt and shoot long range target. I even got razzed about missing a deer at 20 feet this year. My boss chimes in that if it had been in the next county I probably would have hit it and then he told me "should have pulled your pistol for that shot." and this is in a clinic full of patients.

 

[Ronws]

Hell, I'm "that guy" when it comes to them asking about particular firearms or have questions about guns in general. They all know I hunt and shoot long range target. I even got razzed about missing a deer at 20 feet this year. My boss chimes in that if it had been in the next county I probably would have hit it and then he told me "should have pulled your pistol for that shot." and this is in a clinic full of patients.

One of our colleagues in our industry lives 1 county away from my boss with the collection of armaments. She was complaining of a mountain lioness getting in her back yard. I told her my boss was good enough and had a gun that would get that cat.

From his house.

Other hunting humor. I can no longer find it but back in the mid 90s I was working for a company of avid hunters. They had a single panel cartoon taped to the front counter. Santa Claus had landed on the ground and 1 of his deer was laying in the snow and bleeding out. Next to it was a hunter with a top break open and smoking.

The hunter said, "I don't care who's deer they are. They are on my lease."

 

[10ring'r]

After reading all of these posts, I consider myself one lucky man. Before I retired (U.S.A.F./truck driver/mech./C.O.) I was lucky to be around people that didn't turn all karen and shit. 95% of people I know, are hunters, shooters, archers (most the females also). Plus, living here in Wisc., 99% own/use guns here. There is always something to yak about. I argue with my wifey more than anyone else, about guns anyways, and that's only because I like to spend $$ on em!. Mac

 

[rdinak]

Bonus checks come out this week. Guy in the shouts out, hell yea-“I am going to buy ammo for my AR.” Another guy says it’s time for that Marlin 45-70.

 

[Ronws]

I am usually pretty good at finding ammo at good prices. Then, not spending a lot of it, I spend a lot of time with dry fire, especially around the house. Seated with tripod. Standing with tripod. Standing using a door jamb as if it were a tree trunk to steady the hand holding the forearm.

Off hand, just to remind myself to not free hand shoot past 50 yards.

 

[Pbgt]

In my shop, I did repair work on the Brinks type security trucks, old guard walks in...I asked what he was sporting in his holster, out comes a beretta 92...hands it to me, be careful its loaded.....asked his young sidekick, his response was dont worry bout it...
I had a sign in the office, if we like your gun better than ours, we might just trade you....

 

[Near miss]

Over here where almost everybody goes through service, everybody is cool with guns.
Being involved with shooting is generally viewed as positive or neutral. I have consulted in a number of companies too.

My latest work gathering ended up as giving gear and course (we have thousands of basically free courses on everything from rappelling and CQB to sniping and survival) advice to colleagues.

 

[Makinchips208]

In small town Idaho you expect that everyone has a loaded weapon not far away. And we talk about guns openly.

 

[Ronws]

More trophies. Only so much space in the office.

 

[Ronws]

And finally, I remembered to take a pic of the sign next to our door to our offices.