We all have HAD to do it at some point in time – work with non-shooters.
Sad, but true!
No doubt you do or have worked with people who appreciate you have a legal and legitimate use for firearms, but only because you took the time to explain to them what you do.
Do you have a story about co-workers who changed their minds about understand what you do?
Maybe they took up shooting because of you? Or hide in the compactus when you arrive at work?
Let us know in our comments section.
Was at work when the pistol buyback was implemented; a woman who objected to my front page article complaing about how unfair it was and saying gun owners should stop complaining just because they weren’t paying for everything such as holsters, ammunition etc. I then asked her “what if Howard decided to ban V8s because so many were involved in car accidents taking peoples lives”. She shrugged and said she wouldn’t like it but would accept it as being for the better for everyone. I then pointed out he had banned the V8 not the car and as such she would only be paid 10k not the 50k the car cost her. About 20 minutes later she came to my office and appologised for not looking at the whole situation rather than just blindly accepting what the media and pollies had been saying.
As an IT consultant with 30+ organisations and over 500 people on the books, I regularly talk firearms and hunting with my clients which most of those 500 people already know I’m a hunter and target shooter. They even ask me “did you go hunting on the weekend?”. The majority of co-workers / clients don’t seem to have any issue with my sport and recreation, they’re actually interested in it. Some of the staff, CEO’s and directors actually have firearms licences, it’s amazing how many people are around that are business people by day, hunters and shooters on the weekend. For one client I even organised a corporate shoot for 10 of their staff at the SSAA Springvale Range, all attendees thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Not everyone’s going to understand hunting or target shooting, though I had one experience where they didn’t get it, after showing damage caused by rabbits on a farm to one person, along with explaining what the foxes were doing to the local wildlife (and the neighbours not doing anything about it), they came around as they didn’t understand the scope of the problems and the damage caused until shown.
I got the sack from a job once after revealing I was a gun owner. I couldn’t prove that was the case, but I was 99% sure that’s what it was.
Also, years ago a business colleague I knew at the time was totally against gun ownership and shooting in general. I told him that it was no different to him playing a round of golf. This went round and round for a few years. So I asked him to come shooting at the range and put his money where his mouth was and find out what exactly what it was he was so against. Seeing as he had never fired a gun before. So a few months later I took him to the range, and he’s near jumping out of his skin with every shot that was going off. I told him “You better get used to it as we will be here all day”. After he calmed down he really enjoyed himself and shot very well for a beginner. Said he would go again. He also had a new found respect too, that guns aren’t the nasty evil thing’s the the media make them out to be.