They think we are all "rednecks"

[bladehack]

I drive through the historic district of Ellicott City all the time and just west of Rogers Avenue is a dark grey Subaru Impreza with a Glock and HK bumper sticker on it...brings a smile to my face every time.

 

[MDFF2008]

Despite all this, I guarantee you there will be one guy who will show up Tuesday living every negative stereotype they portray us as.

 

[fabsroman]

Ok,,, Back to the oldie but goodie jokes,

1. What do you call 200 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean ???
2. If you are at a party with 150 guests and Fabsroman was one of the guests how would you know he was a lawyer ?








1. A really good start.
2. He will tell you and every other guest that he is a lawyer.

I prefer to tell people I am a tax preparer......
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
that also practices law and accountancy.

 

[fabsroman]

Despite all this, I guarantee you there will be one guy who will show up Tuesday living every negative stereotype they portray us as.

Yeah, but at least he will look like the black sheep. February 6th last year looked pretty good. Didn't see much camo among those there or those waiting to get into the building.

 

[esqappellate]

They would most likely arrest you at the border between Maryland and DC if you tried to enter DC like that. Assuming you work in DC, but not 100% sure.

You assume correctly. As to DC, I wouldn't make it through Montgomery Co, where guns and non-liberals are not tolerated. The culture there is really amazing in its arrogance

 

[rdc]

Despite all this, I guarantee you there will be one guy who will show up Tuesday living every negative stereotype they portray us as.

Only one??

 

[woodstock]

I'm not a redneck. Far from it, actually.

but yer from the south.

 

[august1410]

but yer from the south.

I live in the south. I am from Baltimore.

 

[fabsroman]

You know the way some people just have the Midas Touch?

Did you know the same family that sold their farm to developers to make Owings Mills Mall ... ended up selling their next farms to Rouse to make Columbia. Then they sailed around the world (literally) for a couple years on a sailboat ... then went back into farming ... just because they like farming. They own a couple farms now, but rent a lot more, maybe 9 or 10 ... yeah, large scale operation with a massive amount of equipment, successful year after year. The family hasn't needed to work for a couple generations, but they like work and still do it 100% hands on. Just 'cause someone is a redneck, you don't know where they have been, what they have done and seen, nor how much moolah is in their account.

You and I are on the same page here. I believe that you cannot judge a book by its cover, yet find myself doing just that sometimes.

My point is essentially this:

A lot of antis have no idea that a lot of gun owners live among them because those gun owners look just like them. They cannot fathom that a person that looks like them can possibly own a gun.

Many books have a lot to them, even though their cover art looks like crap. It is the story inside that matters.

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

Oh no I'm way to cheap for that. I mean Lexis/Michie or whatever the heck its called law on disc service. Costs like $90/month for whole firm and can access it when you have no internet. Google scholar if I need something really recent.

And as I always say 99% of lawyers give the rest of us a bad name.

 

[foxtrapper]

First 2 gun owners I got to know were 1) a flamboyant campy gay man, 2) his father who was retired from NASA ( engineer or scientist, not sure which, but it was one of those). While campy gay David owned 1 gun his dad insisted keep at home, his NASA nerd dad had a "gun nut" collection that including some stuff with happy switches. He even had a "gun room vault", and half a 1 car garage full of ammo. Oh and he lived in PG county!

Since then, I have met a bunch of gay and lesbian gun owners, 2 black gun owners, and many straight female gun owners. In addition I know of one asperger-ish asexual female ( she is like me in so many ways!), who got an AR15 before oct 1. I think I influenced her somewhere along the line.

Sure I have met "redneck" gun owners ( what redneck doesn't own guns? lol). Only a few were really trashy people (some crappy neighbors I had more specifically), the rest are all salt of the earth and pretty well educated too. Most of these "rednecks" make up my customer base. Others are older farmer landowners I have trapped for. Maybe they aren't so high falutin edumacated, but their kids and grandkids sure are. Only issue is a lot of these folks fit into the "fudd" category. Though I have only discussed these issues with a small # of them. But one guy who I met through my trapping was all fuddy-duddy last year and frowning upon my EBR lovefest. I guess he doesn't find plinking to be fun.

 

[foxtrapper]

Speaking of stereotypes, I once busted them all to pieces at a Bloomingdale's fur salon. But that has to do with furs and trapping, not gun ownership and gun rights issues.

 

[Blacksmith101]

Now a little red neck camouflage can have an advantage in some cases. Often the fancy pants urban/suburban types will under estimate the fellow that looks the part of red neck hayseed much to their regret. And if you ever get around the old money high dollar horse people you may have trouble telling them from the stable help on looks alone.

 

[fabsroman]

Just so we are all clear on this, I have no issue with rednecks or anybody else for that matter.

Went to meet a client while driving my F350 and wearing my Carhartt jeans and Columbia sweatshirt. Got out of the truck and the client said "You are unlike any attorney I met." My response "Thank you."

I have also read The Millionaire Next Door and understand that most millionaires are not high falutin snobs that only drink high dollar wine while eating sushi and caviar. They are mostly mid line beer drinkers that enjoy pizza.

In my line of work I also happen to know the financial situation of a lot of people. Suffice it to say that the majority of high falutin people have nothing in their savings account.

The problem we encounter is that gun owners in Maryland are not in the majority, or at least it does not seem to be the case. Not only that, but the vast majority of antis are in Montgomery, PG, and Baltimore City and they think all the gun owners are on the eastern shore and western Maryland in the mountains. That is the problem. None of them understand that their neighbors own guns because they just cannot fathom that the person living next door, working at NIH, NASA, or what have you, owns a gun. That is my point. They might think differently about this subject if they knew the real situation.

 

[jpo183]

Fab for clients that find out you are a gun guy what are their reaction? Reason I ask is because I carry at the office (and have my ccw). You can see it. My office has grown accustom after their intial shock, however i disarm when clients come in, not really wanting to deal with their potential shock.

It was fun the first weeks of watchjng my staffs reaction. Now I have normalized guns. They come in my office and I may have my AR in pieces being cleaned.

 

[brownspotz]

When I say Marriottsville, I once got asked is that near Mayberry...

 

[fabsroman]

Fab for clients that find out you are a gun guy what are their reaction? Reason I ask is because I carry at the office (and have my ccw). You can see it. My office has grown accustom after their intial shock, however i disarm when clients come in, not really wanting to deal with their potential shock.

It was fun the first weeks of watchjng my staffs reaction. Now I have normalized guns. They come in my office and I may have my AR in pieces being cleaned.

Some of my clients already know I am a gun person. I happen to shoot and hunt with them. Others know I lean to the conservative side. Then, there are those that find out and raise their eyebrows. I keep a gunvault on my desk, so anybody that knows guns knows that there is probably a handgun in it, if not two.

The worst reaction so far was from two clients last spring. They started talking about the Republicans blocking gun control and how ludicrous it was and this was about the same time I was dealing with SB281. So, I spoke up about the issue and their eyebrows went up when I said I own guns. They are animal lovers and they already knew I had a dog that I love to death. However, they also found out that day that I hunt. They asked if I would ever use an "assault weapon" for hunting and I told them that if I got the chance to hunt prairie dogs I would and that I might eventually use one for deer but have been sticking to my bolt gun (not that they know what a bolt gun is). They are still my clients and they sat there and listened to me discuss how man has destroyed the ecosystem, how man has to keep it in check, how the snow geese are destroying tundra, how the deer are overpopulated, etc. I give them credit for being willing to listen and I encourage everybody to talk to me about whatever they want. They might not change my mind, but it is still worth talking about. I didn't even get into the real reason behind the 2nd Amendment though. I tried that with a client earlier in the year and her eyes glazed over.

With that said, I am also not anti all regulation. For instance, I think there can be a reasonable background check for everybody IF we put certain safeguards in place. Of course, on this board saying something like this will get me tarred and feathered, just like it did a couple years ago on a hunting chatboard I frequent. I can see both sides of the argument. If a person cannot buy a brand new rifle from a FFL, why should that person be able to buy one from John Doe in a FTF transaction. Why is it that we only screen for prohibited people when transactions are done through an FFL?

I have other talking points too. For instance, after Newtown I attended a round table think tank for Howard County schools where parents were invited. Almost everybody agreed that have a LEO at elementary schools would be a good thing, but the powers that be (i.e., the police chief, the mayor, and the superintendent of schools) decided otherwise. The police chief's excuse was that if he had the additional manpower he would put it on the street to police the entire community. Hell, I see enough police cars driving up and down 144. Stick one at each of the 3 elementary schools along 144 and let them respond to calls from there if need be.

I am at the point in my life where I prefer to be frank with people and not be a closet gun owner. I have had a Life Member NRA sticker on my car and truck for a decade now. DU tags on my car and truck for a decade now. I am about to buy some bike manufacturer and gun manufacture stickers for the back window of my truck. Bikes on one side and guns on the other.

Figure if I lose clients because of my 2nd Amendment stance or cycling addiction, I will gain clients that are pro 2nd Amendment and pro cycling because of my stance in those areas. Then, I have more friends to enjoy my hobbies with.

I think it is a wash at the end of the day, maybe even a net positive.

 

[fabsroman]

When I say Marriottsville, I once got asked is that near Mayberry...

lol - people still do not know about western Howard County and southern Carroll County. That is good though. The fewer people that know about it, the slower development occurs. Bad enough they are putting 1,500 units in at Turf Valley over the next 10 years. It makes my head hurt thinking about it.

 

[brownspotz]

lol - people still do not know about western Howard County and southern Carroll County. That is good though. The fewer people that know about it, the slower development occurs. Bad enough they are putting 1,500 units in at Turf Valley over the next 10 years. It makes my head hurt thinking about it.

Its bad enough I have had to "remind" those that like to "look" at deer late at night off of Driver road that they don't belong up here. I feel bad for those that bought the houses that were built over the original landfill...well maybe not.

 

[fabsroman]

Its bad enough I have had to "remind" those that like to "look" at deer late at night off of Driver road that they don't belong up here. I feel bad for those that bought the houses that were built over the original landfill...well maybe not.

I have a couple friends that live off of Driver. Almost every time I come around the hair pin turn at the top of the hill, there are 5+ deer just sitting there. Insanely enough, one guy travels about an hour to go deer hunting when there are plenty right there.