Have you ever seen the highly educated in possession of firearm(s)?

  • Thread starter Alex_Sanders
  • Start date
In summary: I never asked them if they practiced the 2nd Amen.Yes, most highly educated people do practice the 2nd Amen. But, as with anything else, there are exceptions.
  • #1
Alex_Sanders
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Professors, phd holders, do they practice the 2nd Amen.(2 lng, cnt spel)?

Even a NRA member like Michael Moore?
 
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  • #2
Yes.
 
  • #3
No.

But people rarely expose the weapons they're carrying, regardless of what level of education they've attained.
 
  • #4
A good friend of mine has a PhD, a couple hundred papers, is a fellow of the APS, and hunts regularly.
 
  • #5
A good friend of mine is a Ph.D nuclear engineer, a lifetime member of the NRA, and a highly dedicated gun owner interested only in personal defense.
 
  • #6
Out of interest, how many times has he had to defend himself with the gun?
 
  • #7
Haven't most astronauts come from the Air Force or other military branches?
 
  • #8
Adyssa said:
Out of interest, how many times has he had to defend himself with the gun?

None that I know of, but I've never asked.

I too have plenty of weapons for personal defense. Any reasonable person hopes to never use a gun for actual defense, but it you ever do need it, there is no substitution.

Most cops have never shot anyone, for that matter.
 
  • #9
It's an interesting topic that's for sure. Here in Australia, guns just aren't really part of the culture.
 
  • #10
Alex_Sanders said:
Professors, phd holders, do they practice the 2nd Amen.(2 lng, cnt spel)?
Wrt the title question, yes. But, in my experience, most of the highly educated people I know don't bother owning guns. I think that that's primarily due to the fact that they tend to live in safe, upscale neighborhoods (the sorts of places where you can actually walk around at night unarmed and not worry about getting mugged).

Whether or not they, as a group, are predominantly in favor of, or opposed to, the 2nd Amendment ... I have no idea.
 
  • #11
Yep, and I hope to be one too. I like fresh, local meat.
 
  • #12
ThomasT said:
tend to live in safe, upscale neighborhoods (the sorts of places where you can actually walk around at night unarmed and not worry about getting mugged).

They must also lack the motive of hunting.
 
  • #13
Pythagorean said:
They must also lack the motive of hunting.
I have no idea about that. I would guess that there could be quite a lot of them. I just don't know any.
 
  • #14
Alex_Sanders said:
Professors, phd holders, do they practice the 2nd Amen.(2 lng, cnt spel)?

Even a NRA member like Michael Moore?

I don't know too many highly educated folk, but I do know many highly successful ones. Many of them have firearms for protection only. A few are into hunting.
 
  • #15
I don't consider myself "highly educated", but I live at least 20 minutes away from a nearest response. I'd rather have a couple of loaded pistols at the ready than not be prepared. I hunt with a single-shot rifle because I want to be sure and humane when killing a deer, so it's not like I'm some nut blazing away when I see a deer. I have spent too much time tracking wounded deer for others, and eventually I stopped doing that. It seems like that encouraged ###holes to blaze away with no clean kill-shot and no respect for the deer.
 
  • #16
Well yes, education is no barrier to enjoyment of reloading, target shooting and appreciation of fine firearms.

Come on now you can't be serious about Michael Moore as "highly educated".
He's a busybody nincompoop dropout from U of Michigan-Flint who, if he had any business worth minding, would mind it instead of trying to mind everybody else's.


old jim
 
  • #17
turbo said:
I don't consider myself "highly educated", but I live at least 20 minutes away from a nearest response. I'd rather have a couple of loaded pistols at the ready than not be prepared. I hunt with a single-shot rifle because I want to be sure and humane when killing a deer, so it's not like I'm some nut blazing away when I see a deer. I have spent too much time tracking wounded deer for others, and eventually I stopped doing that. It seems like that encouraged ###holes to blaze away with no clean kill-shot and no respect for the deer.
Well, you live in the country, right? That's different. I'd have a few guns, and maybe a lot more, if I lived 20 minutes from nearest response.

Most highly educated (ie., PhD) people live in urban areas (I'm guessing ... I don't know) due to proximity to companies, colleges, various research facilities, etc.

I used to like to go out and shoot with a few friends. Mostly we shot at cans and stuff. But I'm only medium highly educated.

I gave the guns to my nephews. Hopefully they won't have to kill anything with them. Currently, I'm totally unarmed, living in a really nice section of Fort Lauderdale.
 
  • #18
A couple of people that I knew as a kid (fathers of close friends) were reloaders. They wouldn't buy new ammunition when they could could reload their own. One of the fathers was a doctor and the other was the only lawyer in town. They weren't ignorant people. They would sometimes spend quiet evenings in their basements resizing shell casings, re-loading shot shells, etc. They might not have been the smartest people in town, but they had the most college education.
 
  • #19
turbo said:
A couple of people that I knew as a kid (fathers of close friends) were reloaders. They wouldn't buy new ammunition when they could could reload their own. One of the fathers was a doctor and the other was the only lawyer in town. They weren't ignorant people. They would sometimes spend quiet evenings in their basements resizing shell casings, re-loading shot shells, etc. They might not have been the smartest people in town, but they had the most college education.
A doctor and a lawyer. Yeah, that qualifies as highly educated, albeit in a niche sense. But then, I suppose that's characteristic of all high education.

Anyway, I think a lot of it has to do with one's circumstances. If I had decided to stay in the town I grew up in I'd probably be a reloader, no matter what my level of educatiion. But instead I got into tennis ... and other things. It's just circumstances, situations. A lot of which we don't pay attention to until it's gotten hold of us and it becomes apparent that it's determining the course of our lives.

Anyway, guns are an ok hobby, and, for some people in some situations, a necessity, imho.
 
  • #20
I know a few highly educated folks, including PhDs, who own guns, collect guns in some cases, hunt and/or do competitive shooting. They don't advertise it - except perhaps in their personal space.
 
  • #21
Absolutely, collect, shoot and hunt. Also a veteran, 20+ years as a combat engineer/demo expert, I usually hit what I aim at and it doesn't survive...
 
  • #22
Hi turbo,
have you ever shot a bear? My cousins have a country house a few km away from Maine's fronteer (in Québec). The neighboor has shot bears and many other animals I think... but he worked in the wild forest.
 
  • #23
fluidistic said:
Hi turbo,
have you ever shot a bear? My cousins have a country house a few km away from Maine's fronteer (in Québec). The neighboor has shot bears and many other animals I think... but he worked in the wild forest.
I don't shoot bears because I don't eat them. I have had bear steaks and roasts (thanks to neighbors when I was a kid), but that meat doesn't compare with venison. I am a still-hunter, so I see more potential game than most people in the woods, but I still won't shoot a bear.

I had a bear living on the back-end of my property a couple of years back, and though (s)he ripped down one of my welded-wire suet-feeders right in front of this window, I bore it no ill-will. The previous year that bear decimated a huge nest of white-faced hornets that were preventing me from accessing a particularly nice patch of blackberries.

Black bears will run from you if they can. The are not aggressive or trouble-makers, so I leave them strictly alone. There are people up here who bait bears, and then put packs of dogs on their scent, just so some rich jerks from out-of-state can "bag a bear". I think this practice is reprehensible and should be banned, but there are business interests involved that have more clout than I do.
 
  • #24
I should add that one of my oldest friends is both a pharmacist and an attorney, and when he comes back to Maine to visit me, he usually wants to go to the local sand-pit and target-shoot and plink. He's one of the few people with the hand-strength to handle my Glock Model 20 (10mm Auto) accurately.
 
  • #25
I see, thank you very much.
P.S.:In Québec they warn people about bears when the mothers get the children. Apparently they can be aggressive during this period (I don't remember if it was automn). When you're alone in a forest and in front of such a bear, I guess it's always good to have a weapon, just in case.
 
  • #26
fluidistic said:
I see, thank you very much.
P.S.:In Québec they warn people about bears when the mothers get the children. Apparently they can be aggressive during this period (I don't remember if it was automn). When you're alone in a forest and in front of such a bear, I guess it's always good to have a weapon, just in case.
It's always a good idea to stay away from any large "mama" when they have little ones. Not just bears, but moose, too. A very large protective mother can be dangerous, so it's best to give them room.
 
  • #27
Besides, target shooting is fun.

I went to one of the best engineering and science schools in the US, and we had both rifle and handgun teams. (as well as a fencing team).
 
  • #28
alexg said:
Besides, target shooting is fun.

I went to one of the best engineering and science schools in the US, and we had both rifle and handgun teams. (as well as a fencing team).


Yes, one of the best, let's see:

MIT
Stanford
UCB
UIUC

GT, TA&M, MSU,SCU, UCLA...

did I hit anything?
 
  • #29
I'm guessing MIT
 
  • #30
does highly educated include knowing the stats on how likely people with guns are to shoot someone in their own house and family as opposed to a burglar?

i grew up handling guns and shooting in the basement from age 10, because my father was involved in actual gunfights as a young man in the early part of the 20th century, but when i grew up i moved away from that wild west mentality, and became slightly more civilized. (In my 20's I carried a lugger's hook instead of a gun.)

Now that some legislators are considering allowing students to pack heat, I am very glad I am retired, or I would have to alter my grade scale radically.

Basically there are two points of view on this: there are those who believe there are good and bad people, and that the good people need weapons to protect themselves from the bad people. There is some truth to this of course.

But then there are those who believe there are calm people and angry people, and that when people get angry it is better if they are not armed. There is also some truth to this.

I belong to the second group, as I have noticed I can make almost anyone angry. (i.e. how do you feel right now?)

hence I prefer a world where as few people as possible are armed.
 
Last edited:
  • #31
mathwonk said:
Basically there are two points of view on this: there are those who believe there are good and bad people, and that the good people need weapons to protect themselves from the bad people. There is some truth to this of course.

But then there are those who believe there are calm people and angry people, and that when people get angry it is better if they are not armed. There is also some truth to this.

I understand what you mean but I am a believer of allowing people to do what they want as long as it isn't a MAJOR problem. (Which I don't believe it is or ever has been a major problem except in specific areas) And even then there are steps you can take other than banning guns, such as enforcing Firearm Safety courses and similar things to encourage safe gun use. It's a difficult decision to decide how far you go on gun laws.
 
  • #32
I prefer tough tests to get armed. But I will pass them.
 
  • #33
i believe you. just let me know when you are coming through town so i can leave.
 
  • #34
Unless you live in deer country, I probably won't be packing any firearms...
 
  • #35
Alex_Sanders said:
Yes, one of the best, let's see:

MIT
Stanford
UCB
UIUC

GT, TA&M, MSU,SCU, UCLA...

did I hit anything?

Nope.

Cooper Union School of Engineering.
 
<h2>1. Have there been any studies on the correlation between education level and gun ownership?</h2><p>Yes, there have been several studies conducted on this topic. One study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that individuals with higher levels of education were less likely to own a firearm compared to those with less education.</p><h2>2. Is there a difference in gun ownership rates between individuals with advanced degrees and those with only a high school diploma?</h2><p>According to a study by the Pew Research Center, there is a significant difference in gun ownership rates between those with advanced degrees and those with only a high school diploma. The study found that only 19% of individuals with a postgraduate degree owned a gun, while 40% of those with a high school diploma or less owned a gun.</p><h2>3. Are there any factors that may influence the relationship between education level and gun ownership?</h2><p>Yes, there are several factors that may influence this relationship. Some studies have found that individuals who live in rural areas or have a history of military service may be more likely to own a gun regardless of their education level.</p><h2>4. What are some potential reasons for the lower gun ownership rates among highly educated individuals?</h2><p>There are a few potential reasons for this trend. Some experts suggest that highly educated individuals may have higher levels of income and therefore may not feel the need for a firearm for protection. Additionally, education may also be associated with more liberal political beliefs, which tend to be less supportive of gun ownership.</p><h2>5. Is there a difference in gun ownership rates among different fields of study?</h2><p>There is limited research on this specific question, but some studies have found that individuals in certain fields, such as engineering and science, are less likely to own a gun compared to those in fields like business or agriculture. However, more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between field of study and gun ownership.</p>

1. Have there been any studies on the correlation between education level and gun ownership?

Yes, there have been several studies conducted on this topic. One study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that individuals with higher levels of education were less likely to own a firearm compared to those with less education.

2. Is there a difference in gun ownership rates between individuals with advanced degrees and those with only a high school diploma?

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, there is a significant difference in gun ownership rates between those with advanced degrees and those with only a high school diploma. The study found that only 19% of individuals with a postgraduate degree owned a gun, while 40% of those with a high school diploma or less owned a gun.

3. Are there any factors that may influence the relationship between education level and gun ownership?

Yes, there are several factors that may influence this relationship. Some studies have found that individuals who live in rural areas or have a history of military service may be more likely to own a gun regardless of their education level.

4. What are some potential reasons for the lower gun ownership rates among highly educated individuals?

There are a few potential reasons for this trend. Some experts suggest that highly educated individuals may have higher levels of income and therefore may not feel the need for a firearm for protection. Additionally, education may also be associated with more liberal political beliefs, which tend to be less supportive of gun ownership.

5. Is there a difference in gun ownership rates among different fields of study?

There is limited research on this specific question, but some studies have found that individuals in certain fields, such as engineering and science, are less likely to own a gun compared to those in fields like business or agriculture. However, more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between field of study and gun ownership.

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