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

[Alex_Sanders]

Professors, phd holders, do they practice the 2nd Amen.(2 lng, cnt spel)?

Even a NRA member like Michael Moore?

 

[Office_Shredder]

Yes.

 

[lisab]

No.

But people rarely expose the weapons they're carrying, regardless of what level of education they've attained.

 

[Vanadium 50]

A good friend of mine has a PhD, a couple hundred papers, is a fellow of the APS, and hunts regularly.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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.

 

[Adyssa]

Out of interest, how many times has he had to defend himself with the gun?

 

[HowardVAgnew]

Haven't most astronauts come from the Air Force or other military branches?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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.

 

[Adyssa]

It's an interesting topic that's for sure. Here in Australia, guns just aren't really part of the culture.

 

[ThomasT]

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.

 

[Pythagorean]

Yep, and I hope to be one too. I like fresh, local meat.

 

[Pythagorean]

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.

 

[ThomasT]

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.

 

[alt]

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.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[jim hardy]

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

 

[ThomasT]

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.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[ThomasT]

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.

 

[Astronuc]

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.

 

[Dr Transport]

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...

 

[fluidistic]

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.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[fluidistic]

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.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[alexg]

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).

 

[Alex_Sanders]

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?

 

[Office_Shredder]

I'm guessing MIT

 

[mathwonk]

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.