[Alvin]

Originally Posted by chuckies76ta

Well said. You never know who your dealing with or where or what they have been through..

Originally Posted by ID67goat

As I was reading this, I was really hoping that you were going to tell us this guy was shooting with the gun sideways! Too bad he didn't take you up on the ammo, maybe you could have had fun seeing this.

Originally Posted by 72projectbird

Speaking of gun ranges, someone did an ol' murder suicide at my local indoor range. Its extremely cheap to rent a gun there.

It isn't the first time, nor will it be the last. I'm sure that's fun to clean up.

Upon 1st read of Squids OP considered you & others @ range lucky he didn't have ammo...

[Icefan71]

Squidward, if it makes you feel better, I just got my carry license. I've been doing tons of research on where I can and cannot legally carry, what self defense ammo to use, and I've been getting as much range time as I can. I take this very seriously. As for Tattoo guy, some people are their own worst enemy.

[jetallman]

I've got my Arizona non resident with my dd214, why didn't tat man do the same if he has a military ID? Total cost me $40 since my local sheriff did fingerprint for free

[Lloyd-TX]

The simple, obvious truth is that this guy was another fine example of better living through the wonders of modern chemistry (illicit pharmaceuticals).

Sad, but true . . .

[marxjunk]

im a snap judgement kind of guy...50% of the time i am dead on...the rest is iffy....i wish i wasnt..i wish i could accept people as people instead of titles..but i aint changing...

i understand the idea of smartest guy in the room...i train people and i am always thinking i know more...most of the time i do..but i get surprised once in a while...usually by young people...there are some intelligent..highly motivated young people moving into my field..its refreshing.

a friend of mine and his GF are so tatted..about the only thing not is their faces and it seems to me..its creeping up... i torture them.....i call them weirdos..the freak show family etc etc and they torture me back just as hard..all good fun..

but i know a little bit about their lives..and they really struggle to get a fair shake in the world...they have branded themselves as $8 an hour lifers..and its a shame..they are good honest people..but people cross the street so not to approach them...ive seen it first handed..people talk down to them and about them..loud enough for them to hear it...and if a kid comes around them..parents run and scream to pull them away..people think they are less intelligent..trailer trash kind of mentality..but it is what it is...they deal with it, and i cant remember ever hearing one of them complaining about it..they have more back bone than i...id loose my mind and retaliate..

[Craig Hendrickson]

Squidward:

Interesting post. I live in NV which is much like AZ. I don't have a CCW permit because I don't feel the need. I do have several weapons including a holstered .38. I could probably easily get a permit because I am a USAFA graduate and was fully qual'd on M-1 and M1911 at that time and have my DD214. Two stories:

A few months ago I was in the local Albertsons supermarket when I came upon 3 young (20-ish) women in the meat department. The one pushing the cart was a tall, buff blonde who had a .45 or 9MM on her hip in plain view. I pushed my cart past them and then decided that I just had to ask about the gun on the blonde's hip. So, I turned my cart around and carefully came up behind her and asked: "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" as nicely as I could. She turned around, looked at me and then smilingly said: "Sure, what do you want to know?" I asked her: "Why are you carrying in here?" (which is perfectly legal in NV). She said: "Because we are three women traveling alone and we feel safer this way." A conversation with her, her two friends and another guy I didn't know who was happening by ensued.

Tomorrow, a good friend (female & roommate) is going to day 1 of a 2 day course at "Front Sight", a world class weapons course near here in Pahrump. She's taking the shotgun course using her own Mossberg 500 20Ga pump shottie. She has to bring 00, 7-1/2 and slug ammo in various quantities. I'm looking forward hearing all about her experiences.

Signs of the times.

[george kujanski]

Comment: you only have 1 chance to make a first impression.

George

[jetallman]

So if someone is carrying the first thing to do is stop them and ask why? My answer to you would be why aren't you.

[dataway]

I guess I've gotten more sensitive to it because I've spent some time now with my wife's very wealthy family. They see someone with a flannel shirt and jeans, and to them it's a dirtbag, worthy of crossing the street to avoid, someone who isn't smart and did poorly in college, or worse yet, never went to college. Someone who's parents are nothing, whose never been out of the country, who doesn't speak another language, or play golf, or tennis, or have a broker, or wear a Rolex.

These people see some 50 year old guy, driving a vintage muscle car, or a nice compact tractor, or any kind of motorcycle whatsoever .... and they are a dirt bag. And they really believe it .... and they are just as wrong as the guy with no tats, short hair, and a flannel shirt is when he thinks similar things about some kid he doesn't know.

I'm 57, but I remember when I was a kid, it was the 60-70s, I did drugs, had long hair, stole things, vandalized things, got in trouble. Now I'm the guy in the flannel shirt, no tats, short hair, never been arrested since I was 17 years old, house paid for, served my country. Had hair down to my waist until I was 27, and was more conservative than the John Birch society.

Now I know guys that look all the part of the good upstanding American male. Good jobs working for the state, all kinds of benefits, hunting camp on 20 acres up in the hills, looking at a comfortable retirement .... yet, they'll rip you off for everything they can when they sell you something, they beat their wives, drink too much, shoot their dogs when they get tired of them, and talk endlessly about their glory days as a high school quarter back.

All things considered, I think I like young people more. There are just a lot of miserable guys my age out there.

[Will]

dataway - I'm 9 years your junior but otherwise you sound like you could be my long lost brother. Well, other than the conservative part. I've never been that conservative.

Having grown up in Seattle and been a young man in the '80s and '90s, flannel and jeans was the uniform. Didn't really matter what you did. This being a pretty liberal area and software companies being a huge part of the economy it wasn't, and still isn't, unusual to see all kinds of characters holding high paying jobs. The IT director at the company I worked for back in the day wore a purple plastic motorcycle jacket, had a braid down to his ass and a beard long enough to braid down to his belly button, a handlebar mustache, and wore tiny little round glasses like John Lennon. I think he was the original hipster. I have a good friend of many years who is a musician and metalhead and looks the part but works in IT also.

So yeah, you can't necessarily judge a person by their appearance, but then again sometimes you can. The guy with "SATAN" tattooed across his forehead or the gangbanger with tear tats is probably someone who doesn't think things through very well, or simply has no desire to be a productive member of society.

[Garry Sr]

Sobriety tests before tattooing my not be a bad idea...

[dataway]

Hehehe ... Will, yes of course there are limits

And I'm a rabid fiscal conservative these days .... don't care much what anyone does long as they don't take my money to do it. Don't care who you marry, or what you do in your spare time

Had a kid that works for us, 30 years younger than me ... I was trying to help him make some better decisions in life ... one day he came in with a geeko tattooed on his hand, right on the top of his hand. And I told him he had been at a fork in the road of his life, and he just picked which way he was going to go for probably the rest of his life.

I spent a lot of years being a pretty judgmental person, until I found myself being judged. After spending much of my adult life trying to be a good, hard working, tax paying, law abiding person .. I found myself amongst people who cared nothing about any of that, all they cared about was judging me based on their idea of what a person should be, their definition of an upstanding citizen.

I met a kid about 20 years younger than me when I was racing motorcycles. Just thought he was a nut, covered in tats, big ear rings, wore nothing but black, with army boots, metal shirts, the whole deal. He's still a bit of a nut, but just one of the nicest guys in the freakin world, works like a dog, really works hard ... supporting two kids and a wife with cancer. Is an absolute genius in the design and fabrication of carbon fiber products. Now has his own business etc.

I guess we all have stories about that kind of thing. And ... yeah I have stories about guys that turned out to be exactly what they looked like they were.

I'm real good at remembering what I looked like, and what I acted like as a kid. That makes it very difficult to find much fault in any kid that isn't in the act of robbing my house

Here I am now ... looking like a guy I might have hated when I was 17.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by Garry Sr

Sobriety tests before tattooing my not be a bad idea...

I have a lot. Most reputable artists won't ink you when your visibly hammered. If for no other reason than alcohol is a blood thinner. I've also seen people think they were smart and take a handful or aspirin before getting tattooed to help with the pain. Then old faithful goes off as soon as the needle hits lol. They get told to reschedule.

[Garry Sr]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

I have a lot. Most reputable artists won't ink you when your visibly hammered. If for no other reason than alcohol is a blood thinner. I've also seen people think they were smart and take a handful or aspirin before getting tattooed to help with the pain. Then old faithful goes off as soon as the needle hits lol. They get told to reschedule.

That thought never even occurred to me...

My oldest son has sleeves. I think it was a military thing.

[Craig Hendrickson]

Originally Posted by jetallman

So if someone is carrying the first thing to do is stop them and ask why? My answer to you would be why aren't you.

Good answer, but how do you know I was not? It's semi-rurual NV after all.

[dataway]

Why would I ever think to ask someone why they were enjoying one of their constitutional rights?

[ho428]

Just as anyone has the right to whatever tat's and piercings makes them happy, anyone else has the right not to like them without apology.
I don't like them and hate having to keep from staring at them as they are a distraction and walking billboard for whatever the person wants to say about themselves, but I don't think I pre-judge the actual person that has them as being gang, biker, thug, convict, military, whatever. To me it's just their look, but one I don't care for.

At the dealership yesterday my service writer had sleeves, skull rings, skulls on his computer, etc... nice enough kid though and we BS'd about Pontiacs for awhile since I'd taken my Solstice in, but I still don't like having to look at them.

[mgarblik]

As an automotive instructor for 34 years, a big part of my job was to find co-op employment and permanent employment for college age students at new car dealers. The overall perception has changed in 34 years as far as metal in the face, and tats, but in OH, where I am based, colorful sleeves and neck and face tats along with lots of metal in the face makes it VERY hard to get these guys and gals hired. I tell them, "I understand your young and this is self expression", but do you want a job or not? It ends up being their decision to remove metal and cover-up the best they can to secure a job. The young kids love to say, it's my right, and it's discrimination not to hire me based on how I look. I try to explain to them, that's true, but try and prove "that's why they didn't get the job". I also tell them, do you want to work on cars and make money, or do you want to stand by your individual looks and scare the hell out of every potential employer and live with mom and dad the rest of your life on food stamps. They may be the best young tech in the world but they won't get a chance around here if there is a clean-cut candidate standing behind them with a good driving record ready to work. That's just the reality here in the midwest.

[rexs73gto]

I had my ccw in the 80's & 90's & let it run out because I really didn't need it anymore , but now I think I should have kept it up. I'm going to get another one here in a month or so . At one of our club meetings , we have sat. breakfast meetings during the winter just to keep up with everyone, but we started talking about who in our group did carry. I was really surprised at how many had there weapon on them & who else had them in our club. I'm in MI. & we have the open carry law here & it was a surprise to me at how many are carrying here when you start to look at people close enough to see they are. I read an article the other day that said (shorten it up) that one of the biggest reasons we don't get attacked on our home land is that about 1 out of 25 americans do carry. In other words were well armed , & I like that.

[Lloyd-TX]

Originally Posted by rexs73gto

I read an article the other day that said (shorten it up) that one of the biggest reasons we don't get attacked on our home land is that about 1 out of 25 americans do carry. In other words were well armed , & I like that.

Yessir!