not a "real" gun owner?

[JJ1911]

Mornin CGs,

I was talking with someone at the range, we were waiting to get in as it was busy. We eventually started talking about what we do for a living. After I told him that I worked in a homeless shelter for a non-profit, he said something along the lines of "well thats strange, I never would of thought someone like you would approve of let alone own guns". I asked him whys that? He told me that the job sounded like "liberal" type of job. He mentioned that his tax dollars go toward sheltering my clients, and in his opinion its a waste of our money. Just to clarify this whole conversation was conducted respectfully and maturely.

I admit, I am a registered democrat (although thats starting to change as I get older), and I believe in social services to help those in need. However I am still a responsible and pro 2A gun owner. Just wanted to know what other people on the forum think about this and please be honest! I'm just curious what other people think about "liberal" or democratic gun owners.

[Thunderbird]

well. The fact is that they are separate issues entirely.

To be a gun owner you don't have to drink the kool aid and subscribe to a whole ideology.

I may lean with the other guy on that issue, but just because you are conservative on one issue doesn't mean you can't be a liberal on another.

What are we, a bunch of robots beleiving what we are programmed to believe?

[Soldier415]

Until mid 2008, I spent the previous 5 years working for a non-profit social service agency that is the largest provider of substance abuse treatment services in the State.

I was one of two conservatives that I know of. I believe that substance abuse treatment while incarcerated, followed by mandatory community based residential treatment for at least 6 months upon parole reduces recidivism for drug addicted offenders.

I saw a large number of people go from tax users to tax payers.

I stayed for so long because I believe it is a conservative idea/approach/ Give people a hand up, not a hand out. Cognitive/behavioral, money management, job skills, etc. all covered.

Give people who are the lowest in the eyes of society the tools to turn their life around and work with them to achieve it.

It is also a fiscally conservative move. For every dollar spent on substance abuse treatment, you save $7 in ancillary costs (ER visits, police, court costs, incarceration, etc.).

I consider myself a conservative with libertarian leanings.

Everyone from either side of the aisle can be a good gun owner. We may disagree on numerous things, but we are bound by our love of the gun and constitutional freedom.

[JJ1911]

Thats interesting Soldier, because I also feel like I am providing my clients with life skills, not just a place to crash at night. In fact in order for them to stay they have to work on an action plan with the case managers, and everyones plan is different but it mostly focuses on self- sufficiency (getting a job, learning to manage money, etc). Sorry for theh tangent but its always nice to hear from someone who has worked in a similar field!

[Erik S. Klein]

I admit, I am a registered democrat (although thats starting to change as I get older), and I believe in social services to help those in need. However I am still a responsible and pro 2A gun owner. Just wanted to know what other people on the forum think about this and please be honest! I'm just curious what other people think about "liberal" or democratic gun owners.

I honestly understand why you are moving from liberal to Conservative as you age, mature and gain experience and knowledge.

I have yet to find anything within the liberal ideology that makes any real-world sense and has any rational (as opposed to emotive) basis to it which means that reason and knowledge are a liberal's natural enemy.

Ultimately, however, liberalism will always fail because it always relies on the government to be its agent.

And, on that point, I cannot fathom a "liberal" gun owner. Sure I can understand that people have lots of differences and that an individual can be Conservative in some ways and liberal in others but on the 2A issue the differences between the ideologies is stark. Somewhere around 80% of democrats in Congress get a failing grade on 2A issues (depending on who does the rating, etc.) and more than 75% of the Republicans pass.

So yeah, liberal gun owner seems pretty strange.

[Thunderbird]

Didn't Churchill say (paraphrasing) "If you are under 25 and not a liberal you have no heart. If you are over 35 and you are still a liberal, you have no brain."

[Erik S. Klein]

Didn't Churchill say (paraphrasing) "If you are under 25 and not a liberal you have no heart. If you are over 35 and you are still a liberal, you have no brain."

If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.

I've found that rings true more than not. I will say that the quote should only apply to a "political" heart or brain and not an overall one.

I know some pretty smart people who are liberal which just means that they are politically retarded but still fully functional otherwise.

[M1884]

Leaving aside the bumpersticker slogans, I get questions and funny looks from both sides, being a Democrat and a gun addict; my liberal friends ask "How can you hang with those people?", and my rightist gun club buddies automatically assume I mus be one of them, or why am I playing with guns?

The other side of my above point is the number of others I keep meeting who are centrists or liberals, either Dems or independents, who like guns but keep quiet about it. If we don't reach out to those people, we are facing demographic extinction. Don't believe me? 52% of American voters pulled the lever for BHO; many more than that own at least one gun; even a larger percentage are "basically" pro-gun. The gun community cannot afford to remain a de facto wing of the Republican party.

PS I dont' call myself a liberal; I am too pessimistic to qualify.

[nick]

Until mid 2008, I spent the previous 5 years working for a non-profit social service agency that is the largest provider of substance abuse treatment services in the State.

CA National Guard?

[M1884]

Soldier: Good for you. My mother-in-law does similar work for the Dept of Corrections; it is a huge job, but absolutely necessary.

[Edge]

I admit, I am a registered democrat (although thats starting to change as I get older), and I believe in social services to help those in need. However I am still a responsible and pro 2A gun owner. Just wanted to know what other people on the forum think about this and please be honest! I'm just curious what other people think about "liberal" or democratic gun owners.

Sorry, turn in your guns. Democrats and Liberals aren't welcome here.


Just kidding.

I do hope you realize, though, that there is a strong movement in the Democratic party to remove the right to private gun ownership. As a responsible and pro 2a Democrat gun owner, perhaps you can try to enlighten as many of your Democratic friends to the folly of that movement.

[WokMaster1]

Until mid 2008, I spent the previous 5 years working for a non-profit social service agency that is the largest provider of substance abuse treatment services in the State.

You work for Kaiser????

[Soldier415]

CA National Guard?

If it would have read alcohol abuse experimentation services...you would have been correct.

[tmuller]

I am a registered democrat (although thats starting to change as I get older),

The older I get the more I'm driven away from both political parties.

[Soldier415]

The older I get the more I'm driven away from both political parties.

Can't remember where you left them?