So, my pre-caffine feed seemed full of etymology surrounding the term "Boomer" this morning. And yesterday, my beloved got a good laugh at finding out that the gun community, too, uses this term as a pejorative.
So, given that I haven't managed to completely scare off the various flavors of artists, socialists, and miscellaneous yahoos off of my wall yet, I thought I'd spend the morning going a bit into the pejorative slang of the gun community.
First off, some numbers. Nobody's really sure how many gun owners there are in America. We're somewhat adverse to being honest on surveys, fancy that. I've heard anywhere from 40 Million to 100 Million being thrown around. Gun Culture 2.0 puts it at 76 Million, so that's a good place to put our feet.
Moving on from there, last study I saw showed we're at 18.6 Million concealed carry permit holders in the U.S. To put that in perspective, there were less than 4 Million at the turn of the Millennium. That doesn't account for the 13 states that don't require a permit to carry concealed.
Finally, the fastest growing demographics for new gun owners are, in no particular order:
Women,
The Black community,
and the LGBTQAI community.
All three demographics caught between a perception of rising hatred and the police being less than useful. The concept of, "it's my 2nd Amendment too." has caught on in a lot of places.
Whereas the NRA? Before the shitshow at their annual meeting this year, they boasted 5 Million dues paying members. And that includes folks who only join for the range time. (In several parts of the country, NRA ranges are members only. So if you want to go shooting without a long drive, you join up.)
Now, in broad strokes, there's a lot of the gun community that is conservative by nature and design. This is a community that deals with handheld explosions as a routine occurrence. This discourages experimentation by dint of high risks and low rewards. So saying things like, "why brass? Why can't it be polymer?" is not something that's particularly encouraged.
That said,
There have been experiments in the century since the autoloader, the detachable box magazine, and other such features came out.
Gaston Glock has taken his place alongside John Browning, Mikhail Kalishnikov, and Samuel Colt as one of the most innovative gunmakers of all time.
We're still fighting a war in multiple countries that was overwhelmingly fought by Millenials who were led by Gen-Xers. Out of the nearly 3 Million who fought, the overwhelming majority are still alive.
To an extent, the gun community is like the car community. Everyone's got their favorite models, and people like shit-talking others. But it's generally in good fun. But some folks take it way too seriously.
This is aggravated by the fact that civilian firearm training only really dates back to the 1970's in a lot of the country. Everywhere else, it was a skill passed down through families or taught formally only for the military or law enforcement. Maybe supplemented by a book by Cooper or Ayoob, but that's about it.
We've come a long way since then.
So yeah, when some Boomer in a trucker hat starts bitching about the AR platform's failures in Vietnam (a platform that has since gone through a half-dozen different models BEFORE the patents expired and it started being made by dozens of manufacturers), eyes are gonna roll.
When said Boomer tries to sell a gun for what they think it's worth (because it hasn't gotten through their heads that everyone else can read gunbroker listings too) and responds to counteroffers with, "Don't waste my time, son. No lowballers, I know what I got." eyes are gonna roll.
(And if he really gets annoying, the phrase, "OK, I'll just buy it from your estate sale" is becoming the bon mot of choice.)
So yeah, gun nuts pick on Boomers too. Especially two subspecies of Boomer.
One is known as the Fudd. As in Elmer Fudd. Single-minded and not very bright.
Fudds come in various varieties, but all follow some degree of selfishness. Whether they're a hunter, a cowboy action shooter, or even law enforcement, a Fudd doesn't give a shit about anyone else's rights.
If you hear a gun owner say, "I support the second amendment, but..." or, "nobody needs a..." you have a Fudd on your hands.
A rarer specimen is the brass goblin. This is a Boomer obsessed with thrift to the point of ridiculousness. He haunts ranges, hoping to salvage the brass of other shooters for his own reloading purposes. Not everyone who reloads is a brass goblin, but these guys are like vultures staring at the leftover fingerfood on your plate, going, "you gonna finish that?"
A variant I just noticed is referred to as a Grabboid.
Grabboids appear to be gun rights supporters at first glance, but build arguments with logic holes big enough to drive trucks through.
Think MAGA-hat wearers who trip over their own tongues when you point out that Trump has arranges for more gun rights restrictions in three years than Obama did in eight.
Or veterans who think their record will let them babble the same old gun control talking points without ridicule.
I've made this long enough, so enjoy the rest of your day.
So, given that I haven't managed to completely scare off the various flavors of artists, socialists, and miscellaneous yahoos off of my wall yet, I thought I'd spend the morning going a bit into the pejorative slang of the gun community.
First off, some numbers. Nobody's really sure how many gun owners there are in America. We're somewhat adverse to being honest on surveys, fancy that. I've heard anywhere from 40 Million to 100 Million being thrown around. Gun Culture 2.0 puts it at 76 Million, so that's a good place to put our feet.
Moving on from there, last study I saw showed we're at 18.6 Million concealed carry permit holders in the U.S. To put that in perspective, there were less than 4 Million at the turn of the Millennium. That doesn't account for the 13 states that don't require a permit to carry concealed.
Finally, the fastest growing demographics for new gun owners are, in no particular order:
Women,
The Black community,
and the LGBTQAI community.
All three demographics caught between a perception of rising hatred and the police being less than useful. The concept of, "it's my 2nd Amendment too." has caught on in a lot of places.
Whereas the NRA? Before the shitshow at their annual meeting this year, they boasted 5 Million dues paying members. And that includes folks who only join for the range time. (In several parts of the country, NRA ranges are members only. So if you want to go shooting without a long drive, you join up.)
Now, in broad strokes, there's a lot of the gun community that is conservative by nature and design. This is a community that deals with handheld explosions as a routine occurrence. This discourages experimentation by dint of high risks and low rewards. So saying things like, "why brass? Why can't it be polymer?" is not something that's particularly encouraged.
That said,
There have been experiments in the century since the autoloader, the detachable box magazine, and other such features came out.
Gaston Glock has taken his place alongside John Browning, Mikhail Kalishnikov, and Samuel Colt as one of the most innovative gunmakers of all time.
We're still fighting a war in multiple countries that was overwhelmingly fought by Millenials who were led by Gen-Xers. Out of the nearly 3 Million who fought, the overwhelming majority are still alive.
To an extent, the gun community is like the car community. Everyone's got their favorite models, and people like shit-talking others. But it's generally in good fun. But some folks take it way too seriously.
This is aggravated by the fact that civilian firearm training only really dates back to the 1970's in a lot of the country. Everywhere else, it was a skill passed down through families or taught formally only for the military or law enforcement. Maybe supplemented by a book by Cooper or Ayoob, but that's about it.
We've come a long way since then.
So yeah, when some Boomer in a trucker hat starts bitching about the AR platform's failures in Vietnam (a platform that has since gone through a half-dozen different models BEFORE the patents expired and it started being made by dozens of manufacturers), eyes are gonna roll.
When said Boomer tries to sell a gun for what they think it's worth (because it hasn't gotten through their heads that everyone else can read gunbroker listings too) and responds to counteroffers with, "Don't waste my time, son. No lowballers, I know what I got." eyes are gonna roll.
(And if he really gets annoying, the phrase, "OK, I'll just buy it from your estate sale" is becoming the bon mot of choice.)
So yeah, gun nuts pick on Boomers too. Especially two subspecies of Boomer.
One is known as the Fudd. As in Elmer Fudd. Single-minded and not very bright.
Fudds come in various varieties, but all follow some degree of selfishness. Whether they're a hunter, a cowboy action shooter, or even law enforcement, a Fudd doesn't give a shit about anyone else's rights.
If you hear a gun owner say, "I support the second amendment, but..." or, "nobody needs a..." you have a Fudd on your hands.
A rarer specimen is the brass goblin. This is a Boomer obsessed with thrift to the point of ridiculousness. He haunts ranges, hoping to salvage the brass of other shooters for his own reloading purposes. Not everyone who reloads is a brass goblin, but these guys are like vultures staring at the leftover fingerfood on your plate, going, "you gonna finish that?"
A variant I just noticed is referred to as a Grabboid.
Grabboids appear to be gun rights supporters at first glance, but build arguments with logic holes big enough to drive trucks through.
Think MAGA-hat wearers who trip over their own tongues when you point out that Trump has arranges for more gun rights restrictions in three years than Obama did in eight.
Or veterans who think their record will let them babble the same old gun control talking points without ridicule.
I've made this long enough, so enjoy the rest of your day.
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