When you say Gun Nut, who do you mean?

[hootinholler]

Since it's become pretty clear that the term Gun Nut is perfectly ok and encouraged around here, I would like to know who is included when the name is thrown around.

15 votes, 3 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Anyone who has ever touched a gun
	0 (0%)
	Anyone who owns one or more guns
	0 (0%)
	Anyone who owns any handgun
	0 (0%)
	Anyone who owns more than 5 guns
	2 (13%)
	Anyone who owns a semi-automatic gun
	0 (0%)
	Anyone who owns a tactically dressed gun
	0 (0%)
	Weapon hoarders who are stockpiling guns and ammunition
	13 (87%)
	3 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[randome]

1. How about defensive posturing gun owners who want to justify their fear by parading their weaponry?

That is a 'nut' to me. Like the ridiculous 'parade' in Portland.

Or how about anyone who refuses to consider better regulations?

[Ron Green]

2. Anyone whose psychological need to

own, collect and shoot them hasn't been outgrown and supplanted by a need to participate in a more loving and courageous society.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. Yep. nt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. What you said...

[99Forever]

14. Nice summation. n/t

[Chorophyll]

22. Well put. Thanks. nt

[tblue]

32. Anyone who values the truncated 2nd amendment

over the rights of the rest of us to live free of gun violence.

I like your definition too. Just want to add it's not just the possessors, it's the ones who advocate for them too.

[TygrBright]

40. This. n/t

[Control-Z]

42. The morally disturbed. (nt)

[Hoyt]

3. Gungeoneers; compound dwellers; bigots with guns; hoarders; public carriers; those who drool over

"tactical" weapons; those who respond to any post on controlling gun proliferation asking one to define "assault weapon;" folks who ran out to buy an "assault weapon" after Obama was elected/re-elected and Sandy Hook; those with a reference to guns in their DU user name; NRA members and free-riders; those who want to hug Wayne LaPierre; more later.

[Bake]

5. Public carriers?

Does that include anyone with a CCW?

I'm pretty sure I konw the answer.

Bake

[Hoyt]

37. Of course it does. Very few rational people see the need to carry a gun into Chuck E Cheese, etc.

Well unless you are afraid a 5 year old kid might accost you.

[hootinholler]

11. That's a pretty broad brush you got there.

Not sure what a free-rider is though.

[Hoyt]

38. "Free-rider" -- someone who benefits from NRA right wing agenda but too cheap to pay dues.

[Hoyt]

39. Where do you disagree?

[hootinholler]

45. Mostly with those who ask for your definition of assault rifle

Seems like that and the tactical issues would include a lot of cops, but then again maybe a lot of cops are gun nuts.

[Johonny]

6. anyone that freely immerses themself and engages in the massive gun subculture

The subculture has its own magazines, conventions, associations, language, dogma, philosophy, emailing lists, etc... like most religions you are either inside this subculture or outside it. Gun nuts generally are not only aware of this subculture but are deeply immersed in it to the point they are unaware a large portion of society has no idea it even exists.

[hootinholler]

9. Would that include Field and Stream?

Or similar magazines?

I'll give you ones like Soldier of Fortune might be an indicator.

[Johonny]

50. reading a magazine

is not likely to be considered immersing oneself into a subculture.

[L0oniX]

7. DU is a gun nut ...anti and pro. Thanks for making it that way. n/t

[Go Vols]

17. +1

[Erose999]

8. People who spend 23 hours a day fantasizing about shooting people is some imaginary Turner Diaries

race war scenario, and the 24th hour beating off to the centerfold in this month's Soldier of Fortune while using Hoppes # 9 as a lubricant.

[Silent3]

12. It has little to do with the number of guns or degree of contact with guns.

What makes a gun nut a gun nut is irrational fear of being personally attacked that goes beyond real-world risks, especially when it goes as far as buying into crazy conspiracies that someone's coming to throw you into a FEMA death camp, so you have to be armed to protect yourself.

What makes a gun nut a gun nut is acting as if even the most modest, sensible effort at gun control is a slippery slope toward total confiscation of all guns.

What makes a gun nut a gun nut is willful disregard for the "well-regulated militia" part of the second amendment, and disregard for the huge difference between what was meant by "arms" when the Constitution was written, and the kinds of "arms" available now.

What makes a gun nut a gun nut is having too much sense of your own self worth wrapped up in the guns you own and your skill at wielding them.

What makes a gun nut a gun nut is spending too much mental energy on imagining the various scenarios in your life when you might play the hero with your gun, while spending far less time thinking about much more productive ways you could save lives and live longer yourself.

[phantom power]

31. +1

[hobbit709]

13. Around here it means all of the above and then some to certain DUers.

[Lizzie Poppet]

15. Pass. I don't use the term.

I also don't use "gun grabber." That sort of derogatory terminology is counterproductive to any sort of useful discussion.

[HappyMe]

18. Agreed.

What is interesting to me is the number of times I see 'gun nut' thrown around vs. number of views of this thread vs. number of votes and comments.

[Hoyt]

41. We'd be better off if you'd use derogatory words, but leave your guns at home.

[Control-Z]

43. Yes!! (nt)

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. People who say things like "I have more guns than I need but not as many as I want"

people who think they need a locker full of weapons to protect them from the evil government

People who actually believe "an armed society is a polite society" and that the answer to gun violence is to arm teachers, put armed police in schools, and for every law-abiding citizen to have a gun for personal defence.

People who engage in Constitutional idolatry and Founding Father hero-worship when it comes to the Second Amendment but not any of the others.

People whose sense of perspective is so fucking warped that they compare deaths from gun violence to traffic accidents, or smoking, as though there's the slightest equivalence.

There are others who qualify, I'm sure, but that covers most of those I've seen commenting lately.

[snooper2]

19. I always think of one of these

[Chorophyll]

20. Anyone who really believes that having a gun around makes them safe.

Because generally speaking, the opposite is true.

[trumad]

21. I take it as someone who continually post gun ops on DU.

[ileus]

23. People who enjoy all aspects of firearms.

Collecting, shooting, self defense, hunting....


If you're not enjoying the complete package you're not a real gun nut.

[Puzzledtraveller]

24. The extremes on both side of this issue fascinate me

It's almost pathological to the point that I wonder if some have gun envy, then there's the other side for whose defense is so rabid as to suggest their is some inferiority complex playing out. And as I have stated before on other posts, I do not own a gun. I don't particularly feel the need to. I do like having the choice however.

[Paladin]

25. I Haven't Used That Term For Some Time, But.....

...I think anybody who reserves their emotional outbursts for mere discussions of limiting their access to assault rifles, while not registering any concern over twenty dead school kids and their devastated families, is someone with a real problem. I see way too many posts here at DU reflecting those toxic priorities, and I want individuals with those viewpoints as far away from me as possible.

[Tippy]

26. The real Gun Nuts...have been purchasing guns for Children

Yes the are kept locked up but the children have been told they now own a gun or guns....Have you seen the pink rifles yet? Pink for girls blue for boys. Small enough to be handled by a 3 or 4 year old...Oh but they are so cute...NOT

[Zoeisright]

27. Any idiot whose first reaction to a shooting is:

You're not taking MY little precious away!

[HockeyMom]

28. Is a lifetime member of the NRA

Owns at least 6 guns.
The ONLY literature received in the mail is gun related from gun mags to reloading catalogues to military clothing, etc.
The gararge is filled with reloading equipment.
Goes to gun ranges every other week -- totally alone.
Goes to every gun show 30 miles away and has to buy SOMETHING.
Watches Survival/Prepper TV shows, and records the ones they cannot watch.
Has a CCW permit, but doesn't carry because somebody will STEAL the gun.
Obama is going to take away guns, and,
There will be riots in the streets when Obama does this.
People need to "protetct" themselves when this happens.

[obamanut2012]

29. Someone whose favorite Group is the Gungeon

Regardless of which side of the issue they are on.

Plenty of so-called "gun nuts" do not and never will own a gun.

[Thinkingabout]

30. A gun nut is gun owner who rants and rages such as Alex Jones and the like, no reality.

One who thinks the second amendment allows them into the streets running wild. It is not the sensible hunter or even reasonable gun collector. These know and understand gun safety and practice safety in storing weapons in their home. The racers should be placed on a no buy list and they need mental evaluation. Enough of the crazy.

[cynatnite]

33. It's someone who thinks their right to own a gun takes precedence over others. n/t

[neverforget]

34. Alex Jones, Larry Pratt and Wayne LaPierre are examples for me.

Unreasonable to the nth degree

[upaloopa]

35. They say and think things about guns

that make you want to say huh? or WTF or make you want to vomit.
I met a guy through a mutual friend many years ago who bought foreign rifles through magazines and resold them. He had a loaded gun in just about every room of the house. He also had a little girl about 3 or 4. Once he was cleaning a rifle he just unpacked and it went off taking off his finger and the bullet went through his patio glass door into his neighbor's house. The police where called and they found enough black powder stored in the guy's garage to blow up his and several other houses around his. He was a gun nut.

[jmg257]

36. Weapon hoarders who are stockpiling guns and ammunition...

and are willing to become criminals in order to defend themselves with guns from criminals with guns.

[rrneck]

44. Anyone who obsesses about anything

to the point of interfering with a healthy and productive life is a "________ nut".


So, those who concern themselves obsessively with both gun ownership and gun control could be considered "gun nuts".

[alcibiades_mystery]

46. Dumb options

[hootinholler]

47. Probably

I'm not all that smart.

Feel free to suggest smarter options.

[samsingh]

48. those who are not having an honest discussion on

how to reduce gun violence
but those
who look for any small thing to justify the status quo

[Jennicut]

49. Does it even have to be asked? People who value their guns over everything else in life and

stockpile them like mad. My family has some of my Grandmother's guns in a safe. She died two years ago. We are going to keep the guns but we are not gun nuts. We have a healthy respect for what guns can do. I also have kids in 2nd and 3rd grade and I am not up to having guns out in the open around them at this time. My parents are conservatives but agree with me. There are lots of people like us out there but there are also guns nuts that are so enamored with guns that it becomes the be all and end all of the lives. Obsession.

[etherealtruth]

51. How about anyone that likens the "right" to own guns

... to basic human rights? ... or likens gun control laws to the Holocaust?

What about a poster that joins a progressive web site solely to post about guns? (I am not talking about people that hold other progressive ideals and participate in discussions about other issues)

or

How about a person that believes there should be no limits (and no controls) on any guns or ammunition?