Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:47 pm
Chap wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:18 pm
Like I said, guns are dull things. You squeeze the trigger, they go bang, and metal comes out of the other end very fast. There's lots of different sorts, but basically they all do that. So what?
I’ve always had a similar feeling about weapons and firearms.
When I was around 12, my buddy brought his nunchucks and throwing stars to my house, because ninjas were the crap at the time, and he showed me how to twirl the ‘chuks around a bit. So I twirled them around a bit, and that was about as far as my desire went with regard to to twirling them around a bit and fantasizing about whacking an opponent on the head. We threw the stars a bit, too. We threw them at trees, my house, at some more trees, at the ground, my house a bit more, and the trees just in case they didn’t get the message.
And that was that.
While in service I shot all sorts of stuff. I even bought a couple of guns, though an AR-15 was almost purchased because I was shooting my service M4 quite bit and it had all the cool crap people spaz over, I thought I’d need to have for some vague reason. The urge to buy a rifle quickly passed because my buddies had their own AR-15s and I could fire them and not have to worry about cleaning them.
To be honest, I always had either a ‘this is a pain in the ass and I’d rather be doing something else’ feeling or just ‘meh’. No matter how many times I pointed a firearm at something and pulled the trigger I couldn’t find it interesting. You aim, pull the trigger (or press a button), an explosion happens, and then a projectile went that a way.
And then you had to clean the firearm. God I hated everything about that. Lame.
- Doc
Very interesting. I have friends and family that have carried gun interests from the Army and Marines into their civilian lives. Others have walked away from the military and experience an amount of PTSD from any connection, including guns but also something as pedestrian as hiking.
Here is a stereotype generalization I will make and share. The fetishes of military guns, and the retail market for those guns, is made up mostly of ding dongs that know nothing about the military experience and have zero need for the guns, except that they need to be douchebags.
Vets have a spectrum of experiences and interests. But the clown worshipping of the military gear (guns) seems to apply to a narrow band of actors.
I worked in the VA system, primarily with airborne infection control, never with mental healthcare. We did a lot in the methadone clinics, trauma centers and ICUs. When we did work in the lockdown and psyche areas it was a different process. I have enormous respect for the men and women that need that care, and the men and women providing the care. Huge respect.
I am beginning a project for the largest hospital in the DOD network. A pilot program for the DOD. I can tell you, despite the institutional flaws, the healthcare providers there are great to work with.
Anyways. Back to regular bombastic things. Carry on.