Have you ever seen the highly educated in possession of firearm(s)?

[mege]

My best friend from high school is a gun nut - collects all sorts (and moved to Texas just so he could possesses a larger variety of firearms). He has a MS in Aero Eng.

My brother-in-law (wife's brother) has a Pharm.D. and enjoys his hunting. Field dressing a deer with him is fun, it's an anatomy lesson at the same time!

My sister has an Au.D. and regularly shoots for sport with her husband (whom has 2x BS - Physics and Civil Eng) and some friends (a mix of various careers - 2 have or are close to J.D.s). My sister prefers a bow still, I think, but it shows up her husband too much :p

Another friend from high school has a Ph.D. in communications and is a professor at a small university. He does competitive western shooting.

Come to think of it - I can't think of a 'highly educated' person that I know whom is not (at the bare minimum) proficent with firearms. Maybe it's more to do with locality than actual education: I grew up in Northern-Lower Michigan and my Wife's family is from Northern Wisconsin.

 

[jim hardy]

Some years ago i wrote a 'letter to the editor' of Miami Herald criticizing him for an anti 2nd amendment editorial.

he printed the last two lines of it,

"I may not like what you said but i must defend to the death your right to say it.
If it comes to that I'd like to be armed."

old jim

 

[Pythagorean]

I'm actually not terribly concerned about retaining the 2nd amendment.

Your editor defending your words to the death probably won't be as effective with a gun as with a computer and an internet connection.

 

[turbo]

I'm actually not terribly concerned about retaining the 2nd amendment.

Your editor defending your words to the death probably won't be as effective with a gun as with a computer and an internet connection.

Most folks with guns here are decent people, and they want to hunt deer, shoot waterfowl and rabbits, etc. Maybe they are not all highly educated, but you can trust them.

 

[OldEngr63]

Most of the PhDs that I know do shoot, including myself. A lot of them took it up in graduate school as a sport. I went to UT-Austin.

 

[Alex_Sanders]

Nope.

Cooper Union School of Engineering.

Oh, I see, it's... one of those colleges.

 

[alexg]

Oh, I see, it's... one of those colleges.

No, it's one of these.

From wiki.

Cooper is considered to be one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States, with all three of its member schools consistently ranked among the highest in the country.[5] .

The Cooper Union is one of very few American institutions of higher learning to offer a full-tuition scholarship – valued at $140,000 as of 2010 – to every admitted student. As a result, The Cooper Union is one of the most selective colleges in the United States, with an acceptance rate generally below 10%, with both the art and architecture schools' acceptance rates often below 5%.[6] Cooper Union experienced a 20% increase in applications for the 2008–2009 academic year, further lowering the acceptance ratio.[7] The school also experienced a 70% increase in early decision applications for the 2009–2010 academic year.[8] As a result of its record low acceptance ratio for the fall-2010 incoming class, Cooper Union was named by Newsweek Magazine as the "#1 Most Desirable Small School"[9] and "#7 Most Desirable School"[10] overall.

The year I entered, Cooper placed ahead of both MIT and CalTech in the annual IEEE competition.

 

[Alex_Sanders]

No, it's one of these.

From wiki.



The year I entered, Cooper placed ahead of both MIT and CalTech in the annual IEEE competition.

Alright alright... I get it...


Hope you don't mind staying in touch with me from time to time... Ok if I send you a friend request?

 

[Danger]

Amendments are irrelevant to me, because I live on the civilized side of the border.

In Québec they warn people about bears when the mothers get the children. Apparently they can be aggressive during this period (I don't remember if it was automn). When you're alone in a forest and in front of such a bear, I guess it's always good to have a weapon, just in case.

Since the big Q is also on the civilized side, handguns and a lot of the best long-arms are legal no-no's. I would shoot a bear (or anything else) only in self-defense. Leaving the scene is always my first choice, unless I have to defend someone else. In the case of a bear, my weapon of choice would be a 10 or 12 gauge pump shotgun stuffed with SSG magnums. (I think that Yanks call them 00 buckshot.) A couple of those upside your face will seriously garner your attention, regardless of how furry you are.
I have to get into an extensive conversation with Turbo regarding Glocks, but that's for later. My carry companion was a Llama Model IX, which is almost exactly the same as a 1911-A1 Colt but with a couple of extra non-invasive safeties. That totaled 5 safeties in the gun itself, and I built a 6th into the home-made holster. There was no way in the world, including fire, that could make that thing go off unless I wanted it to. (I mentioned fire only for the benefit on non-gunners who seem to think that 3-Stooges movies were accurate. A cooked-off round probably wouldn't kill a mouse.)
About 20 years ago, I promised the ex-from-hell that I wouldn't kill anything that wasn't chasing me down an alley. Luckily, I was put on anti-depressants for my ADD soon after. (I still refer to them as my "I don't want to kill anybody today pills".)
Due to a minor conflict with the law, my firearms were confiscated and melted down years ago. So, starting over... my new best friend, when I can get my mitts on one, will be the Colt New Agent .45 ACP. I like Turbo's choice of the 10 mm in principle, but even with my home-made explosive rounds that cartridge presents more of an over-penetration hazard than I care for.

edit: By the bye, I am not educated. Never finished high-school. I love irritating people who did, though.

 

[Permanence]

Yes. I don't think intelligence is necessarily correlated with the choice. Keep in mind a professor of mathematics may not entirely understand the issue or consequences at hand as it is not a field of his or her expertise.

 

[Aero51]

The only guns I carry use 700 Nitro Express rounds.