Some of my friends think that because I work in the gun industry and shoot guns and have a gun blog, I am a “gun nut” or “crazy about guns” or “obsessed with guns” or whatever. Maybe I am, and I’m just in denial. I really don’t think so.
There is nothing in particular about guns that truly excites me. I like the history and tradition of some firearms – those passed down from generation to generation in my family, for example, though I treat my grandfather’s fishing gear with the same respect. I like the utility of some – the Glock 19 is extremely useful for self defense. I like the fun factor of others, which is why the .22LR Marlin Papoose is my favorite firearm.
However, I am honestly puzzled by what I have recently seen referred to as “the gun lifestyle.” What is this, exactly, but a way for some companies to sell me things I don’t need, but think I want, because they will help me enjoy a “lifestyle?”
Look, if lightsabers and the Force existed, I would not carry a gun. If I could carry a magic wand and utter “Avada Kedavra” in order to stop a violent attacker from hurting me or someone I care about, I would be busy making a comparison video of which compact back up wand had the best accuracy. If I had a pegacorn, I probably wouldn’t spend much time flying a Cessna 182. If I had a landspeeder, would I bother with getting 8 miles per gallon in my classic Mustang? Well, yes, because the car is awesome, but I would still spend a lot of time with the landspeeder.
I use these things because they are efficient or fun or cool. I don’t use them to fit in with anyone else’s idea of a lifestyle (Yes, this makes me a hipster – No, I don’t drink PBR). A friend of mine knows more about guns than the vast majority of people, but his true passion is collecting typewriters. Does he do this because he wants to be part of the “typewriter lifestyle?” No, he admires the craftsmanship that went into each one.
I realize that other industries have been successfully invaded by this “lifestyle” thing and I get that capitalism makes the world go ’round, but I would hope that most people are into guns for self defense, fun, hunting, and so on, and would not really be interested in being part of any particular lifestyle. I know that my lifestyle is my own and I wouldn’t want to tell other people how they should live their lives. I think that by simply promoting the idea of a “gun lifestyle,” we turn off potential gun owners who might just want a pistol for concealed carry, for example.
Beyond that, I’m turned off by advertising that targets “tactical nobodies” and tells them that if they buy XYZ gear, they’ll be an elite operator, will survive the zombie apocalypse (this zombie stuff is so retarded), and a scantily clad woman will like them because she has that rifle and chest rig too. To me, paper-thin marketing based on tactical masturbatory fantasies and/or hot chicks without shirts who know nothing about the gear they’re wearing is simply pathetic.
Unfortunately, it also sells – a lot.
Well, that’s a pretty negative tract. Not that I disagree with the points raised, but it’s funner to read something with a touch more positivity..
Understood…I did try to make it slightly fun or lighthearted.
I thought it was totally lighthearted. But then again, I can be a big nerd, so mentioning Star Wars and Harry Potter in the same paragraph and tying them to firearms utility is just awesome.
This a great blog. I found it completely by accident while wasting time over at M4C and getting sucked into an old thread because it was about a gun ‘manufacturer’ in my area. Someone posted a link to a post you wrote about them after visiting their booth at SHOT and now I’m working my way through all the old posts.
Thanks Andrew. You combine highly informative posts with a sense of humor that jives with mine and a healthy intolerance for stupid. Keep it up sir.
Never thought I’d come across a firearms hipster!
Seriously, my initial resistance to the 1911 and the Glock were that they were too popular.
“However, I am honestly puzzled by what I have recently seen referred to as “the gun lifestyle.” ”
They’re buying a ready-made identity. Like Deadheads, art students or (ironically, intended and otherwise) Hipsters, the idea is to simply buy the accouterments, wear the clothes and assume the attitude of “operators” or whoever. Style over content.
It reflects a poor sense of purpose, from which identity naturally comes. There is a real need for purpose and identity, we all have it, but some confuse the two and that’s where this phenomenon comes from, IMO.
Finding real purpose takes work, buying an identity is relatively easy, and that’s why many people take that road.
The ‘hot chick’ marketing ploy isn’t just limited to gun stuff. I’m in the information security profession. At one of the conferences I go to every year, they have women that try to sway the folks into buying their products. The market is composed of quite a few nerdy dudes that might have maybe had one girlfriend in their life so I can see the advertiser’s side of things, but damn. A couple of years ago there was some dumb broad trying to get people to buy a vendor’s product (name withheld to protect the innocent/guilty), and all she did was hand out flyers and say ‘Web application security’ — but the way it was pronounced it sounded like a question and honestly sounded like she didn’t even know what the three words she was saying even meant. Even though I’m not in a position to purchase products in my organization, I do provide input on what products are purchased. I immediately made the decision to NOT recommend that vendor’s tools whenever I was asked, as often as I could.
Never got the whole lifestyle-thing. What is a bloody lifestyle?
I know what I like to do and sometimes those activities require kit. Do I live a fencing lifestyle? A food and drink-lifestyle? A brewing lifestyle? Backpacking? Sleeping?
It’s just silly marketing-speak. If you need a piece of kit to form an identity, good for you. I do that with my family instead.
Charles certainly describes it correctly as a ready-made identity. It’s not just limited to the purchase of wares / services but also a collection of talking points, philosophical ideas, and lore that some would consider a rite of passage, which in turn breeds a general sense of exclusivity.
Some of this is organic (in the sense that these ideas are uniquely created through the iterative associations and social gatherings in various gun competitions, events, conferences, etc), but by and large it’s marketing, which Vuurwapen identifies.
Take for instance the popularity of compression socks or energy gel in the “marathon runner lifestyle.” These items are touted for every marathon runner to use despite their efficacy varying greatly from person to person given their foot/body structure, cadence, metabolism, and running pattern. There are even cultural aphorism related to these items, be it remedies for shin splints, pained knees, or mid run fatigues.
Buying / using this stuff is an easy way for people to quickly be associated with a life style and it exists in nearly every hobby out there. Calloway, Nike, North Face, Sennheiser, Madcatz, Brunswick, Bear, Rockford.
The biggest differentiators in my mind in all of this is you can’t buy proficiency. Proficiency takes practice, research, and most importantly time. Dedication into learning a skill/activity cannot be bought.
Very interesting input…thanks, to you, and others who have responded in kind.
“Some of this is organic (in the sense that these ideas are uniquely created through the iterative associations and social gatherings in various gun competitions, events, conferences, etc)”
Right. I think these are the reasons the Grateful Dead craze was so big: in addition to the music they had the clothes, the hippie speak, the iconography and, of course the never ending touring. It was also tied to an era that was glorified with great nostalgia by aging baby boomers in media; in other words, it was institutionalized in a way.
If I could buy a skill, it would be guitar playing skills.
Instead, I learned how to actually shoot a gun. Chicks don’t care about that shit.
It’s the same thing I get when people say I’m a gamer just because I’ve played more games than they have. Great article, you’ve called out the hard truths that some of us forget to take notice of.
Guns like anything else are extensions of what we can do, not what we should be become.
Of course, I’d still carry a firearm over a light-saber or a magic want any day. Movies make them seem invincible but I’ve seen a few shows where tactics and bullets out-did them in a very classy way 😛
Kinda like the “Harley Lifestyle”.
Will we all be wearing T-shirts from ranges we’ve never shot at?
Nailed it!
the masses are asses, there are a lot of people that believe in and have made a lot of money on the “dumb it down” approach. Sad but true, there are just more of them and they are an easy mark.
I agree with you. That said, enough commentary on the industry and gun stores. More video reviews (and high-speed footage) of guns and optics, please.
Honestly, it’s too much work if I’m not getting paid for it. That’s why I mentioned that new blog project.
Which I am excited for btw.. keep up the good work.
You’re short-changing yourself to insist that you’re not passionate about firearms. It’s the tendency of others to pidgeonhole people that’s the problem, trying to pin someone down as a gun nut, camera nerd, gear head, or computer geek when in reality one person can be all of those things and more.
There are lots of things in my life that I’ve increasingly dedicated my time to. Cars, guns, and computers are probably the top three.
There are also plenty of things in my life that I dedicate as little time as possible to. Like drain cleaner and wristwatches.
There’s obviously no rule here, but when you dedicate ten, twenty, a hundred times more research and learning into a subject that other people choose to gloss over, it’s hard to argue that you haven’t made it a large part of your life.
Also, you can’t be a firearms hipster unless you open carry a gun people have never heard of.
“Also, you canât be a firearms hipster unless you open carry a gun people have never heard of.”
Ha! I Googled “hipster gun,” and it turns out Daisy Red Riders are popular as well as squirt guns.
For serious hipster CC (as if that were possible) I would think a Hi Point would be appropriately ironic.
Good commentary. I don’t think there is a gun lifestyle either. Guns are merely part of my lifestyle which is not easily categorized by a thing. In fact, I hope things don’t define me at all!
So it’s PART of your lifestyle. Okay, I dig…
… well, with a shovel, I mean… just some times, though. . . but just because I know how to use one really well doesn’t mean it’s my lifestyle. I’m just sayin’.
*silently shakes his head in somber agreement*
As an extension of Andrew’s point, “gun culture” is a wicked invention of the industry as a whole, with the dual purposes of getting people to buy stuff, and to mobilize armies of the polity.
Is there anything wrong with this? Yes.
“Gun culture” was incubated due in no small part to Volk’s work. I get that he escaped from the commies and everything, but describing anti-gunners as “dangerous foes” and framing it as a grave us-vs-them situation is low.
“tactical masturbatory fantasies…”
That’s awesome. I don’t think anyone could have put it any better, as it so totally captures the marketing goal…
When I watch half the people at my range get out of their cars, I half-expect to hear “I’m Sexy and I Know It” blaring from thier stereos as a personal soundtrack.
I’ll bite. Of course guns themselves aren’t a lifestyle, but that’s a straw man argument. The object is not the concept entire.
lifestyle [ËlaɪfËstaɪl]
n
1. a set of attitudes, habits, or possessions associated with a particular person or group
2. such attitudes, etc., regarded as fashionable or desirable
I think it’s a lifestyle to get up every day and refuse to abdicate my responsibility for my own life. I think it’s a lifestyle to be self sufficient, to spend time training for a day that will hopefully never come. I have developed a lot of habits to support these values, like firearm safety, situational awareness, etc.
1. This fits the definition of a set of attitudes, habits and possessions associated with me, and a lot of people like me.
I don’t see why anyone would be hostile or averse to being associated with or at least acknowledging the existence of a self sufficient lifestyle which includes the tools and skills of self defense. Is that really so awful?
No, not at all. But there is an effort on the part of some to create a “firearm lifestyle” that has nothing to do with actual self sufficiency, knowledge, or skills, and everything to do with commercialism.
Ya nailed it right here. This is the short version of your article. (Long version is good too.)
I guess I’m too old and disconnected to have noticed. It sounds like what you are really saying is that there is indeed a lifestyle, but it is being distorted or misrepresented through the lens of advertisement and media. Am I closer to the mark here?
I should’ve just put a link in the article – this is what I am referring to:
http://www.recoilweb.com/
To a slightly lesser extent:
http://www.missionfirsttactical.com/
Ah. Recoil. From 15,000 ft it looks like a magazine very superficially written for PMCs, but rather transparently it’s clearly intended for 16 year old PMC wannabes. Pretty obnoxious, I’ll grant you that. I’ve not dared get to close for fear of being seen near one.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think this bundle of concepts was invented by marketeers, but rather recognized as an existing set of interests. It’s like Maxim, but switch the fashion section for… a fashion section… *sigh*.
I think you nailed it there… we’re not tactical when it comes to firearms, we’re practical. The gals and I approach guns like just about everything we do, very pragmatically.
What’s the purpose? Self-defense? Trap/Skeet/Five-stand? Target? Hunting big game, small game, fowl? Do I need a $2,000 1911 race-gun that works best with regular maintenance and adjustments -or- will a $500 striker-fired, polymer 9mm do what I need?
But even if light-sabres and the force were available, I personally would still enjoy the mechanics and ballistics/physics of firearms…
Dann in Ohio
“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”
What your reacting to is the meme âthe gun lifestyle.â that was bestowed on those that do not have an aversion to firearms by those that practice the “anti-gun lifestyle”. In that context it is a negative thing to appreciate those evil menacing guns.
Then again those that fit that meme often are independent critical thinkers with far more depth and cool.
In short my kind of people.
Eck!
That’s actually wrong. “The gun lifestyle” cropped up with people like Oleg Volk and 1791 Apparel pimping group identification, as a way to strengthen their side in the political arena.
Personally, I think if the primary group you identify with is “people who like guns”, you lead a very sad life, indeed.
Personally, I like stuff. You seem to like stuff also. One of the categories of stuff I like is guns though I also like cameras, bicycles and cars. Lately I’ve wanted a sub-compact diesel utility tractor as well. Sometimes I like this stuff for what it can do and liking it is really because I enjoy the activity that it facilitates (shooting is fun, taking pictures is fun, cycling is fun). Sometimes I like the stuff because the stuff is shiny and well made (I have a SIG X5 which I like partially because of the shininess). I will say that owning guns for me is also a political statement because I live in a place where guns aren’t appreciated.
Regardless of the stuff I like, it’s a very rare case when I’ll wear some article of clothing that identifies the stuff I like. If they give me a free t-shirt or hat, I might wear it but even then, probably not. This is especially true if it obviously identifies me as being part of some pre-canned lifestyle or tribe.
I identify with you quite well, although my X5 is not shiny and I live in a gun-friendly place.
Sorry, “shiny” was meant as a euphemism for something to be coveted.
But, but…Chris Costa said carrying concealed was a lifestyle!! lol
Somehow I don’t imagine he meant that you should go buy a bunch of tactical shit from X distributor.
Or maybe he did.
Respectfully, I would argue that for competitive shooters, shooting (not guns, per se) is a lifestyle. We practice almost every day, constantly try to improve, and drive G-d-awful distances to matches. It is no different from someone heavily into golf, tennis, or running….but it does become a lifestyle.
But for competitive shooters, guns are no more the focus of the lifestyle than are clubs to golfer, racquets to a tennis player, or shoes to a runner. Granted, we have to know a heck of a lot about the these tools of the trade to succeed, but our love is in the results the tools produce, not the tools themselves.
There’s a “gun lifestyle”?
Huh.
I was specifically referring to Recoil magazine.
When I think, “Gun Lifestyle” I think about what I need and the things to consider when incorporating an important item such as a gun into my already self designed lifestyle. I don’t think the ”Gun” sits in its own space and time and has it’s own life style, but when you decide to carry a gun I think it modifies your life style to such a degree that taking a poignant look at how it modifies your current life style is worthy of it’s own discussion and analysis.
The âGun Lifestyleâ has defined my life. It started with my introduction to âgunsâ via the US Army in 1966. My parents hated guns so I was never allowed to own one before I joined the Army. Once I got my hands on an M14 I was hooked. I learned everything I could about weapons. Once out of the Army I went back to basics to study firearms history. I started with a Coltâs 1851 Navy black powder revolver I purchased at a swap meet in Nor. Cal. It was a replica but that didnât matter to me. It was as if it was the real thing. I researched its history, learned everything I could about it and its subsequent children. That lead me to historical interest in any and all US military weapons, and I acquired them as my interest grew. And that led me to the M1 Garand and that lead to NRA High-power competition via the DCM Program (now CMP)⦠that in turn lead to long range competitive rifle shooting (Palma) and that lead to instructing, which lead to me spending 11 years managing a public rifle range and teaching/helping others learn to properly/safely handle and shoot their firearms while working my primary job for the State of Idaho i.e., the QA Director for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
I am retired from all that now but I love firearms and they have been a major influence in my life. To me that is âThe Gun Lifestyle.â I have lived it. Any magazine that encourages such a lifestyle should be applauded, even if it is slick and glossy and lacks content. I see it as way to appeal to young voters and maybe introduce them to our âLifestyle,â lifestyle meaning being comfortable, rather than paranoid, about firearms. It shouldnât be disparaged but should be monitored to ensure it remains true to the 2nd Amendment foundation we know and love.
Don