Why are gun forums so vitriolic?

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I'm am curious though, with none firearm related political discussions being forbidden, how did you come to the conclusion about who's a liberal and who's not?

because i'm not some anonymous internet denizen. i know many of the people here personally. i shoot with them. attend matches and events. eaten at their houses and had them over at my house. heck, we even had a giant THR gathering years ago at Whittington Center in Raton, NM.

edit: btw, people here should spend a lot more time in the Rally Point forum. get out of your basements. be social.
 
I think this forum has allowed more "grey area" posts lately but that is for the mods to decide, as I can ignore what I don't want to read. I frequent other forums for other hobbies and almost all of them have a hierarchy that allows those with high post counts to belittle "Noobs" and the level of abuse is staggering. A "Noob" who pushed back gets banned.

I think it's just the general divisiveness in the country today and the anonymity afforded by the Internet.
 
This forum does a decent job of stepping in and cooling things down, but I'm on several forums for everything from ATVs to pickups and only on gun forums do I see so much sniping at each other and insults. I've had to walk away from all but a couple of gun forums and only this one and Cast Boolits are generally civil.

I have no idea why that is. On ATV forums, people disagree on the best tires, or best brand, or whatever. But rarely do people make personal attacks just because someone else thinks their ATV doesn't fit them. On another forum, people like to bag on Dodge pickups, but those who chime in and say they owned one and it was trouble-free don't get piled on and their manhood questioned.

Is it gun owners that are generally more grouchy and intolerant of others, or is it the subject matter of firearms that triggers strong emotional responses?

Perhaps it's the subject matter. A firearm is generally used to defend one's life and the lives of their loved ones, so the choice of a weapon may be much more intimate to some than what ATV they use in the woods.

I don't know. Thoughts?

Try going to a forum that is a fan sight for a football team, or probably any sports message board where teams are discussed. Talk about vitriol and personal attacks, they are pretty much the norm.

It's forums like that where I cut my teeth posting and you gotta have pretty thick skin to not take things personally and realize that sometimes you just need to not respond to a post. A good rule of thumb for me is that I try not to post anything online that I'm not willing to say to another poster face-to-face. If everyone used this rule, there'd be a whole lot less aggressive, vitriolic posts that are just personal attacks.

As for the gun forums I've been too, I find them easy to post things. Sure, gun people have personal opinions on which guns, etc., they like, but I've found that they are way more willing to educate and debate, rather than launch personal attacks.
 
I think of times when my dad had friends over when I was a kid. They would sit around a table and discuss things of interest, issues of the day, politics, etc. Coffee and cigarettes. The discussions were animated but never became rude or insulting, everyone enjoyed and left in the same way they came in, as friends. I miss those times and I miss him.

On the forums, unless people have visited in real life, or otherwise make a real personal connection, we don't really know one another. I think the anonymity disconnects the social and good behavior circuits and enables "the rant", as it were.

I've never participated in other types of forums, but I imagine people being people with all circumstances and opinions, it would be the same...
 
"Vitriolic" is a bit strong. "Blunt and opinionated" is a better description from my perspective.

The points made about other topics (as well as gun forums) being harsher than what we find here on THR I think is a good point. I've kind of come and gone on other gun forums. But I always come back here.

I have noticed over the years, while I've been in some GREAT LGSs, as far as local stores go (of any type) I tend to find more crusty / abrupt employees in gun stores.

I think people into guns like understanding them....and that sometimes turns into scenarios of "I know more than you." Getting on one's high horse about clips vs magazines is an example. Or on YouTube videos, heaven help the YouTuber doing some sort of gun video that doesn't start by showing the action is clear. The comments get pretty funny. "This video is totally worthless. The guy doesn't know what he's talking about! He didn't even show the gun was clear before he started!"
 
I don't think there is any question that most of the mods/staff have a very strong liberal world view. A few members also, but near 100 percent among the mods.
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:o_O
The person I am here and the person I am in the real world are two different people. I am charged with maintaining order and ensuring that the forum runs smooth and up to standards. If, by enforcing the rules of conduct and not allowing chest thumping, ranting, threats, profanity, personal attacks and discussion of illegal activity makes me a strong liberal then so be it. I find your assertions laughable and downright incorrect.

I rarely voice my personal opinion anymore. I don't want to be seen as speaking for THR as a whole and there are very few people in this world who's opinions on politics or other topics not fit for THR I care about. Only two of them are members here and we are friends in the real world.

Now, we can talk about rifles, pistols, and hunting until the cows come home. That I still enjoy.
 
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The person I am here and the person I am in the real world are two different people. I am charged with maintaining order and ensuring that the forum runs smooth and up to standards.
Having been in positions where I have to, in the role of manager, LEO, teacher or whatever at the time, enforce rules with which I may or may not agree I have to separate myself from my role for that period of time. The job of someone in that position, to include moderating a forum that sometimes can be like herding cats, isn't easy. Some of us like scampering and meowing inordinately.

I rarely voice my personal opinion anymore. I don't want to be seen as speaking for THR as a while and there are very few people in this world who's opinions on politics or other topics not fit for THR I care about. Only two of them are members here and we are friends in the real world.
Now, we can talk about rifles, pistols, and hunting until the cows come home. That I still enjoy.
In the roles such as I mentioned above one isn't allowed the luxury of a personal opinion or freedom of voice. It's restrictive but by its nature has to be.
 
Perhaps it's the subject matter. A firearm is generally used to defend one's life and the lives of their loved ones, so the choice of a weapon may be much more intimate to some than what ATV they use in the woods.
Generally this forum has some very good moderation and rules are pretty well followed.

Now I have to slightly disagree with the above quote. My love affair with the gun began long, long before we saw guns in forums as a subject of personal defense. My first 22 rifle was 1958 when I was 8 years old. I simply enjoyed the shooting sports and just plain enjoyed shooting. None of the tactical stuff we see today applied then, matter of fact it was pretty much unheard of. The guns I own are not based at all on "to defend one's life and the lives of their loved ones" but rather on guns I happen to enjoy shooting.

Here and in other forums I avoid what I see as nonsense or stupid topics like which gun should I buy which lead to a few dozen post of people suggesting what they own and then challenging each other about the replies. The best gun is the gun which works best for you in any given situation. The best gun for home defense is not an AR15 with a 30 round magazine when you live in a one bedroom apartment with paper thin walls. Simple enough?

A gun, be it rifle, handgun, shotgun is merely an extension of one's personal taste. I have seen guns so ugly that if my dogs had faces as ugly as those guns I would shave their butts and walk them backwards. A gun is much like an ATV, truck or motorcycle, we buy and customize based on personal taste. All too often many in the gun forums are too quick and a little overly zealous in expressing their opinion.

Any smart and savvy gun person knows all striker fired pistols suck, they are just junk. :)

Try starting a thread with that title and no I am not being serious.

Ron
 
My love affair with the gun began long, long before we saw guns in forums as a subject of personal defense. My first 22 rifle was 1958 when I was 8 years old.
Yep, me too.:)
I have just 2 years on you in terms of age, but no years in terms of the length of my "love affair with the gun" - my first 22 rifle was also in 1958, when I was 10.:)
The best gun is the gun which works best for you in any given situation.
I agree.
Simple enough?
Obviously not.;)
 
Quotes not cooperating with me today. I was listening to public radio. The broadcast touches on our issue. If people with the same idea(s) cluster up together discussions can get radicalized. This radicalization may be what we are seeing. Similar minds come together on a forum. When the rants really start do posters become more extreme? Are the posters feeding of other posters? Comments become more heated and abusive.

This self-defense claim may be a reflection of aspects of the Heller decision. The shooting world has to deal with some gosh awful propaganda machines.
 
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Every forum has its bugaboos. The usual ones on gun forums is caliber wars, where page after page is spent fighting over 100 ft lbs here and 1" of drop there. Glock vs 1911 is another topic that will never die and is good for a 5 page argument on command. People have mentioned some of the other ones - Ford vs Chevy on car forums, ranking quarterbacks on football forums - heck, I'm on a cooking forum I get some recipes from, and people will absolutely lose their minds if you take a picture of a crock pot with a plastic liner in it.

Most of the things we debate over on any forum are usually pretty small potatoes stuff, gun boards included, and the truth is that a lot of those arguments don't merit even half the attention they are given. What happens is that there's a lot of people who go on forums specifically to argue - it's a sport for some people - and they push the forum's hot button of choice as an easy way to stir the pot. They find someone to go back and forth with, and then in the case of guns, a thread will usually lose all tether with reality by about page 3. After that point, the argument isn't actually about 10 grains of bullet weight or 7076 aluminum or even guns at all, it's about being right and one-upping the other person by any way necessary. The whole thing is basically a game that the two posters (sometimes more) have agreed to compete in.

I like how the mods on THR tend to put a quick lock on threads once things tend to spin out of control, and wish more forums would do the same. And personally, I refuse to engage in those kind of discussions any more - been there and done that for years in the past, and it is invariably a waste of time. When you post something, and someone comes back at you more aggressively than what's warranted, don't take the bait. Usually they're just bored and looking to suck someone in to playing the arguing game with them.
 
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I love it. Thanks for the info. I know this is a nice place. I had no idea this place has the readership of Facebook:).

On the knowledge thing. Buck460, how long does it take for you to recognize the short term fly by's can be seriously FOS? Anybody can be wrong.
Having lost my cool once or twice :cuss:discovered a basic truth. That, after my rant, that person is just as wrong or as stupid as before I have made a fool of myself.

Sarcasm, an anger symptom, is a poor way to communicate. The meaning, to others, is uncertain. Frequently, sarcastic people are seriously passive aggressive. Honestly, I rather keep this a personal secret. Otherwise, I will not be alone long. Thanks sincerely for your comments.

Your reply is a perfect example of my previous post. Even tho I told you directly the comment was made "tongue in cheek"(definition:The tongue-in-cheek figure of speech is used to imply that a statement or other production is humorously or otherwise not seriously intended, and it should not be taken at face value), you still took it as serious and came back on the defensive. This is exactly what I meant by folks taking things differently than how it was intended.

As for the short term fly-bys, I have seen just as many long term members seriously FOS and completely wrong too.

I too have lost my cool, but generally it has to do when folks start to suggest or condone poaching.....and then I say exactly what I would say FTF. Otherwise I tend to respect the opinions of others, even if I don't agree with them. A difference of opinion does not make one wrong or stupid. This is what I see so much of. Folks are quick to question someone's intelligence just because their opinion is different, i.e.,......" Don't agree with me and you must be stupid! "

I belong to forums to glean information that I am lacking and to share some of my knowledge with others who are here for the same reason. Much of what some folks take as fact is simply an objective opinion. This is why everything I read on these types of forums I take with a grain of salt, and tend to attempt to verify such information from a more reliable source, before repeating it. Must be why you here folks claim, "if you heard it on the internet, it must be true!"

Just like when talking FTF, one should think before they speak. Being somewhat anonymous does not give one the right to be an anal orifice.
 
My perspective is that the gun debate is simply an extension of the political debate going on throughout the West regarding the left and the right. For those who want a decent in depth polling on the issue, read up on the Pew Foundation's 2017 indepth survey on the issues. One can quibble a bit about the particulars--for example, I suspect that a fair number of gun owners did not respond to questions about gun ownership or the polling about it but I believe the numbers give a pretty good overview of the political situation and demographics of the firearm issue.
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/americas-complex-relationship-with-guns/
 
I don't think there is any question that most of the mods/staff have a very strong liberal world view. A few members also, but near 100 percent among the mods.
What exactly have they said or done that brought you to that conclusion? I'm pretty sure none of them have discussed their personal views outside of firearm ownership, so how do you know their "world view?"
 
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