Strange gun question on a job application!?

Do they feel that a recreational shooter is a dangerous gun monkey that will go "postal" at the blink of an eye?

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AutoZone might not, but whoever wrote that questionaire probably does. I wonder how many good employees they're passing up because some silly profiling tool told them that shooters are nuts. Their right to choose, their loss.

There was a question like that on a form at my doctors office once. I put "None of your business" in the blank. Never heard anything about it and the question wasn't on the form the next time I had to fill one out.

One question simply asked, "Do you find shooting guns fun?",

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Correct answer would be...."hell no, I take my shooting serious".

I think that most businesses that allow online applications contract with an independant company to create their applications and questions. In most cases the company (e.g. AutoZone) never sees your answers to the questions. They're used only by the company who created the questions to recommend you (or not) as a "good" applicant.

It's only an issue if you also said yes to "I sometimes find my superiors annoying at work?"...yes or no

I forget what its called but a lot of companies use a set of questions to try and determine who you are, fill out a Wal Mart application if you want to see it as they use one of the official ones.

Sounds good on paper but in reality its crap.

I also am one of the millions of americans that enjoy my completely legal activities and excercise my constitutional rights. I also enjoy TV and movies, vote and am proud to be a freedom loving American. Who wouldn't hire me

Why assume it's a negative?

Sure, sometimes it feels like the world is against us, but that doesn't mean you need to assume it's a negative.

Perhaps there is a character trait which is desirable for employment, and love of firearms is a good indicator of that.

I think it's there so it doesn't look like discrimination. They probably can't askif you are a gun owner but by asking, "If you enjoy it" tells them whether you are or not. The employer can then figure out if you are pro or anti gun. I'd leave it blank unless you know hoe the employer feels about it before hand.

visiting nurse

when i needed a visiting nurse one of the questions was are there any guns in the house. I learned latter answer yes and they will not come to the house

Why assume it's a negative?

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Sure, sometimes it feels like the world is against us, but that doesn't mean you need to assume it's a negative.

Perhaps there is a character trait which is desirable for employment, and love of firearms is a good indicator of that.

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In your world, is the sun always shining, except when it rains cuddly puppies and cotton candy?

Many of the retail jobs that I worked had a similar way of applying. A bunch of canned questions that you would go through, and answer:
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
According to my hiring manager, the best way to get a good 'score' on this 'test' is to not answer Strongly anything. The store wants drones who do what they ask, and not ask questions, so someone with a strong opinion on anything is not what they're looking for.
Also, you can skip the question by not answering it for 15 seconds or so, and it should just go to the next one though. However, I can assure you that if you were wondering whether the choice you made would be counted for you or against you, skipping the question in this way would without a doubt count against you.

I never had a question like this on any of my applications, but if I did, I would probably do what I did on all of them: Instead of answering truthfully, I answered in a way that I thought they would like. This test does nothing other than prioritize you on a list of applicants that the manager can pull up on his computer. The better on the test you did, the higher your name on the list. The manager will then interview the first few, further and further down the list until they hire someone. The manager never sees the results of the test.

Good luck with your application! I hope you get the job

Cajun

There was a question like that on a form at my doctors office once. I put "None of your business" in the blank.

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Your doctor may have had a good reason... lead poisoning tests. If you have strange symptoms and are a regular shooter, your doc would probably go straight to a lead test to either confirm or move on to other tests.

Also, when I was renting, I actually got an apartment because of one of thoes questions. I answered yes, and after I moved in, the guy who owned the property asked me if I wanted to go shooting. We became shooting budies even after I moved out. He said that he put that question on there because he felt that gun owners were more responsible people in general.

Psychologists for decades have tried to study personality types by asking long lists of questions seemingly unrelated to anything. They test the questionnaires on groups of known personality types and look for patterns. If 80% of wife beaters answer the question “I like blue” with a yes, and only 10% of non-wife beaters say yes, the Psychologists figure an unknown person answering yes is more likely to be a wife beater than someone who says no. They don’t attempt to figure out why or if liking blue is connected to wife beating, they are just go on pure statistics. The good Psychologists don’t try to draw any conclusions from any one question but instead look for patterns in the entire list of questions. And they know they can only draw “more likely than not” conclusions, and can not predict for sure what any one person is like just from questionnaire results.

Now questions on job applications. I could be applicants are scored based on how previous employees at this and other companies have filled out the questions. I could be they look at all their past good employees and compared how they answered the questions to how the bad employees (constantly late, rude to customers, caught stealing, etc) answered. Anyone who scores like the bad employees does not get invited to an interview. If this is the case you should just answer all the questions honestly and not try to figure out the “right” answers. You have to hope the company is using good statistics.

Or it could be the company thinks any one who enjoys shooting is going to go postal. In this case you should answer honestly; you do not want to work for a company that thinks this.

FWIW, I am inclined to think the question is meant in a negative way, sort of like "do you enjoy killing little children?". The idea is that anyone who enjoys shooting is a sicko who would harm the company image and/or shoot up the place. Remember, that is the way the anti-gun gang sees us, as far worse than child molesters or serial rapists. They could forgive child abusers, but gun owners are so far out they can never be understood or forgiven.

Jim

That reminds me of when I attended the new employee event for Dominos Pizza. They made it clear that we (delivery drivers) are not allowed to carry any weapons or resist any robbers. We were told to give up our wallets, vehicles, money, whatever they want. The reasoning behind this is a statistic (from which they give no source) that says you are 49 times more likely to be hurt if you resist.

They used an example of a robber attempting to stick up a pizza delivery guy. The robber comes up behind and sticks the gun in the guys stomach and says "gimmie your money" the other guy (who was armed as well) says "OK" and reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pistol. The scene pauses and the instructor says "Now what do we have here?".

Someone in the audience: "A stand off."

Instructor: "Exactly! What are your odds in this type of situation? 50/50, right? If you just give the robber what he wants he will go away, if you do not have a weapon you will not frighten the robber and the situation will not excalate"

I got really upset with this but I kept my mouth shut. A few questions I had were:

1.) If the odds are 50/50 (50% the robber gets shot, 50% you get shot) when you both have a weapon, then if the driver does not have a weapon that makes the odds even worse! 50/0! 50% chane of you getting shot and 0% chance of the robber getting shot! I like the stand off better!

2.) What if the robber doesn't go away?

3.) Who does domino's care about more? The robber or me?

4.) I will gladly give up anything that belongs to Domino's. Money, pizza, whatever you want. I will NOT give up anything of mine. I am supposed to just give the robber (who will likely never get caught) my wallet with my IDs that have my address on it and my bank cards? No way!

It is an arrow which clearly points to the direction we are all heading. Educate the masses to belive the "evil" nature of guns and in time society will repress them.

I am glad I teach in a school where most kids hunt and we, in fact, have a shooting club!

One of the famous 'warning signs' of future workplace violence is a 'fascination with weapons'. Is sounds like an utterly useless HR screening form designed by a simpleton. There ARE some good pre-employment screening inventories out there but they cost $$$. My best bet is that you will find more gun people in an auto parts store as a natural function of grouped interests (cars, outdoors, guns). Guns at their most basic are little machines. Mechanically inclined people like things of that sort. Hey..If you don't get hired--LET'S START A BOYCOTT!

I bought 2 batteries for my jeep there last year--I could have gone elsewhere and will next time if need be.

Do you think Autozone is looking for employees to join their 3 gun range league or did you just get weeded out??

Unless your applying for a LEO or military job, you should always answer NO.

HR types tend to think gun owners fit the profile for workplace violence.

If they are written correctly, these tests can be amazingly accurate. I've had my exact personality read back to me when I asked the results.