Post
by Radagast » 02 Nov 2014, 03:21
Dave, one thing I noted when I was in the management side of shooting (ranges management, range officer, club and association secretary, etc.) was that when you stick your head up as a helpful 'sort of expert' you attract lots of Herberts that think they own your time.
They will want you to do things for them for nought, if you do things your way then they will undermine you for not following their instructions, as if they were the ones who put their hand up to take the job and not you.
They will think you are ripping them off when you do discounted favours. Case in point, after a partial handgun ban here in OZ, I arranged for a dealer to supply new legal guns to my club members at 25 quid over invoice cost, per gun. For that amount he had to get an attorney general's permit to get the guns out of bond store, collect them, register them, then transfer them to the shooter. People complained about the 25 quid on a gun they were getting a 100 quid discount on.
It's also a sad fact that our game attracts destructive individuals. Face it, we destroy life when we hunt. For most of us its part of the cycle of gathering food, protection of crops, stock or endangered species. But there are the sociopathic types that are attracted to shooting because it involves destruction, because that is what they enjoy. Being sociopaths they will also try to destroy social personalities, such as yourself. They will attack you and make you second guess yourself. if you try to help them, they will attack you even more.
Worse, after a while they will make you distrust and brush off ordinary, good hearted people who want help. I got to that stage, I had a young teen express interest in joining my club, but he asked a lot of questions about illegal, concealable hand guns. I blackballed him. Turns out he was just a teen with a strong interest, mo knowledge of the law and no political correctness.
TL, DR:
a) Don't let the bastards get you down, even though they are always going to be around.
b) Your time is your own. What you freely give on this and other forums is a valuable donation. No one has a right to require more.
c) If people don't want short or no answers then they need to give you their credit card no. and you can set the taxi meter running while you type an answer. Only then do they have a call on your time.
Some folk blatantly try and rob you or get something for nothing, they're just idiots. They ask for stuff that's not included, and they know it's not, they just try it on.
. This went on for a while until I sent him a message telling him to go **** himself and here's our address if he wants to pop in and sort it (I sent the address)
