Recently, I’ve started to see folks refer to themselves and others as “Shooters.”
Although I kept my head down and feet and knees pumping during SHOT Show, every once in awhile I got to hear a few snippets from the herds of 5.11 clad bystanders that seem to gather in certain booths. Every once in awhile I’d hear someone say “shooter” as I looked around in confusion. Apparently, you’ve got to be a shooter to know what a shooter is and I am definitely outside the circle on this one. I understand it’s even been used as an attempt to disparage me personally, as I’m not a “shooter” so therefore I have no idea what I’ve been talking about for the past seven years. Obviously, 21 years of military service and nine years in industry aren’t enough qualification to know right from wrong. Perhaps that’s the issue. It was military service and not shooter time. But I digress.
What exactly is this shooter phenomenon?
When I hear shooter, two things come to mind. First, I see someone on the firing line at a range. Second, it conjures up negative thoughts about active shooters, mercilessly preying on the innocent.
So what exactly does this new terminology mean? Is it the civilian equivalent of Operator? Is it another example of the “everyone gets a trophy and cool title” culture? Or, is it some obscure reference to a character in an Adam Sandler movie?
Discuss.
I guess it is because Shopper just does not sound cool enough! Although it is more than accurate, no pun intended!
This sounds an awful lot like another first world problem! Almost all “first world advisors” I ever met were mercilessly mocked by local forces …. you could see the spooks a mile off. Wearing khakis, Randolphs, tac-vests with brogues! LOL
The same was thought of (especially US) “advisors”, looking more like models on a fashion shoot reaching orgasm in their pretty little tactical outfits with matching beards. These fools used to refer to themselves as “operators” , being in the “teams or corps” … Sorry if I am stepping on toes, but for every real warrior there is a thousand posers. Mostly tactical posers from protected western backgrounds were met by us in Africa. Shooter: Oh Please!
We used to use it as a joke on the range… like ” Hey Shooter.” Whats up Shooter” it was also in referance to Shooter Mc Gavin. we would also follow up with “You eat pieces of Sh!# for breakfast?”
as in a three point shooter? not a basketball fan….
Sounds like a term for the guy performing the money shot…
Not sure of a definition, but I have been told that….
Mosquitos refuse to bite him purely out of respect.
Once, a rattlesnake bit him. After five days of excruciating pain, the snake finally died.
When he has a 50/50 shot, the odds are 80/20 in his favor.
If he were to mispronounce your name, you would feel compelled to change it
These days if I hear “shooter” … I’m looking around for a bad guy with a firearm.
These days if I hear “shooter” … I’m looking around for a bad guy with a firearm. I hang around with a good bunch of former Special Forces operators and nobody refers to anyone as a “shooter” unless they want us to deliver some lead into a target.
Amazing, just amazing…
The responses have made me laugh, cry, think, marvel and snort (both jovially and in derision).
I guess I’m a snorter.
In Australian SF groups a ‘shooter’ refers to the Door kickers or the people who go out and do the shooting. A ‘supporty’ is every one that helps the shooters get out the door.
Interesting perspectives above but a question SSD (and the answer may have been in some of the quotes above). Was it men, women or both using this term?
Only men
In the 70s an 80s, any of who liked to shoot were often referred to as shooters.
It wasn’t something with a cool guy meaning. It was what it was.
Language changes with culture, but I’m still someone who likes to shoot and mess with guns. Not concerned with what the latest nom de jour is.
I can’t comment on what people actually mean by this in the US, but coming from a European perspective, the equivalent term it’s a very standardized and practical word for someone who shoots, be it a hunter or sports shooter or active military reservist. It is also used in military contexts and is considered to be quite neutral. The term “shooter” literally exists in many European languages (Swedish: Skytte, Finnish: Ampuja, German: Schütz, Russian: Strelok to name a few). I think its use is practical.
I’m more curious as to why guys in this line of work think that it is a protected term. We spend a lot of time kissing our own ass.
If some dude that spends his life doing the things that make the country go (industry) and shoots on the weekend want to call himself “shooter” ……I have far greater things to worry about.