# Guns and Beards **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540 "2013-07-03T13:40:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/41 "2013-07-03T19:42:45Z")
That’s weird. I’d think David Sedaris is the hipster king, and most hipsters would ruin his theory. Like, 50 years ago you might say that PBR drinkers tend to know how to rebuild an engine. Nowadays, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/42 "2013-07-03T20:06:03Z")
Talk about an even data distribution - the “guy” choices have tallied 22, 22, 18 and 22 as of this posting. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/43 "2013-07-03T20:08:09Z")
No idea how to vote. I have a beard, but have no idea if my father ever own a gun. I never heard of him going hunting, but we were never close, so who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/44 "2013-07-03T20:26:12Z")
**Other:** David Sedaris is _NOT_ funny. And a Reno woman don’t need him 'round, anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/45 "2013-07-03T20:45:30Z")
I find this question odd. I’m currently clean-shaven but have spent months with a beard in the past and my dad is currently clean-shaven but has also experimented with beards. To my knowledge he’s never owned a gun. However, my mother does. Dunno what that means. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/46 "2013-07-03T21:00:14Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > my dad is currently clean-shaven but has also experimented with beards. :eek: Does your mom know? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/47 "2013-07-03T21:56:32Z")
I’m a girl. My dad has a beard, and both my parents own guns. I don’t own any myself, but I would if there was a nice range giving lessons around here. Pretty sure I’ll be the one to inherit the guns - that’s how mom got all but one of hers, ftr. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/48 "2013-07-03T22:07:13Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > What ever you self-identify with. Well, except that I “self-identified” my dad as a non-gun owner, which I think is true by any reasonable definition of the term, but that wasn’t good enough for you. Pick one slope to slide on, here. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/49 "2013-07-03T22:19:38Z")
No girls without a beard choice. Some of them shave don’t you know. I’ll assume a dead father reverts to gun ownership before death. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/50 "2013-07-03T22:40:55Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Not a very large sample yet, but it is curious that men with daughters apparently don’t own guns. It’s possible men are less likely to own a gun when they have daughters versus sons, but I’d think it more likely that some of the women (3 of the 11, currently), just don’t know that their dad _has_ a gun. (I suppose it could just be a fluke, but where’s the fun in assuming that? :)) ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/51 "2013-07-03T22:42:08Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I wouldn’t consider him an active gun user. He’s also got a wreck of a Dodge Caravan rusting away on his land, I wouldn’t refer to him as a Dodge owner. I may have a few flakes of weed tucked away in a crevice of an old radio, I wouldn’t say I’m a marijuana user. Going by your standards for cars and drugs, if the gun is usable as a gun, he’s a gun owner, if not, he isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/52 "2013-07-03T22:45:53Z")
> [@colander](#): > > I will perhaps worry a little more about this when it can be demonstrated that the dissemination of ideas regarding a possible correlative relationship between dad guns and beard ownership is actually likely to cause significant problems for anyone, anywhere, ever. So when people like [Eric Holder(when he was US Atty for DC) say things like](http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2013/01/10/eric-holder-gun-owners-should-cower-shame-smokers#ixzz2Y1Xy3iJ0) > [@](#): > > What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes. You know, when I was growing up, people smoked all the time. Both my parents did. But over time, we changed the way that people thought about smoking, so now we have people who cower outside of buildings and kind of smoke in private and don’t want to admit it. > … > really brainwash people to think about guns in a vastly different way Would that count? Because there seems to be a growing stigma associated with gun ownership. Not just the use of guns to commit crimes, just the mere ownership. At what point does a sloppy correlation to link people with negative stigmas become harmful? Does it rise to the level of the kind of offensiveness from [Airline sex discrimination](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_sex_discrimination_policy_controversy) where male passengers were not allowed to sit next to unaccompanied children? There was actually a British court case where there was successful legal action by someone who had been singled out by this policy and he was awarded damages because this policy treated him as a presumptive danger to the child. I could see this correlation becoming a stereotype like “beard = raised by gun nut” and that’s not only unsupported by any reasonable standard of evidence, it’s offensive. It may make a funny anecdote, but it really shouldn’t leave the comedy club. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/53 "2013-07-03T23:24:05Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Pick one slope to slide on, here. What’s the point? Someone will always say it is the wrong one. This is humor; arguments are down the hall. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/54 "2013-07-03T23:58:59Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > What’s the point? Someone will always say it is the wrong one. This is humor; arguments are down the hall. Well, the poll seems to be slightly serious, it’s in IMHO , and the OP seems to want a real answer. So, what was Sedaris point anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/55 "2013-07-04T00:24:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, the poll seems to be slightly serious, it’s in IMHO , and the OP seems to want a real answer. > > So, what was Sedaris point anyway? He likes to test out pet theories by asking people at his book signings. He started out with the theory that men with beards owned more guns, but discovered men with beards didn’t have more guns that those without, but men with beards had fathers with guns, by a margin of 4 to 1. Unscientific of course, and only reflective of his readers who come to book signings, but it made for a funny bit. He had another pet theory that two gay men in a restaurant will share a dessert, but two straight men won’t. Straight men will share a plate of Buffalo chicken wings, but they won’t share a dessert. Hmmm. time for another poll… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/56 "2013-07-04T00:37:23Z")
I don’t have a beard (never have; I can’t grow a respectable one), and my father doesn’t own a gun…at least, not anymore. He grew up in Wisconsin (though neither he, nor his father, had beards, either), and would occasionally go hunting, for deer, and for small game. He had, IIRC, two hunting rifles. When my sister and I were small children, he kept the guns stored at my grandmother’s house; he did not want guns in the house **at all** with small children. And, during that time, he didn’t hunt. When my sister was 7 or 8, he retrieved the rifles from my grandmother’s house, and started hunting again. He didn’t go often; he always said that he mostly went in order to spend time with some of his friends (though, ironically, he, the guy who was least interested in actually getting anything, was the one who always got a deer). My sister, who was living at home, had a baby when she was 24. At that point, my dad again decided to not have any guns in the house with a small child around. He was in his 60s at that point, and decided that he was done with hunting, so he sold the rifles. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/57 "2013-07-04T01:56:36Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > He had another pet theory that two gay men in a restaurant will share a dessert, but two straight men won’t. Straight men will share a plate of Buffalo chicken wings, but they won’t share a dessert. > > .. This is sort of right, but also wrong. Unless they are very close friends, or someone I am intimate with (which of course would mean they are very close friends, so..) if the food item is one piece, I don’t feel comfortable offering a bite. But if they are multiples , then sure. So, it’s not desserts. I often have a box of Sees ( **YUM!** ) which I offer around. And, it’s not gay men , I think, it’s two gay men in a relationship with each other. But I could be wrong about that, not being gay…altho I do work in SF, so… However, its’ clear Sedaris idea about beards is wrong. It made little sense anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/58 "2013-07-04T02:12:44Z")
I’m a girl. My father had no guns. He did have a beard. Mostly, I’m just using this as an excuse to post one of Maki Tori’s great Beardwall comics: [http://sci-ence.org/playoff-beard/](http://sci-ence.org/playoff-beard/) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/59 "2013-07-04T02:14:24Z")
I would wager that if two guys are at dinner together, the odds of them _actually ordering dessert_ are much lower if they are straight. It’s just less common to order. And less likely therefore to share dessert with female friends, family members, etc. Also, the kinds of places where two males go to get wings don’t tend to be the kinds of places that _actually serve_ dessert. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540/60 "2013-07-04T02:54:30Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > However, its’ clear Sedaris idea about beards is wrong. It made little sense anyway. It’s not supposed to make sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guns-and-beards/662540.md?page=4)