Two things.
I don’t think r****ck is used to refer to U.S. Southerners exclusively. The term is used up here where I live (45° latitude, No. America) to refer to any tar-paper shack dwelling country rube. It’s offensive to be sure, but it’s not just for Southerners anymore!
I have kinfolk in Indiana. Southern Indiana. It’s in the South, believe me!
Thanks for all the input so far.
I could deal without the driveby insults of the NRA, but I expected as much.
The opinions are pretty across the board so far, but I think the sentiment “don’t give a rats ass” is clearly in the lead, with “fuck the NRA” and “the NRA is great” both lagging far behind.
Better results than I hoped for actually.
I do agree with the sentiments of some who point out that putting anything on your car pretty much means your life revolves around it. I currently don’t have any bumper stickers except my college one. However, the NRA sticker is small and not gaudy. To me, it’s much less offensive than say a “You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead…” or any other “slogan” oriented traditional shaped bumper stickers.
Keep em coming!
When I see an NRA sticker on a rig going down the road the first thing that comes to mind is “don’t piss off the driver cos I might get shot.”
People have called me a redneck, but I grew up in Oregon driving pickup’s, hunting, had dogs, fishing pole/gun rack on the back window. I’m university educated and a world traveller - not your ordinary redneck. Redneck is just a term - albeit a dumb one. Don’t get your knickers in a knot.
I am neither pro nor anti gun. Grew up hunting and shooting - rifles, shotguns, pistols… - but strongly believe guns should be regulated.
I’ve known many NRA members and can honestly say they scare the bejeezus out of me.
My opinion: ditch the sticker and go fishing.
Maybe it’s just me, but I can never tell from far away whether I’m seeing the NRA sticker or one for the U.S. Marine Corps.
As for the OP questions:
Job interview: I don’t care what you have on your car, as long as you’re qualified for the position.
Merging in traffic: My only qualifier is whether you use your signal or not. NRA sticker, Calvin sticker, hell, even a “Cecil Adams In 2004” sticker, use your turn signal if you want to get in front of me. I’m not a mindreader.
Driving someplace with you: Stickers don’t bother me. Now, if you start cranking Britney Spears, that may bother me. 
I’m no NRA fan, but if you believe in it and want to display a sticker, by all means do so. Like everything else, there will be those who approve and those who don’t.
Well, I live in the middle of PA, and in the city I came from, it was common for highschools to give kids the day off on the first day of buck season–just so you know my background. I instantly think of my grandpa and get the warm and fuzzies when I see NRA stuff–as long as the person sporting the bumper sticker doesn’t drive/act like a jerk. So
Scenario 1: Don’t care. It has nothing to do with whether you can do your job, unless if you’re applying to work as a sharpshooter.
Scenario 2: As long as your turn signal is on and there’s enough room, I let people in. Don’t care if you have an NRA sticker.
Scenario 3: I’d probably ask about it–whether you are a hunter, own a gun, or just support the right to own a gun. Wouldn’t think any more or less of you for it.
Thought: Here is a guy for whom firearms are a central life focus. Don’t piss him off!
Ex-NRA member here, so I wouldn’t think anything.
Every human is prejudice and judges people based on visual cues. Anyone who denies this is lying.
Like anyone else, when I see an NRA sticker I immediately make generalizations, and I realize some or even all may not be accurate. These include:
So would an NRA sticker bias my decision when hiring someone? Yes. And it my case it would be a positive bias, since I share the same views. (For the record, I was an NRA member up until a few months ago, and even had the familiar sticker on the car. But they pissed me off and I tore up my membership. I am still a lifetime member of the Gun Owners of America.)
Likewise, I don’t have an NRA sticker because they’ve done a lot of things that piss me off. They are actually one of the most successful gun control organizations. But I realize that there are many well-meaning gun owners who would disagree with me. So yes, it would give me a positive bias toward the person.
Like other have mentioned, I tend to see any sticker on a car as an indication that the person is staunch supporter of whatever cause the sticker represents (the assumption is that you have to be into the advertised cause enough to be motivated to paste a sticker on your vehicle).
I see NRA stickers a lot around rural WI and I just assume that the driver is a hunter. They (the stickers) are often accompanied by Ducks Unlimited or other such stickers as well, so I figure hey, the guy likes to hunt and he’s into it enough to advertise said fact. I don’t really think about it much beyond that.
However, if the sticker is also accompanied by a “My President is Charlton Heston” sticker then I make the (admitedly prejudiced) leap of logic that the guy is a paranoid survivalist wacko.
I’ve never been sure why people put bumper stickers on their cars at all. Seems to me, you’re going to be leaving this very expensive piece of equipment alone a lot, and also be driving it around in mixed company. Why advertise your personal business on the rear end of it? I like my ride to evoke the minimum amount of attention possible from passersby, other drivers, and the police. JMO.
NRA=pro freedom? Perhaps. However, IIRC, the NRA headquarters has only the second half of the Second Amendment written above the door…the NRA’s agenda then is not strictly to uphold a constitutional right. This is what gives me a jaundiced view of them (along with some boneheaded moves by Mr. Heston et al). Though I am both in favor of the right to bear arms and pro-gun control, I would never join the NRA.
I would personally think, if I saw an NRA sticker on your car that:
A.) You are very likely a gun owner.
B.) You are probably supportive of an individual’s right to own a firearm.
Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with bumperstickers, in moderation. You have an NRA or an ACLU sticker, that doesn’t bug me. However, when I see a car that 20 bumper stickers on it, all devoted to similar issues or worldviews, yeah, I consider there to be an obsession there.
The NRA sticker alone would not mean much.
The NRA sticker along with a Jesus fish, or a confederate flag or a “Bush / Cheney” sticker or an “Abortion Kills a Beating Heart” sticker would let me know (in no uncertain terms) that the driver was a person of extremely limited intellgence. And possibly dangerous.
Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
generalisations about views contrary to yours,like this,say this to me.---->extremely limited intellgence. And possibly dangerous.
When I see an NRA sticker, I assume the person is belligerent. It brings to mind the image of Charlton Heston waving a rifle and making his “cold, dead hands” speech. I also assume the person is politically right-wing, maybe a survivalist or in Posse Comitatus or something like that.
It would not cause me to cut you off in traffic, give you the finger, etc. But it would affect how I judge you as a person, unless further contact with you shows my initial assumptions to be inaccurate.
(I’m not against hunting or the concept of owning guns, I just think the NRA is very extreme.)
I agree with ratatoskK–my first impression would be of belligerence. Plenty of people own guns, but don’t feel the need to display stickers about it. And if it was a “Charlton Heston is my president” bumper sticker (I know your’s isn’t), it would definitely give me a strong negative impression.
My husband is a member of the NRA and has the NRA sticker on his truck. It is next to the Free Tibet sticker!
You think these don’t belong together? His idea is that the people of Tibet should have been armed to the teeth and fought off the Chinese invasion. (Some of them tried.)
What people must think when driving behind him! Makes me smile.
I think the reactions are totally different depending on if the car is driven by a man or woman.
If it is on a car or truck driven by a woman, I tend to think that she probably has a ccw, is armed, and is giving fair warning to anybody with evil intentions.
If it is on a car driven by a man, It somehow seems more foolish if it is in a non-western or non-southern state, because most of the anti-gun public tend to discriminate against men who like or carry guns, but usually dont discriminate against women who arm themselves.
Interesting. I tore up my NRA membership because I thought they were too moderate…
Spiff, I almost fell out my chair after this:
Thanks for the laugh !!
To the OP: NRA stickers are so plentiful here that I probably would’t even notice it. I think it depends on where you are.