Are pictures of guns offensive outside of the US? I realize growing up in the US with a family of hunters has me desensitized, but I can't imagine being upset at someone whose hobby is going to the shooting range.
Yes. The sentiment of many people in Western Europe [1] is that weapon-carrying Americans are at the very least somewhat lunatic.
Big disclaimer: this is not a value judgement, this is not a discussion I want to immerse myself in now ;). Just an observation.
[1] I don't know about other parts of the world.
I haven't seen OP's IG account, but unless it's one of those "confederate flag, don't tread on me, guns don't kill people" starter-pack extremists, it's just another hobby to me.
I'm not sure about offensive, but as a UK citizen I mostly associate guns with crime and violence. I don't know anyone who publicly owns a gun. For the most part police don't have guns here. Typically the only time I see a gun is when I go to the airport (airport security police do have guns).
I'm aware of how cultural norms are different in the US, and as such the owners being into guns certainly wouldn't stop me interacting with a business. But it might well make me question their political/moral judgements.
Until something jams and you need to fiddle with a loaded weapon to get the round/magazine out.
That said, I like living in a country where obtaining one requires me to go through some qualification process and training.
We were following all precautions (and more), and it was great until one of the shells bounced on the wall and fell in my shoe, and I started hopping around in pain with a loaded handgun and my finger still on the trigger. That's when I realized it's too easy for something to go wrong and I didn't need to kill my best friend by accident over some fun.
EDIT: I wanted to add that it's also the type of guns in these pics (surrounding a post of only the word "disobey")- these aren't hunting rifles but guns that are more commonly used on people (AR-15, pistols). That doesn't look like someone about to go deer hunting.
What a weird thing to think. Those guns are most commonly used on gun range targets, not people, even in countries with high rates of gun violence.
I'm living and have lived in countries without widespread gun usage (Germany and Austria) and I've never seen people carrying AR-15 or guns with a similar "military" look around here (I have seen hunting rifles) and have previously lived in a country with widespread gun usage (Israel) and the only people I've seen carrying guns like those there were soldiers or police officers.
You need hunting rifles with large magazines that fire in automatic?
Damn
Damn
Cause there aren't many of those and one will run you well over $20k
Still, I have never seen a PH (professional hunter) need a semi-automatic assault rifle to shoot a buck.
Also i never met somebody who go hunting with an assault rifle. Good few use ARs though cause theyre super common. Theres a dozen cartridges "better" for hunting but that means a new pricey rifle and pricier ammo. .30-30 will run you a buck a round, .223 like 30 cents. And 3030 is not by a long shot the priciest hunting round.
I would just like to point out, and then I'm going to leave this weird conversation alone, that the US second amendment is not, and never was, about hunting. It's about protecting the outcome of the American Revolution, and self-defense. I'm allowed to post my personal beliefs on my personal social media pages, because it makes me happy and helps me meet like minded people. I'm not going to censor myself to please a demographic. I've done that enough in my life.
I've always kept my politics out of my businesses, because I've thought that whatever benefit I might get from a strong political signal (attracting like-minded clients) gets washed out, or worse, by the people I'd alienate. These days, it seems more likely that a political signal alienates potential clients than it does attract any.
All that said, it took me a hot minute to hunt down Ezekiel's instagram dot com web page because it doesn't appear to be linked from his business web site. So it more or less seems like that's personal content he doesn't really associate with his business.
And if you have to go out of your way a bit to find a potential business associate's personal social media, it seems like that's intentional to try to keep the business and personal sides of life sort of separate, to whatever extent that's possible in current year.
And if you go looking into people's personal lives, well, I guess it ought not surprise when you find that people have families and political views and interests and passions. You might not agree with everything you find. But if you had to go looking for it, it all might be on you.
Also it’s not the pictures per se, but the need to make one’s affection for guns public.
Anyway, you asked: that's why I'd be scared to put much into the OP's hands.
Do you feel like your fear is rational? Statistically my gut instinct would be to think you have virtually zero chance of being physically harmed by a business owner with a family, regardless of how many guns they own. Not that I would discount your fear, just wondering if this is something more akin to my fear of heights as opposed to my fear of driving through a high violent crime rate neighborhood at night with my gas tank indicator saying "empty".