Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Gunnies and Terminology

There is an effort out there to use the word 'suppressors' instead of 'silencers' in an attempt to fight public ignorance. Some gunnies insist on saying 'silencer' since that is what Maxim used back in the day when he was taking advantage of public ignorance. By that notion, we should be referring to Coca-Cola as either a medicine or a wine, and we should 'silence' our giggling anytime the Ford Mustang II is referred to as a pony car.

Which brings me to the term 'gunnie'. I don't like it. It is too cutsie and way too easy to confuse with the term Gunny, a disservice to the Marines of that rank. I prefer to think of myself as a proud member of the Hoplorati. 'Hoplite' would due too since it actually means "man of arms" or "man with a shield", but I can understand people not wanting to be mistaken as a citizen soldier of an ancient Greek army, which is still  more preferable (and less likely) than being mistaken for a non-commissioned officer in the modern Marine Corps.

hop-lo-ra-ti [ hop-loh-rah-tee ]
plural noun, singular -to [ toh ]

  1. persons possessing, or claiming to possess, superior firearms and modern self-defense enlightenment.
  2. a name given to different pundits or bloggers because of their claim to superior firearms and modern self-defense enlightenment.
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5 comments:

  1. Concur, never have liked Gunnie either... I know too many of the real ones!

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  2. Hmm, I have had Marines address me as "Gunny", I just assumed they didn't notice that it said "U.S. Army" over my left pocket and there were no crossed rifles in between the "three up and two down."

    I thanked them for the honor.

    FWIW, "gunny" may be more respectable than "gun nut", quicker to say and less pretentious than "member of the gun culture", and more easily understandable than "hoplophile" or "hoplorati." Elmer Keith (pbuh) preferred "gun crank", and Jeff Cooper (pbuh), "shotist."

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  3. You got a nice link from CTOne.

    http://fateoflegions.blogspot.com/2011/12/im-member-of-old-dominion-chapter.html

    I'm with him. "The Old Dominion Chapter"

    I like that.

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  4. Then I saw your comment on his post

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  5. Hmmm... I don't actually know CTone's rank. Maybe he is actually a Gunny.

    I don't like "gun nut". Our opponents use that. And to the bystander it doesn't convey a positive image. Some people say "gun nerd". I'm fairly confident if I were to call NFO or CTone a nerd of any stripe I'd be having a bad day from that point on out.

    Hoplophile is good, though its meaning would be one who as an affinity toward arms, whereas Hoplorato (the singular form) would denote an actual practitioner of the art.

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