The One Thing I Hate About Shooting!!!!

[PistolPete]

There is one thing that I really hate about shooting... Almost everyone who shoots smokes cigarettes. I cannot stand the smell of them and hate being around them. In everyother sport I've been serious about hardly anyone ever smoked. But, in shooting 75% of the people smoke. What is up with this? Whenever I leave an indoor match I come home and feel like I've been at a club all night long because I smell like smoke. Does this bother anyone else?

Any other nonsmokers here?

[PistolPete]

OOPS SORRY!!!! Wrong forum!!! Meant to post in the "what I HATE forum"

Sorry...

Please move.

[dajarrel]

PistolPete,

I can understand how someone could come to dislike ( hate) cigarette smoke. I smoked for years and if I didn't think it would kill me, I would still be smoking, but to the point of the post.

Our club doesn't allow anyone to smoke inside. That pretty well takes care of the inconsiderate smoker. As to the percentage, When there is a smoker there, it seems as if everyone in the world is smoking. Of our 12-15 regulars, probably only one of them smoke. Of course everyone gets to share it with him because the ventilation system draws a tremendous amount of air into the building, including their smoke.

dj

[rhino]

Smoking bothers me quite a bit too. Coincidentally, the only time I'm around cigarette smoke is when I'm around a bunch of shooters. I'm not sure if I've tailored the rest of my life (and circles of friends) to avoid cigarette smoke, but it seems to have worked out that way.

Hmmm . . .

In fact, one of the things that I really noticed about IPSC matches when I started was that so many people smoked! I'd forgotten about that until now . . . I guess I've just gotten used to seeing it.

Maybe we should have smoking and non-smoking squads in matches!

[SiG Lady]

Smoking...??!! Not at OUR range. No way. (It's banned on the premises for obvious reasons). In fact, I never even hear anyone talk about it when we're all together for special gatherings. Even at the awards potluck dinners at the end of each league, I think I've only seen one or two people step outside for a smoke and it's usually the non-shooting wife (except for one lady) of some participant or other... Once in a while two or three of the guys will go outside and share a celebratory cigar after the trophies are handed out--but that's different. The issue of smoking just about never comes up at the range.

[tightloop]

Wonder what is more lethal, cigarette smoke or lead fumes? Wonder which is the quicker way to go...?

Just kiddin', I think most people have gotten the message and at least try to consider others feelings about it. It certainly isn't like it used to be 25 yrs ago.

I can't think of but one shooter I know who smokes at matches.

Man, if they ban coffee, I'm in trouble...

[blue edge]

It bothers me too! and not just around shooters!!

Some smokers just dont care about the non-smokers! infact I think some do just

aggravate the non smoker.

[TDean]

We've got a group of gents who smoke cigars at local matches. There's nothing like being on deck... getting all prepared to shoot, then inhaling a plume of cigar smoke as you step to the start position. My o2 level drops.....

[Singlestack]

Hello,

My name is John and I smoke at matches.

I do try to be very considerate of others.

[SiG Lady]

I frankly don't mind if people smoke... but

Blessed are the smokers who ask, "Do you mind if I smoke...?"

[davecutts]

I too am a match smoker, mostly O.P.'s and only outside.

[Wakal]

I don't mind smokers...outside and downwind...but I really hate people who throw their butts on the ground. Grrrr...

Of course, I hate littering at all, so my hatred isn't really directed at the smoking per say...more at the subgroup of inconsiderate idiot mouth-breathers who throw their smoldering litter on the ground.

'round these parts, though, most use a less-fire more-slime method to feed their nicotine addiction. Hard to have a serious conversation with folks who are drooling brown goo on themselves

Alex

[tightloop]

Wakal

Now that is a seriously disgusting habit... are they chewing or dipping?

[PistolPete]

At my local range they actually just recently banned smoking inside. But, not everyone obeys that rule. Some people go NEAR the door and smoke there. That is a little better. Although last week someone was smoking a cigar in there and I couldn't even breathe. God I hate those things. I won't cause me to quit shooting by any means just wish people wouldn't smoke around me.

[3quartertime]

With the price of cigarettes going up so high it's hard to believe that anyone can afford to shoot and smoke at the same time!!!

As a matter of fact not too long ago I saw the effects of the price increase of cigarettes,,,

There were 4 or 5 guys standing around smoking. But they must have been short on cash because they all had to share the same cigarette. While they were passing it back and forth I thought,,," man they must have all needed a cigarette break pretty bad!!!"

Rough times I guess,,,

[Vlad]

I recently quit, for health reasons, and money reasons. When I noticed that a pack of smokes is was more then a box of ammo, I started to give it some serious thought. Plus I was getting sick of being wet and cold, runing into the weather to catch a small crapy buzz, as there is almost nowhere you can smoke indoors anymore.

It is true that I ran into more smokers shooting USPSA then anywhere else, but I would guess only about %30 of the shooters around these parts. Indoors it is a big no to begin with. Also outdoor most people seem to be quite considerate and step a bit back when they light up. Maybe I am just lucky in my area.

Vlad

[Liota]

Wakal

Now that is a seriously disgusting habit... are they chewing or dipping?

Tightloop,

Depending on with whom you are conversing, it could seem like both. You can see the wad of tobacco in the one guy's mouth. The others keep it pretty concealed until they spit. UGGHHHH!! YUCKY! YUCKY! YUCKY! Darn. Where's the sick and green emoticon when you need it???

Liota

[tightloop]

Well, I have to confess, I tried it when I was younger. My brother rode RCA rough stock and I used to go to lots of rodeos with him. It was pretty standard stuff in the 60's when we were doing it.

Very hard on your oral hygene. Your gums and teeth really suffer.

[Vince Pinto]

Hi guys,

Smoking is to irritation as guns are to crime: It's not the thing in the hand, it's the person holding it.

I know people who can irritate the doo-doo out of me just by chewing gum - the "smacking" noices and wide open mouth cud-chewing don't do very much for me, nor does my shoe finding their discarded gum later on the floor.

As a smoker, I'm always conscious of my surroundings and considerate of non-smokers in the vicinity, and I have absolutely no problem going outside to smoke at a facility which prohibits smoking inside, but you'd be amazed at how many such places don't provide an outdoor ash can or $20 worth of shelter.

Like many (or most) airports, Hong Kong and most other Asian airports prohibit smoking inside the terminal but they have a series of Smoking Rooms throughout the building. Airports which don't provide any such facilities at all (many in Europe and the US), are not dealing with smoking- they're imposing their will on others who chose to use a legal product - sound familiar to you folks ?

[PistolPete]

The problem with smoking is that people just light up and then everyone around them has to smoke. I don't smoke because I dont' like it so I shouldn't have to if someone else does. Even when I'm driving and the person in front of me is smoking I have to smoke. I'm not given a choice.

[LPatterson]

As a matter of fact not too long ago I saw the effects of the price increase of cigarettes,,,

There were 4 or 5 guys standing around smoking.  But they must have been short on cash because they all had to share the same cigarette.  While they were passing it back and forth I thought,,," man they must have all needed a cigarette break pretty bad!!!"

3/4 Sometime you are just too funny!

[Scooter]

Just start setting up stages with lots of running, 50 to 100 yards per stage. Then you'll see a decline in smokers. You don't see many, if any, smokers in biathlon.

[George]

I am with Vince on this one. Anytime I come across radical anti-smoking sentiment, I notice that the rhetoric involved resembles all the other anti-anything sentiments present in this world.

There is a tendency to focus on a small number of incidents/individuals and use those examples to paint the overall picture to reflect the device utilized as being the criminal. Once again, the use of "anything", and it's effect on others due to that use will be entirely up to the individual using that "anything", or the choice of others to remain within the effected zone. If it's not a crime, and it is practiced with consideration, then penalizing the practicioners in any way is an infringement of the basic individual rights we all cherish.

BTW, I am an ex-smoker now (going on four months, woohoo!), and don't particularly like being near it anymore myself, but I will respect the right of anyone who wants to smoke in an area where it is permitted. I am also noticing a reduction in the number of folks still smoking, as though they were a dying breed or sumthing

If you don't like someone's secondhand smoke, it is your right to "politely" ask them to stop. It is also their right to decline, or comply as they wish. It is additionally your right to move somewhere else to avoid it. But it is no ones right to tell someone to stop anything that is permitted, where it is permitted.

BTW, exhaust fumes are bad for ya too. I hate it when I walk by a city bus just as it belches a choking cloud of noxious exhaust fumes in my face, I wish they wouldn't do that, it's so inconsiderate

--

Regards,

[SiG Lady]

Whenever I see a display of packaged cigarettes and cartons and such, I wonder to HELL how people (even the well-to-do) can AFFORD it!! I recall a time when a pack of Camels, a gallon of petrol and a pound of ground beef each cost the same. Obviously, the cigs have outpaced even petrol in some places.

And what's with filters??!! If your're going to smoke, you want to TASTE the stuff you're smoking. Some decent tobaccos actually have interesting flavors. Filtered cigarettes?... Ha! Those are the ones made of the inferior crap-grade tobacco that was swept off the factory floor.

I have a theory: If cigarettes didn't come fully packaged and rolled and pre-manufactured--and people had to (ohmygod) actually roll-their-own from loose tobacco and cigarette papers--there'd be one HELLUVA LOT LESS smoking!!

[Merlin Orr]

There are still some who not only roll their own but grow it too.