MANAGING KNOWN CONTACTS: Are Your Friends Working For or Against You?

One of the big pitfalls that a lot of us run into is the fact that we surround ourselves with like-minded people. This normalizes things that are decidedly ABnormal to society. Have you given any thought to how this knowledge could be used against you, either intentionally or unintentionally? Best case scenario, something comes to light that can make a social situation unnecessarily awkward. Worst case you’re getting called into HR, or being volunteered to solve a problem that you were otherwise uninvolved in. Have you given any thought to if the people in your social circles are assets or liabilities? Let me know what you think!

The Suited Shootist
Alex Sansone took his first formal pistol class in 2009, and has since accumulated almost 500 total hours of open enrollment training from many of the nation's top instructors including Massad Ayoob, Craig Douglas, Tom Givens, Gabe White, Cecil Burch, Chuck Haggard, Darryl Bolke, and many others. Spending his professional life in the corporate world, Alex quickly realized incongruities between "best practices" in the defensive world, and the practical realities of his professional and social limitations. "I've never carried a gun professionally. I'm just a yuppie suburbanite that happens to live an armed lifestyle. Having worked in the corporate arena for the last decade, I've discovered that a lot of the "requirements" and norms of gun carriers at large aren't necessarily compatible with that professional environment. I also have a pretty diverse social background, having grown up in the Northeast, and there are many people in my life that are either gun-agnostic or uncomfortable with the idea of private gun ownership. This has afforded me not only insights into how we are perceived by different subcultures, but how to manage and interact with people that may not share your point of view without coming across as combative or antisocial. This is why my focus is the overlooked social aspects of the armed lifestyle."