How Passing Along Stupid Videos In Social Media Can Classically Condition Minds Against Guns

A Conditioned Response is a form of learning that occurs when two separate events are paired together and are later viewed by the subject as indistinguishable. Ivan Pavlov is known as the first psychologist who demonstrated this concept.

In his experiment, he presented meat to a dog and noticed the reaction of the dog salivating. Later, he sounded a bell before before presenting the same dog with meat. Further still, he then subjected the dog to the sound of the bell without meat and noticed that the dog "connected" the bell to being presented with meat as evidenced by the dog's reaction.

It is for this reason, that I loathe seeing certain videos being posted in my timeline, especially the ones in which an obviously untrained person is attempting to operate a firearm. Obviously, these videos end badly for the subject with an injury of some sort being the eventual result. A person without the benefit of fundamental psychology might dismiss these videos as mere evidence of idiots with guns. Whereas that assessment may be true, something far more sinister is afoot.

For the record, an untrained person should not be operating firearms, for the sake of safety. However, when people see these videos, which often go "viral" in social media, they are being silently conditioned to learn that firearms are dangerous to anyone who may legitimately operate them with proper training.

As such, I will no longer tolerate the posting of these videos to my social media timelines and discourage people from "tagging" me in these posts. For one, I do not find them funny in the slightest bit and more importantly I do not want to "teach" people erroneous information about firearms. I hope you understand and will join me.

About The Author
Rick Ector is a National Rifle Association credentialed Firearms Trainer, who provides Michigan CCW Class training in Detroit for students at his firearms school - Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit.

Ector is a recognized expert in firearm safety and has been featured extensively in the national and local media: Associated Press, UPI, NRAnews, Guns Digest, Tactical-Life, The Truth About Guns, The Politics Daily, Fox News Detroit, The Detroit News, The Detroit Examiner, WJLB, WGPR, and the UrbanShooterPodcast.

For more info about free shooting lessons for women and Michigan CCW Classes, please contact:

Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit
Web: http://www.detroitccw.com.
Email: info@detroitccw.com
Phone: 313.733.7404

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