When you discover that someone you've just met or have known for awhile is an ardent fan/owner of firearms, does this knowledge affect your opinion of that person in a negative way?

From personal experience this sort of disclosure gives me pause, but isn't a deal breaker in the case of relatives and co-workers - but it can feel uncomfortable to know this.

Wondered what other people thought.

Yes

yes

Nope.

this generally doesn't happen to me though I have a good friend who's probably on the neo-Marxist "guns will be necessary for revolution" train now and if the subject came up I'd have to just remind myself that he's crazy now and isn't going to get better

no, so long as they can justify it. n.b. 'defence' is not a justification. 'i like shooting guns' is.

i only associate with crossbow enthusiasts

I live in Oregon. Half the people I work with own guns. So, not so much really. When one of them spouts "teachers should all have guns" bullshit, then yes I think "you are a fucking idiot"

it means we aren't gonna be besties but there's a lot of competition for "does this knowledge affect your opinion of that person in a negative way?" and i don't go for less than the best anymore.

If someone reveals in passing that he owns a gun, no.

If he starts talking about how many he's got and how excited he is about them, then yes, the distance is going to widen.

It's the "ardent fan" that gets me, too. Owning a gun, not an especially big deal. Hunters are people I can generally understand and sympathize with. Gushing about guns and how wonderful it is to own a gun? I'm sorry, you are clearly an imbalanced individual with strange tendencies I wish to avoid.