Grey man vs logos and insignia

[BullOnParade]

So this issue has come up double fold in my life over the past few months and I'd love to hear the hive mind's thoughts on it. This will be a long winded post, suck it up or move along.

First, I'm on the board of directors for my handgun club. We at the club have two logos we commonly print on merchandise and club related swag. One, is a picture of the Toronto skyline with the CN tower and a revolver floating in the sky. The other is an overlay of the three letters T.R.C. which could be mistaken for any club or school insignia.

The three letters logo was designed by a member many years ago after he wore a button down shirt with the gun toting logo to a dinner party and caught some flak from another guest. This logo was left off of the club website until recently when a group of members were working on public relations planned to contact the municipal government they asked for a new letterhead with the more politically correct logo and for the newest logo to be posted on the website instead of or beside the old one.

Here's the meat and potatoes: one board member stated that he would not be comfortable with wearing his three letter insignia shirts in public if the same logo were posted to our website in case someone were to recognize the logo and target him with either robbery or anti gun intentions. A little paranoid, the club of ≥250 people do not have enough klout in a city of 2.7m people to make a logo stand out. Let alone the limited traffic who visit the website, 95% of which are members, the rest, supposedly being people interested in joining.

Obviously, I brushed this one aside. I only had three or four tshirts with the three letter crest, and they hardly ever get worn in public.

However the idea obviously stuck with me because a week ago I was coming home from work, and I was thinking about the worst case scenario of a future where many people are out of work long term. I was wearing a t-shirt from work and thinking about how lucky I am to have a secure role in a safe "essential" job. Then I thought about how constant my schedule is without overtime. How predictable my commute would be to someone who bothered to look up the company on my shirt.

So here's a couple questions:
1) Is there significant risk of being targeted by violent people who can identify insignia on your vehicle or clothing? I'm suddenly reminded of all the pickup trucks one would normally see leaving the city in rush hour with Browning or Beretta stickers in the window.

2) is there increased risk to people who continue to work through this or any disaster when so many persons are out of work? Does a logo or insignia of the company you work for increase your vulnerability?

[flybynight]

Short answer yes,
We display nothing that promotes political views, pro gun view , firearms or archery manufactures, I would never open carry for this same reason short of open warfare or massive extreme civil unrest where my being armed would be obvious because of long arm carry.
In a group of people , The armed guy gets targeted first in my opinion

[Stercutus]

1) Is there significant risk of being targeted by violent people who can identify insignia on your vehicle or clothing? I'm suddenly reminded of all the pickup trucks one would normally see leaving the city in rush hour with Browning or Beretta stickers in the window.

Most burglars aren't going to bother with following you home. It happens but it is pretty rare. Most burglars also will not notice whatever stickers you have on your vehicle. They try the lock and if it is open they will reach in and steal your gun that you stupidly left unlocked and anything else of value in the vehicle. If they do notice gun stickers on your vehicle they might break your windows to get the gun out. Kind of depends upon who is doing the stealing and what their tactics are. So yes, best to avoid pro-gun stuff on your vehicle.

On clothing gun logos tend to invoke either high negative or high positive polarizing reaction from people. Logos that have pictures of guns are prohibited in certain places like some schools so you could be asked to leave. I don't wear them.

2) is there increased risk to people who continue to work through this or any disaster when so many persons are out of work? Does a logo or insignia of the company you work for increase your vulnerability?

Not here. The government has pretty much cancelled evictions and foreclosures, providing food for kids, suspended taxes and utility bill payments. People don't have anything to be desperate about.

Most people aren't criminals anyway. Criminals tend to overwhelmingly have bad drug problems and therefore have a compromised reasoning, morals and ethics processes. Even in countries where people are desperate due to shortages the vast majority of people tend to run honest.

It is hard to say what large groups of people who have lived a life of ease and plenty will be willing to justify when suddenly faced with shortages. We have yet to see that in the US in the last 85 years or so and therefore it has mostly passed out of living memory.

[NT2C]

For the most part, I go grey man but kind of the opposite. Grey man in Hawaiian shirts and sloppy cargo pants, walking with a cane. I get noticed but most people couldn't tell you 15 minutes after I leave much more than that I had on one of the aforementioned loud shirts and a ball cap, and that I had a beard. That's by design. I want to exude a "harmless grandpa" vibe while at the same time have options at the ready if that attracts a predator.

Our two vehicles these days are also pretty non-descript, about the only things making them memorable being small ham antennas and my callsign on the back window in 3" reflective letters. There's a little more personalization, a bumper sticker or two ("Nice front bumper you have there. Be a shame if anything... happened to it.") but no firearm logos. No rebel flag, no political identifiers, no religious identifiers, nothing really that anyone is likely to take offense or exception to. Same with the house. No yard signs, nothing on the doors or doormats that would give anyone any clue about our political leanings, etc. Okay, I do fly a 3'x5' Pride flag from our 25' flagpole for Pride month (and regularly get thanked by neighbors when I do) but I also fly appropriate flags for most events and holidays. We tend to avoid what I call "cringe" signs and stickers, or anything that might give a prosecuting attorney something to help sway a jury with. (I literally consider how anything I install on my guns, wear on my clothing, or place on my vehicles and home might get negatively presented to a jury and then avoid most of those things.)

Meanwhile, my buddy the cop is a walking billboard for some manufacturers and cringeworthy sayings/logos and I hate to think what the victim's family lawyer is going to make of that stuff in the civil case should he ever get involved in a shooting.

[tony d tiger]

Don't put your DD 214 on the rear window; wear whatever T-shirt you want but know that it may not convey the message you intend.

The question of putting the logo on the website plays into the latter. Is the "T.R.C." intended as a kind of secret handshake?

[Evan the Diplomat]

As a Public Affairs professional, I agree that there is very little targeting risk. The three letters sound nice and discrete. If you want a compromise, you can place the three letters above a simple bullseye (think Target logo). If anyone asks, say "It's a marksmanship club, I once thought I could qualify for the Olympics."

[darmstrong]

Most people aren't observant enough to notice a little logo unless they recognize the logo to begin with. Further, most predators are looking for easy targets. Yes if people get desperate enough they'll escalate their target range. Don't be an easy target and you'll likely be fine.

[MasterMaker]

I wouldn't put any kind of bumper/window sticker on my car that in any way advertised anything at all, don't own any apparel with logos displaying any affiliation with anything at all and even my range bag is a Stanley tool bag(have been meaning to get/make a guitar rifle case)...

[Stercutus]

even my range bag is a Stanley tool bag

$25 Tool bags are worlds better than any $80 range bag I ever saw. It carries a lot more, is practically indestructible and discrete. Normally the compartments are nicer and stronger too.

[MacWa77ace]

I think It'd be a very low likely hood that those kind of dinner party activists would do as much work as it would take to track down a TRC member. But I wouldn't list board member names on the website, just a generic contact section.

I don't put stickers on my vehicles because it ruins the paint or creates window blindspots. But I have a ton of logo stickers. This is just what I have in my desk drawer at work right now. There's more at home, but I haven't even found one place to put one sticker.

[BullOnParade]

Haha I put a bunch on my toolbox at work. Now my tool box is hidden in a corner of the shop in a department where it's just me and my boss, who's a long time Hunter.

[AlexanderPain]

When I get cool logo stickers for guns, ammo, etc., I put them on the surplus green army cans that I take to the range from time to time. If you've ever inadvertently taken your baseball cards to the shooting range, you'll be glad to have a dedicated ammo can with ammo company stickers on it. Don't ask how I know . . .

[PistolPete]

Logos can certainly make you stand out. Logos can also help you blend in. It all comes down to the logo and the situation. Wearing a shirt with a spam swoosh or your local sportsball team may help you blend into a crowd at a baseball game, which wearing a shirt with a Glock or weapon related would not. Wearing a Glock shirt will make you blend in at a shooting range. It's all contextual and depends on how well known the brand is, I imagine.

[AlexanderPain]

Absolutely agree with you Pistol Pete. One thing I can tell you for sure is that the Atlanta, Georgia, area has had a lot of car burglaries where the criminals are specifically targeting pickup trucks and other vehicles that they think may contain a firearm in the glove box or center console. If you display a recognized firearms company logo, an outdoor products company logo, or a conservative political logo on your car and you park in the Atlanta area, there is a good chance that your car will eventually be broken into. The police will take a report and you'll be out your $500 deductible on your car insurance. That's one big reason to be in the grey man category here.

[MacWa77ace]

Custom Moral Patches just came in. They're embroidered velcro so I can take them off if I want to go grey.





Amazon @ ~$4 each. Looks like they came from Germany, but originated in Thailand. Probably embroidered/assembled in DE.