Is everyone who uses a weapon for target practice secretly thinking about violence?

[saras]

4. A. there isn't an "everyone". B. In many cases, it's not secret, but overt.

It really depends on who you are and who you hang out with. People and groups are NOT the same everywhere. Ever been to a target range where most of the targets are human silhouettes? Pretty hard to pretend you're not thinking about violence THERE.

Anyone who makes statements about "anyone" is wrong already, even before they get to what they're going to say about them.
If the poster had said "in this state" or "at this shooting range" or "on this online forum" it would be a completely different matter.

What I think is that you're an extreme, one of the best of the best, and generalizing from yourself would be rather like a neurosurgeon saying that, of course, everyone has their motor skills and background, and ought to be able to whip together a yacht in their garage in their spare time.

I've lived in counties that had thousands of redneck gun nuts shooting up signs and lights and dogs and cows and cars, and not a single skilled hunter OR skilled competitive shooter in the county. I've also been to at least one competitive event where pretty much everyone had your attitude or something like it.

If I want to find people online who are OBVIOUSLY thinking about killing when they shoot and BRAG about it, it's easy. There's lots of them. How big a proportion I don't know, because the others are probably quieter. People like you don't build huge websites bragging about how responsible they are with guns. I wish they did. But the others are there, and overt, and hard to miss.