Oh..I would say there is plenty of elitism in the firearms community

Any group is prone to the them/us mentality and your qualifier "is a member" is just another indication that the "we are good, they are bad" is lurking just below the surface

Don't take that the wrong way....anytime you divide any group...of any size...by any criteria...that is a natural reaction

If you arbitrarily split the group at a club shoot into teams, there would be several people on each team that would be totally convinced that they were better/safer/etc. than the other team...even if they didn;t really know their new teammates they would be totally convinced that they were Da Bomb!

Human nature

In a perfect world everyone would pursue excellence in everything that they do...sadly...we do not live in a perfect world.

Just like when I see bad driving, bad gunhandling makes me want to avoid that person rather than mentoring them

And most people feel like genetics will allow them to operate either in a safe manner

Especially men...since most of us act like any critical review of our gunhandling is an attack on our manhood :-)

But just like your qualifications might not meet my qualifications...etc....

Nobody that is a member here thinks the government going to do a good job making the determination :P