How To Know If You Are A Gunner
Are you a gunner? Answer these questions to find out.
Ed. note: This article is part of the Introduction to Law School series, powered by Thomson Reuters.
With the first semester winding down, it’s a good time for people to take stock of where they are. First-year law students are reassessing their study plans. Third-year students are picking their bar review courses. Second-years who have secured offers for the summer are entirely checked out — second semester 2L year with an offer is maybe the best time in life to do absolutely nothing for months and not feel bad about it.
The holidays are a good time for self-awareness, so we want to help by providing a little questionnaire to help some of the least self-aware people in law school: The Gunners. Some of you know who you are, but many of you don’t. Many of you think that if you have questions, likely many of your classmates have the same questions, and you are doing them a solid by asking those questions. Many of you think that “class participation” is still a thing because your high school history teacher said so in a rec letter. Gunners aren’t necessarily bad people, they just missed the social cues that are supposed to tell them to shut the hell up when the expert professor is trying to explain something.
If you answer “yes” to all of these questions, you are a gunner and you are cool with your station in life. But if you answer “yes” to only some of these questions, there is still hope for you. Reflect on your life choices, and maybe next semester you won’t be the central square on somebody’s “Gunner Bingo” card.
- Do you sit toward the front of the class, even when it is inconvenient to do so?
See… there are some people who hide out in the back of the class because they think the professor won’t find them there. That’s silly. The professor can see you no matter where you sit. Modern classrooms have good sight lines.
Gunners try to sit toward the front of the class, so the professor can see them. THAT’S SILLY. The professor can see you anywhere.
Normal people sit next to their friends. Because they have friends.
- Do you raise your hand when the professor says something you disagree with?
A statement is not a question. A counterpoint is not a question. I don’t care if the professor says “there is no moral difference between murder 1 and murder 2” and you are the damn New York Times ethicist. Did the professor stutter? No? Then you don’t have a “question.” You have an “issue” that you should probably take up at office hours instead of interrupting whatever kooky train of thought the professor is on.
- Do you raise your hand in every class session? Can you honestly not remember if you spoke last class or not?
I don’t care how interested you are in the subject, there is no excuse for speaking up in every single class. NO. EXCUSE. If your class meets three days a week, and you have your hand in the air three times in a week, your assessment of when you should ask a question is entirely off. Sometimes it’s better to just sit there and listen.
By the same token, normal people are aware of when they last volunteered to get mouthy in class. They think, “Man, I got into it on Wednesday. This Friday I’m not going to speak unless spoken to.” That’s just a normal human thing. It works in law school, it works in romance (“I initiated the texting the last two times, this time I’m going to wait and let them text me.”). It works in life.
The reason “gunning” is the metaphor for people who talk in class all the time is that it connotes indiscriminate firing. Normal people use their bullets judiciously.
- Do you accept the answer as given?
Please note: Gunning has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the questions asked. You could have fantastic questions. Many people do. But after you ask the question, do you accept the answer (not that you ever have to agree with it) and move on? Or do you keep pressing an issue that, at that point, matters only to you?
Here’s a normal conversation:
Gunner: “But, teach, why is an excited utterance an exception to hearsay? Seems like we should value what people say when excited very little.”
Professor: “The law thinks we are less likely to lie when we are about to die. As you are, if you ever call me ‘teach’ again.”
But the gunner version doesn’t stop there.
Gunner: “Is there any evidence that people are more truthful when they are about to die? And how do we know that they know they’re about to?”
Professor: “I was being flip because I want you to stop talking. Spontaneity is the key here. You should be allowed to report, as evidence, what a person said unprompted in the heat of the moment.”
Gunner: “[but but but]”
Class: [Thinking to itself] “Holy God, we have 12 more hearsay exceptions to go. I wonder if SHUT UP BEFORE I MURDER YOU counts as an excited utterance?”
- Do you respond to other people’s questions?
This is truly the most socially inconsiderate thing you can do in law school. When somebody else has a question for the professor, you’re supposed to let the professor answer it. Nobody asked YOU anything. Nobody is paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to hear your opinion on the matter. People who answer questions that aren’t addressed to them belong on street corners handing out “literature.”
If they ever make “gunner rehab,” apologizing to all the people you’ve done this to would be one of the 12 steps.
Like we said, if you do all of these things, you’re a gunner and you know it, and… best of luck to you. You can only be who you are.
But if you only do some of these things… take some time off during the holidays and think about what all that hand raising has gotten you. Is it really helping you learn? Might it be better to just sit back and listen sometimes?
At the very least, you should try doing what most of your classmates do. Set up your laptop so you can ALT-TAB between your notes, Overwatch, and Above the Law. That way, there’s always something going on that’s more interesting than the sound of your own voice.
