More ink, breath, and bytes have been spilled on gunners than anyone else you’ll find in law school. Most of the blog posts or discussions on gunners have to do with people who are frustrated or disgusted at the tactics of gunners. Some people who get tabbed as gunners really aren’t gunners. And some people are such effective gunners that they don’t get noticed (we’ll cover that later). Here’s what to look out for.
Characteristics: Enjoys being called on; Volunteers answers and information; Injects opinions into factual answers; Follows up answers from fellow students, often critically; Poses hypotheticals and challenges the professor’s hypotheticals; Adds generally irrelevant personal details or outside knowledge to classroom discussion; Does all studying in a public or visible area; Finds non-law school conversations difficult in social situations.
Self-Identification: People groan when you raise your hand or speak in class; You’ve fought with someone over a favorite study spot; Professors respond to your answers with “Now back to the original question”; Friends start social gatherings with statements that “We’re not going to talk about law school tonight,” and everyone looks at you.
Dealing with a Gunner: A strategy of non-confrontation is most effective. The difference between a gunner and the average eager beaver law student is that a gunner values the public perception of law students and lawyers above the knowledge itself. A gunner is as interested is the awe and status as the education. Questioning a gunner’s actual knowledge or skills will result in a confrontation that will end in one of two ways: with the gunner winning and the gunner’s ego growing, or with the gunner losing and the gunner feeling a total crisis of confidence.
The best way to deal with a gunner is to highlight their actual knowledge as opposed to their perceived knowledge. Accept that a gunner will want to show off, so take what they say in class with a grain of salt, but don’t shut them off complete. Gunners will, on average, be some of the harder workers in law schools. And since they like the sound of their own voice, they’ll share that studying with you. Use that gift.
Living as a Gunner: If you’ve identified yourself as a gunner, chances are people are frustrated with you. To combat this, try toning it back a bit. Try studying in a back corner of the library or at home. You might find that the quiet is more effective that instilling fear. In class, try to keep your answers short, to the point, and yes, a little less frequent. If you feel like you need to share what you’re learning, join a study group with willing participants rather than the captive audience of a classroom. And try and cut back on law school or legal discussion at a bar or party when the mood doesn’t call for it.
But more importantly, ask yourself why you’re there. Is it that important for you to appear like a top student? At a time when law schools are flooded with lots of smart people who don’t feel like they have any other options, looking intelligent is going to count for a lot less. The people who are going to appear like successful students and lawyers will be the people who are turning the education in rewards like jobs and clerkships.
Wrap-Up: It’s important to note that gunners aren’t just people who answer a lot of questions. Don’t think that talking often in class means you’re a gunner. Some people need to stay active to stay engaged in a lesson, and there are more than a few law students who are struggling in class because they don’t want to be identified as a gunner and thus keep quiet. If you’re one of those people, speak up. And if you aren’t, don’t look down on someone just because they talk more often than you do.
A gunner is essentially a show-off, someone who answers questions and dominates discussion for the ego boost and to hear the sound of their own voice. At their core a gunner is basically a caricature of a law student. Maybe they read One-L and took it too literally, but they are playing the role of a law student they think they need to play. If you’re making decisions in law school based on what you’ve decided best supports what you want to get out of law school as opposed to what people think of you, you’re not a gunner. And no amount of hand-raising is going to change that.
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I dislike Gunners with a passion.
The Gunner in our summer term threw the class under the bus. It is one who decided upon themselves to verbally call out their superiority of briefing. Rule in class was “Three Passes, Class Canceled” policy…well…three passes happened 40 minutes in and we were going home on a quiz night. Oh wait, Gunner announces “I don’t want to be punished for others not doing the work, this is unfair to me since I did *ALL* my briefs”.
Karma sang its tune when they begged for someone’s answer for a practice exam. No one volunteered even after we had all broke our necks helping each other (including a firefighter who pulled a 96 hr shift *right* before finals) through the studying.
Here we have a great example of Gunner as foil to the Sandbagger (what a tease am I!). I think most of this post explains the gunner’s action in this case: he’s just trying to intimidate the rest of the class with how smart and prepared and dedicated he is.
What I might have missed in this post was how the Gunner is unable to manage the delicate balance needed when being a good student is a big part of your personality and self-worth. It can be a motivating factor but when you lose that balance, stuff like this happens.
You caught it in the “A gunner is essentially a show-off, someone who answers questions and dominates discussion for the ego boost and to hear the sound of their own voice.” comment. All of us who have dealt with Gunners know the M.O. and see why they do it. The entire LS experience is a delicate balance between getting out of a lecture/briefs what one needs and crossing into Gunner territory while doing it.