|
Forum Rules | Firearms Safety | Firearms Photos | Links | Library | Lost Password | Email Changes |
Register | FAQ | Calendar | Search | Today's Posts | Mark Forums Read |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
January 22, 2013, 09:47 AM | #1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: February 20, 2005
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 2,084
|
Advantages of Being Color Blind
Reading a very interesting article in the morning paper about a WWII Veteran who was turned away by the Navy because of being color blind and being taken by the US Army Air Corps because they believed he would be able to detect camouflage better from the air and they wanted him. He served as a Gunner on a Flying Fortress.
This story also goes on to tell of his many years as a School Buss Driver http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/eve...cle/id/256448/ We survey all of our Firearms Safety Students for Color Blindness and although I have a hard time remembering more than 3-4 in over 25 year of showing the slide with The word ONION in the circle, and I could not find my slide on-line, but the thing is when talking about how they have to be so much more careful because of their condition I alway regroup at that point and stress that we all have the obligation of being just as careful wether or not we are color blind. My FIL was also color blind and a deer in tall grass was invisible to him, he was always looking for the white spots to help him but could only see the head many times.
__________________
Gbro CGVS For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, But to us who are being saved, It Is The Power Of God. 1Corinthians 1-18 |
January 22, 2013, 10:01 AM | #2 |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: June 25, 2008
Location: Austin, CO
Posts: 19,578
|
What is the significance of color-blindness to safe gun handling?
In terms of the test, these are samples of what I usually see. I know they use these for aviation physicals...
__________________
Nobody plans to screw up their lives... ...they just don't plan not to. -Andy Stanley |
January 22, 2013, 11:24 AM | #3 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: July 7, 2008
Location: Upper midwest
Posts: 5,631
|
Quote:
There were no advantages to it that I ever noticed -- he was terrible at picking out his own clothes. |
|
January 22, 2013, 11:37 AM | #4 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: February 20, 2005
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 2,084
|
The Onion
This is the Onion copied from the old slide presentation,
Brian asks; Quote:
Quote:
They are both to make aware of the condition one may have, however we dealing with it in a FAS class would maybe unveil to the student for the 1st time that what they see is different from what others see. Looks like there is no test or evaluation for School Bus Drivers and although i only have a Passenger endorsement on my CDL I never-the-less was surprised.
__________________
Gbro CGVS For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, But to us who are being saved, It Is The Power Of God. 1Corinthians 1-18 |
||
January 22, 2013, 12:24 PM | #5 |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: June 25, 2008
Location: Austin, CO
Posts: 19,578
|
I don't see a significance of color in gun handling, ordinarily.
The 4 rules are what I'm thinking about, color has no meaning. In aviation, it's fairly obvious. All sorts of things are red/green light based. If a radio goes out and you have to use light signals to approach and land in controlled air space, they are white, red and green. Guns, I don't care what color you are, I don't point at you unless I want to destroy you. Not being a jerk, just don't understand the significance.
__________________
Nobody plans to screw up their lives... ...they just don't plan not to. -Andy Stanley |
January 22, 2013, 09:06 PM | #6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: April 2, 2002
Location: Falcon Colorado
Posts: 256
|
Aren't some firearms safety positions denoted by red dots for armed and green dots for safe?
As an Air Force bomb loader I was tested for color blindness. Most of the fuses used color to indicate safe (green) or armed (red). Confusing the two could be bad, in either guns or bombs. |
January 23, 2013, 09:50 AM | #7 |
Senior Member
Join Date: February 20, 2010
Location: Northern Colorado
Posts: 118
|
I am red/green color blind. I have hunted since I was 12 and had no idea I had a problem until I joined the Navy in 1970. I have no problem seeing hunter orange at all and in fact am often the first to notice movement of game and people in the woods. I also have had a 35 year career as a "Electro/Mechanical" tech and I do a fair amont of electrical wiring on machines and have never had a problem getting wires crossed because of color. One rule, when in doubt, get the ohm meter out.
|
January 23, 2013, 10:29 AM | #8 |
Staff
Join Date: September 25, 2008
Location: CONUS
Posts: 18,433
|
I'm also red/green color weak (red/green deficiency is not color "blind," it is color weak). I didn't know it until the U.S. Army told me during Combat Engineer AIT that they would prefer I not be the guy attaching colored wires to those little stick thingies that we put into the big clumps of explody stuff.
I see red, and I see green. Blaze orange is orange. It's when greens get light and red shades off into pink that I have problems. I suppose my first clue should have been kindergarten, when a classmate asked why I was coloring the ocean purple. Hey, to me purple was just a nice, dark blue ... |
January 23, 2013, 11:18 AM | #9 |
Senior Member
Join Date: November 17, 2000
Posts: 20,064
|
If you are color blind - in the most common sense, you lack either the medium wavelength or long wavelength cone and are dichromatic. The reds and greens are indistinguishable on the dimension of red vs green perceptual hues.
If you are deficient then you have three cone receptors but the absorption spectrum of the three cones are abnornal. Usually one of the receptors has a peak too close to the other causing you to have limited discriminability compared to normal color vision.
__________________
NRA, TSRA, IDPA, NTI, Polite Soc. - Aux Armes, Citoyens |
January 23, 2013, 04:29 PM | #10 |
Staff
Join Date: September 25, 2008
Location: CONUS
Posts: 18,433
|
I forgot to mention that red-green weak is more prevalent in males than it is in females, and it varies in severity. Across the spectrum, to a greater or lesser degree red-green weakness affects a surprisingly large percentage of American males. (And many of them don't know it. I didn't know it until the Army told me at age 22.)
|
January 23, 2013, 05:04 PM | #11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: November 17, 2000
Posts: 20,064
|
X linked recessive.
__________________
NRA, TSRA, IDPA, NTI, Polite Soc. - Aux Armes, Citoyens |
January 23, 2013, 08:28 PM | #12 |
Senior Member
Join Date: September 23, 2009
Location: Ft. Collins, CO.
Posts: 398
|
For sailors they need to be able to see what color another vessel's side lights are so as to tell geometry.
Same for pilots. They also have to read the tower light gun signals (as mentioned). You'd think the Army guys might like to know what paint colors are on the tips of their ammo though..... trace, AP,etc |
January 23, 2013, 09:53 PM | #13 |
Staff
Join Date: September 25, 2008
Location: CONUS
Posts: 18,433
|
I've been a sailer since I was twelve years old (I'm now a senior citizen). Even though my old optometrist told me mine was the worst case of red-green weak he had ever seen, I never had any trouble distinguishing a red running light from a green running light. They just aren't in the shades that tend to tail off into grey.
Ammo in Vietnam wasn't a problem ... whatever they gave me, I put it in my weapon and shot it. |
January 24, 2013, 12:42 AM | #14 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 18, 2004
Location: Middle California
Posts: 364
|
I spent most of my military time up in the air or looking at aerial photos for camoflage (late 60's, early 70's). Conversely, I have a real challenge spotting animals when hunting. If they're not silloueted or moving, I have a real tough time spotting them.
Then there's my doctor who gives me my physicals. He asks me what I do at intersections, I say I do what everybody else does. He says, what if nobody else is there, I say then it doesn't matter. |
January 24, 2013, 12:55 AM | #15 |
Senior Member
Join Date: November 14, 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,824
|
Been hunting and shooting most my life and never had a problem being R/G colorblind. I also spent 22 years in the Navy as a Boatswains Mate, never had a problem..................except for one Commander who asked me if I might want to go to EOD school.
CUT THE RED WIRE PETTY OFFICER!!
__________________
Chief stall mucker and grain chef Country don't mean dumb. Steven King. The Stand |
January 24, 2013, 01:13 AM | #16 |
Senior Member
Join Date: June 11, 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 409
|
I didn't find out I was color blind til 1985 when I went into the navy. The only thing they wouldn't let me do was electronics. Oddly enough though my uncle owned a computer harness house.
I used to assemble apple computer harness' which had 26 different colors of wires. I never got a rejected harness.
__________________
What on god's green earth do you think your doing? |
January 24, 2013, 10:52 AM | #17 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: February 20, 2005
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 2,084
|
gbran,
We're you encouraged to preform the, Quote:
My first Red Head duck I bagged years ago was mounted by a local guy that did taxidermy. When I got it back I had to return it to him as the bill was all black. When I got it back again it was still wrong and then learned he is Color Blind. I remember the puzzled look on his face when I tried to explain that the bill color was all wrong. I had the duck suspended from the ceiling for years and when it got knocked down when we were removing the front door one time old neighbor that thought it was his fault was sure I was going to be upset and was shocked when I thanked him, it was time to put that misfit duck to rest. He specializes in Deer heads and other furry critters mostly.
__________________
Gbro CGVS For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, But to us who are being saved, It Is The Power Of God. 1Corinthians 1-18 Last edited by Gbro; January 24, 2013 at 11:51 AM. |
|
January 24, 2013, 01:23 PM | #18 |
Member
Join Date: May 31, 2012
Location: Seattle-ish
Posts: 59
|
I am Red/Green deficient and yes, I do see movement in the woods before others do. Orange is not a problem for me.
|
January 26, 2013, 12:21 PM | #19 |
Senior Member
Join Date: April 12, 2000
Location: Wilkes-Barre, Pa
Posts: 1,029
|
If the moderators will allow some latitude that vision is gun related.....
11 of 12 "color blind" are male, inherited it from mom's side of the gene pool, have a green not red problem, and aren't "blind", just a little weak. Failing the dot test and Farnsworth lantern test kept me from a Coast Guard or Naval Commission. But I was able to pass the CTT test and the Air Force allowed me to fly high performance jets... go figure... If you are bordeline weak, the dot test can depend on type of ambient lighting. Photographers, fashion designers, makeup artists, etc.... all seem to know that incandescent, fluorescent, mercury bulbs, and natural sunlight bring out color differently, but not every doctor seems to know that office lighting matters. Unless you are hunting deer with lots of dots on them inside an office you may not really have a problem. |
January 26, 2013, 04:12 PM | #20 |
Senior Member
Join Date: February 15, 2009
Posts: 298
|
I've taken the CB tests several times. When I was young (25-30) there was one panel I could not differentiate; all the rest were visible to me. By the time I went for my first FAA physical for a pilot's license, at about age 43, i had a lot of trouble with red-green. I had to go to a local airport and show them I could interpret the colors on a light gun from the tower. No problem with that - I can easily distinguish red from green in all but those picky tests.
So apparently this CB thing can change as your eyes age. FWIW, I had cataracts removed a couple years ago; while colors became more intense, it did not improve the CB tests. |
January 26, 2013, 04:30 PM | #21 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: July 9, 2004
Posts: 5,172
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
January 26, 2013, 05:03 PM | #22 |
Senior Member
Join Date: September 5, 2010
Location: McMurdo Sound Texas
Posts: 4,322
|
Not a big deal for me
I'm also R/G/Brown color blind/ deficient/ whatever. Was told I have significantly more rods(b&w) than cones (color). As such I see movement much sooner than most but also seem to be able to see much fainter stars than "normal" people. I see high flying aircraft when others don't. That translates into longer iron sight shots than many are comfortable with, without using a scope. If I see a 14 point buck at 150 yards first, I don't really care if he's red, green or brown : He is MINE!
Hunters vests are no problem, and I don't flip the safety unless I know what the target is and the background, regardless of color. It's more a novelty, and have developed heuristics to determine most colors, IF that becomes important. I use an ohm meter to figure out resistor values. Active sources (stop lights) and high contrasts are not an issue.
__________________
Cave illos in guns et backhoes Last edited by TXAZ; January 27, 2013 at 10:29 AM. |
January 26, 2013, 05:29 PM | #23 |
Senior Member
Join Date: September 5, 2010
Location: McMurdo Sound Texas
Posts: 4,322
|
Ditto Aquila
I did the same thing in Kindergarten, except it was a "purple blue bird". Purple was, and still is a darker, richer blue.
In reality I think we're right
__________________
Cave illos in guns et backhoes |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
|
|