Want to know more about law school gunners?
Curious if they get better grades?
Stay to the end as I define the term and provide you with eleven characteristics that typify
most law school gunners.
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Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to discuss gunners,
the best-known law school stereotype.
And no, it's not a person who comes to law school with a gun—that would be a gunman.
Law school gunners are a common phenomenon at law schools that utilize the Socratic method,
and they have certain characteristics.
If you meet most of these characteristics, you just might be a gunner.
First, they are almost always the first students to raise a hand in class when the professor
asks a question.
Two, they raise their hands when another student is answering a question incorrectly.
Three, they tend to raise their hands so they can publicly disagree with the professor.
Four, they participate in every class session, or almost every class session.
Five, they raise their hands multiple times each time that class meets.
Six, they tend to sit towards the front of the classroom,
so they can be seen by the professor.
Seven, the gunner will sometimes blurt out an answer, even if someone else
was called on to answer the question.
Eight, the gunner’s answer tends to be longer, as they wax eloquently on the law.
Nine, they tend to have overinflated egos, believing that they are smarter than everyone else.
They accomplish this by using longer words that are not commonly used in society
or even by lawyers.
Ten, they are overly ambitious, going far above and beyond what is required.
For example, one gunner I knew would cite to law review articles that were not assigned
or even mentioned in the reading.
The gunner just enjoyed looking for additional law, which he then mentioned in class.
And eleven, they keep their hand raised for long periods of time,
even when being ignored by the professor.
This last strategy actually works sometimes because I get embarrassed for them
and I call on the gunner just to get them to put their hand down.
Now, the question on your mind: does the gunner get better grades in law school.
From my experience as a law professor, and from what I’ve found from doing some research,
is that gunners rarely get the highest course grades.
During my law school career, I clearly recall my section’s gunner.
He came off as exceptionally well educated and he seemed to understand the class material
at a deeper level than the rest of us.
But when final exam grades were posted, he suddenly became less vocal in class as it
was rumored that he did not do as well as he had hoped for.
The person with the top grades was a student that I didn’t know well
because she was so quiet in class.
Now fast forward a few years, and I became a law school professor.
In the nearly 20 years of teaching first year law students, I've paid attention to the
gunner and their course grade.
About twenty percent of the time they do end up getting the highest grade in the
class—that’s about once about every five years.
Most of the time though, the gunner ends up somewhere in the top quartile.
Good showing, mind you, but just not the highest grade in the class.
First semester grades often have the effect of quieting the student down during the second
semester of law school, though not completely stopping them.
In fact, the law school gunner tends to be much more sheepish in the second semester
of law school now that the wind has been let out of their sails.
But in those years when the gunner is the top student, they continue their gunner behavior
as the grades have validated them.
One final note.
Not everyone who raises their hands all the time is a gunner.
Some students learn by vocalizing concepts.
And they actually need to repeat some of what the professor says, because that is how their
brain processes new information.
It’s very hard to work with this kind of student in the classroom, because there isn’t enough
time for me to accommodate this particular learning style.
So cccasionally this student is misidentified as a gunner.
Make sure to share your gunner stories in the comments below.
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