title says it.

 

Why would you think that? It's already been said that he's a want to be inventor and single father who is very protective of his daughter.

 

He looks like a small-town shade tree mechanic to me, so my guess is no.

If he WAS prior military, I would expect he would have been a mechanic, not a special forces operative or something else crazy. That would give him less fighting experience than your average police officer, so not much of an advantage at all.

 

An inventor who becomes an expert shooter who suddenly acclimated to the battlefield.

 

Eh, there's a big difference between picking up a gun and pointing it in the right direction and becoming an expert shooter. Most people who haven't been trained with guns can't hit jack shit with them, though every once in a while somebody is just naturally gifted and things "click" for them right away.

We don't know at all if he's acclimated to fighting, but I can tell you from personal experience that people do some pretty freaking crazy epic things when their family is in immediate danger. They pay for it afterwards, once the adrenaline and shock wears off.

Is it exaggerated for the film? Of course. Giant alien robots.

 

adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

 

He lives on a farm, alone with his teenage daughter, in Texas. I'm sure he knows how to use a gun without having to have been in the army.

 

Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner.

It's likely that she knows her way around guns too. Many fathers (and mothers!) in that part of the country consider firearms training and safety a responsibility they owe to their family, and a LOT of fathers take their daughters hunting, because it's a fantastic bonding experience.

That's not to say that any of them are trained fighters, but I would expect they at least know how to use a rifle or shotgun.

 

That would be cool if it was Lennox.

But it's a different character who seems more of a mechanic/engineer than an ex-soldier.

 

It'd be hilarious if he participated in the sport of 3-Gun. It's the fastest growing competitive firearms sport in the world...and it is amazing fun.

It'd also make him extremely savvy with shotguns, rifles and handguns....no military experience required.

 

Doubt most will question it- one of the stereotypes for the southern states (Texas + Midwest included) is that civilians own a gun/know how to shoot.

 

He's a single parent with a daughter in which he is struggling to 'put through college'. He owns a small retired farm. He uses the barn as his workplace, he is a struggling 'inventor'. He buys and breaks down old vehicles for parts to sell on. He has had no involvement with the military.

 

We'll, like any Michael Bay film, we know in the end he'll end up much richer, get a bigger house, and most likely since he'll be helping out the government, never have to pay taxes again...ever.

 

Like Pain and Gain where the main character ended up, oh, no wait a mo.

Ok, like Armegeddon where Bruce Willis ended up ooooooohhhhh...

There's always Pearl Harbour where Danny...

 

yeah.. plus.. it's not like he's shooting the gun aiming at a little target.. he's shooting the gun at a giant robot lol.

and you're right, sometimes people just have a knack for things..

my brother had a blow dart gun.. i played around with it.. my second shot, i was able to hit a spider from across my bedroom (though, i'm sure it was a one in a million lucky shot, and not skill lol.. but i left it on the wall for a few days due to pride)

 

I've seen people with the shakes so bad that that can't reload without dropping the ammo, mag or the firearm.

 

Yeah, I've seen that too. Hell, the first time I took a deer (age 12), I had to wait about 2 minutes before I took the shot because I was shaking so much. Good thing the deer just stood there munching on something till my body decided to quit screwing around.

That's the kind of thing you want to have happen AFTER a fight is over, not during.

But the shakes happen to everybody, it's a natural side effect of coming down off of an adrenaline spike. Even special forces guys get it afterwards.

It's just another reason why you train train train. Everything should be muscle memory by the time you actually NEED to use your weapon, because stress and adrenaline will make it impossible to do something as simple as put in a magazine, or forget to take the safety off.

 

Yeah. It's definitely a stereotype though. I grew up in South Dakota and currently reside in Texas, and yeah there's more people that hunt in the midwest and Texas, but the proportion is still pretty small.

Most people in the United States, I'd say 65-70% have never fired anything except a BB gun, and probably 95% are not anything approaching proficient with firearms. There's just really not that many people who are that into it.

Sadly, most people that carry a gun for self protection are generally not good enough with that weapon for it to do them much good either. There's a lot of people that keep a shotgun in their house and have literally never actually fired it. A lot of good that's going to do them when they can't figure out how to use it when somebody busts into their house in the middle of the night, high on meth.