For those of you who don't know, I'm sixteen. Although my childhood upbringing was fairly neutral on the issue of firearms, I had a strong interest in guns that began to develop around age 10/11... in the following years, I essentially converted both my parents from being relatively anti-gun, to now- we're gun owners, and my mom actually purchased her own firearm for personal defense.
In addition, I'm not necessarily the model of a perfect teenager. I recently quit school (albeit with a legal diploma equivalent), and I'm sort of at a standstill in the "doing stuff" department at this point. It's a complex situation, though. Too complex for judgement by those who aren't close to me.
So, with this background out of the way- Today I was having a small trivial argument with my mom, and I said something along the lines of "You don't trust me at all". She then replied "Yes, I do, you don't know how many times I've defended you when people compare you to Dylan Klebold".
Apparently, several people who I don't even know or have possibly met once (she won't tell me exactly who's said this, only that I don't know them that well), feel free to evaluate my psychiatric stability and capacity for violence, based soley on their limited knowledge of my interest with weapons and academic situation. According to the ignorant Helen Lovejoy-esque speculations of my mom's jackass acquaintances, I should be on anti-depressants, and seeing a psychiatrist too. Interesting, because that's news to me, and anyone who knows me personally.
Obviously, I'm just a wee-bit irritated.
I'm peeved with my mom, because she just blathers away about her personal life, and thus, my life, to her friends. She has a poor sense of discretion, in my opinion, and this is exactly how rumors and overblown, outlandish, horse-*expletive deleted*it gossip spread. My personal issues are nobody's business but mine and, to a limited extent, my parents. My mom's friends don't need to know about my life. I'm further upset by the fact that I can't discuss the issue personally with the people who make these absurd statements, because she refuses to tell me who they are.
Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation, where prejudices and gossip are formed about a person based on something like guns?