Do you own a firearm?

[WriterDom]

As in pistol, rifle, shotgun, or rifle.

 

[KayKat]

I voted no but do have some of my dads shotguns in my house

 

[BiBunny]

Yep. Well, not at my place, but at my parents'.

 

[Bi_Kitty]

Yep. Well, not at my place, but at my parents'.

Ditto. Here at my place, I have a baseball bat next to my bed.

 

[EmpressFi]

No, but I wouldnt be opposed. Although I'd like more training than just going to the range with my brothers

 

[graceanne]

I voted yes, because K has a rifle. A thirty aught six for hunting.

 

[justinreader76]

.....

 

[Evil_Geoff]

I own several and know how to use them all.

Of course growing up in the South a .22 rifle was glued in my hands when in the woods... and 17 years as a cop... and basic training and lots of range time...

 

[FurryFury]

I actually love guns and target practice. I had some lovely hand guns but I got rid of them all (I kept them in the extended family) when I had kids. They just weren't worth the potential guilt. We did keep a couple of long arms as I like to call them.

"Kids, never point one of these at yourself or anyone else. Never use your big toe to pull the trigger when pointing at yourself."

Seriously, I just think the danger potential is less.

My kids have been through a NRA / 4 H pistol program.

*climbs on soap box*

I believe that ignorance can get your ass shot.

It's kind of like kids have sex organs and being told not to use them rather than how to safely use them. Some people will get hurt due to lofty ideals and ignorance.

*climbs off soap box*

Today my son made me laugh. He said, "Why do they call it the birds and the bees anyway? Shouldn't they call it the bananas and the condoms?"

LMFAOROTF

 

[packersfan]

I have 3, a rifle and 2 shotguns.

I have known about guns and their safe use since I was 10. My wife knows how to use them, and where the shells are. My daughter begins her training with the 410 after she returns from camp at the end of July.

I'm not scared, or scary. Just armed and aware.

 

[Homburg]

I was about five years old, and just after I turned five, when dad took me to the range for the first time. Later that year I put on a .22 revolver, packed some "trail grub", got my horse (a shaggy old mountain pony) saddled, and rode off into the mountains on my own. I was going to be a cowboy, atferall, so I neede dpractice. My mother was apparently mortified, but my dad and granddad assured her that I wouldn't get off the horse, and that the horse was smart enough to bring me home before dark. She did too, and I was way too smart to get off the horse. I knew I couldn't get back on by myself.

None of my kids have been to the range yet. It will happen eventually. the two oldest have been put through and Eddie Eagle program for what to do when they find a gun (STOP! Don't Touch! Tell an adult!), and they've been taught how to recognise what a gun is.

They will be taught to shoot for similar reasons to what FurryFury mentioned. There are guns in the wolrd .I don't want them experimenting with them stupidly because they are forbidden. Yeah, there's other forbidden stuff that I won't allow experiementation with (drugs, for example), but guns can be safely taught.

Fun fact: The pool in your backyard is more likely to kill your child than a firearm in your house.

 

[WriterDom]

Fun fact: The pool in your backyard is more likely to kill your child than a firearm in your house.

Never heard it put that way before.

Lots of toddlers do drown. I was raised in a world where striking a teacher was unimaginable. In a age when gun rights came long before driving rights.

 

[honoria]

Nope, but grew up with guns of all types in the house. I can't remember NOT knowing gun safety. Now I just have 3 really big dogs with lots of sharp pointy teeth.

 

[ShyGuy68]

No I don't own a firearm, which is normal in Denmark.

I was just thinking, if there were the same craze in the media everytime somebody got killed in a car accident, as when somebody is killed by a firearm, do you think cars would be banned?

 

[YourCaptor]

No way I could ever own a gun.

I know several techniques for disarm and defend against a gunman. Can handle everything from revolvers to rifles.

 

[graceanne]

Never heard it put that way before.

Lots of toddlers do drown. I was raised in a world where striking a teacher was unimaginable. In a age when gun rights came long before driving rights.

My husbands cousins daughter drowned in a backyard pool. She was three. I will never own a backyard pool.

 

[Desdemona]

In spite of the fact that I'm normally a radical left wing nutjob

I do indeed own a Sig Sauer P232.

ADR was absolutely shocked. I think her exact response was "you're too much of a left winger to have that thing!" I grew up in the south. Like you, WD, gun rights came before driving. I grew up with guns in the house. Everybody I knew had guns when I was growing up. We learned early not to point the business end of a gun at anything or anyone unless we planned on pulling the trigger and dealing with the aftermath.

Yes, I can and will use it to defend myself. It's not academic for me. Fortunately, the cops came and took the guy away before he managed to actually get in my house and get his stupid ass shot. He was in my sights, the safety was off and I was ready to pull the trigger while he tried to force different doors and windows open. It was a pretty scary experience.

 

[Bandit58]

No guns here, but grew up with them and my ex husband had a shotgun and two or three rifles.

My father was a rabbiter. Rabbits were a big pest in NZ then and people were employed just to shoot them. I went out with Dad a few times, only shot the .22 a handful of times but never killed anything. I went goat and duck shooting with him too.

My ex and I were farmers so a gun was necessary in case an animal needed to be put down humanely. He went out and shot rabbits and possums which are an even bigger pest than the rabbits. He also went duck shooting, pig hunting and deer stalking, although the deer stalking ended after his best friend was accidentally shot and killed by his own brother in law.

I've had no desire to shoot a gun. Neither of my kids are interested either, even though the daughter is following in her father's farming footsteps.

 

[naxalite0906]

Nope.. that would be breaking the law

My views on them are mixed, but as it is more common to own them in some countries than others, all I can hope for is responsibility when it comes to firearms, especially with children. In the case of this thread, it seems that is pretty common

 

[madetotakeit]

I used to be co-owner of a '72 Dan Wesson .357 with a mid barrel. It now resides in a gun safe in the Pennsylvania mountains (he got it in the split.). I used to love target shooting with it. My first time out I had scored a 90.

 

[Homburg]

No I don't own a firearm, which is normal in Denmark.

I was just thinking, if there were the same craze in the media everytime somebody got killed in a car accident, as when somebody is killed by a firearm, do you think cars would be banned?

People need their cars, but with certain notable exceptions, they merely want their guns. I can argue political and philosophical definitions to needs, exigencies for actually being free men and women, and the like, but even as a pro-gun-rights guy, I fully admit that I could live without my guns. I could not actually live my life as is without my car. As a result, people will fight tooth and nail to keep their guns, but a ban on cars would trigger a full-scale revolt.

That said, the numbers on vehicular homicide are pretty surprising. And, frankly, for anyone that understands physics, that car is FAR more dangerous and deadly than that gun, and capable of causing a much higher scale of trauma. If I had to choose between being shot by a handgun and being mowed down by a Buick doing 55mph, please shoot me. the chances of surviving are vastly higher. Full-body crush trauma is ugly.

--

No way I could ever own a gun.

I know several techniques for disarm and defend against a gunman. Can handle everything from revolvers to rifles.

Krav Maga/Hisardut has some really phenomenal techniques to handle gun disarms. I was amazed when I started looking into it. Far too many of the usual MA disarms will get you shot.

 

[Homburg]

My husbands cousins daughter drowned in a backyard pool. She was three. I will never own a backyard pool.

I will never own a pool either.

 

[WriterDom]

In the US I'd rather live in a neighborhood where people assume you are armed. Beats turning in my guns and relying on on some donut eating cop who is going to arrive 15 minutes after I'm dead.

Driving scares me more than guns. If you are driving over 100 mph through neighborhoods you deserve a Rodney King beating. I don't care what color or sex you are.

 

[YourCaptor]

Krav Maga/Hisardut has some really phenomenal techniques to handle gun disarms. I was amazed when I started looking into it. Far too many of the usual MA disarms will get you shot.

Ironic thing is, if people used their pistols correctly most of those techniques would be impossible.

 

[A Desert Rose]

I do indeed own a Sig Sauer P232.

ADR was absolutely shocked. I think her exact response was "you're too much of a left winger to have that thing!" I grew up in the south. Like you, WD, gun rights came before driving. I grew up with guns in the house. Everybody I knew had guns when I was growing up. We learned early not to point the business end of a gun at anything or anyone unless we planned on pulling the trigger and dealing with the aftermath.

Yes, I can and will use it to defend myself. It's not academic for me. Fortunately, the cops came and took the guy away before he managed to actually get in my house and get his stupid ass shot. He was in my sights, the safety was off and I was ready to pull the trigger while he tried to force different doors and windows open. It was a pretty scary experience.

Proves my point: I don't pick my best friends by their religious or political affiliations. ;-) And thank God you don't either.

I have a .22. When my kids became adults they decided they wanted guns of their own, for protection. (I think that living in Las Vegas on their own, they must've had some scary experiences that they have not told their mom about.) Both have .22 pistols and concealed carry licenses (although I don't think they often carry their guns), all the required classes and know how to use them.

They also know how to store them safely, which I think is pretty important.

When my kids were learning to drive, I told them that a car is like a gun: Drive responsibly or you can kill people with it. I think they smartly transferred that philosophy to their gun ownership.