Why do you like guns?

[Spike_351]

The craftsman ship, the look of them, the relaxing feeling target practice brings when I can go out for a few hours and forget all the crap I deal with during the week, the history, knowing at the end of the day I am devoloping a skill set that always brings new challenges for me try, being able to defend myself and my family. These are the reasons I like guns so much.

 

[rgoodin]

I believe owning a gun is a right. I enjoy shooting both short and long range as a sport. started when i was a kid with a 22 single shot rifle.

 

[WJB63]

Ok my sister asked me why i liked guns, she asked if i like killing things, so just wanted other gun owners answeres why do you like guns

Many years ago my sister asked me the same question. I gave her all the reasons noted so far in this thread, self defense, skill set learning etc. She still didn't get it and though not an Anti she was a fence sitter. Then one day I asked her if she wanted to come to the range with me. She agreed so I set her up with a .22 revolver and a .22 rifle and 100 rounds. After going over the safety rules and how to load unload and fire the above and watching her for about 10 minutes I went and started my practicing. After about 30 minutes she came over to me with a big smile and her targets. Little sister was a crack shot and she was having a blast! Asked me if there were anymore rounds for what she was shooting. I handed her a box of 550 and said come back when you need more.

In total little sister burned well over a 1000 rounds that day. She even tried out my 92F and loved it.

On the drive home I knew I knocked her off the fence as she couldn't stop telling me just how much fun she had and now realized all the BS that she had been fed about guns was wrong.

Take your sister to the range, you just might end up with another shooting buddy, I know I did!

 

[jamil]

I'm not a lifelong shooter. Never really got into it as a hobby until the past few years. I don't hunt, I just enjoy target shooting and like others have mentioned, improving my skills with different firearms.

My sister-in-law asked pretty much the same thing but I wouldn't claim it was for the same reason. She told me "I just don't see how anyone can enjoy something made for killing?" I told her that tens of millions of firearms owners, including me, manage to enjoy shooting sports without shooting people, so, Dick Cheney notwithstanding, we obviously don't enjoy firearms for that purpose. I asked her if she thought that just holding a gun would make someone want to kill people. She said she could see how it would. I was tempted to show her my cc'd P99 and mention I had no urge to shoot her but I thought it would freak her out.

She sees the object itself as evil and she can't bring herself to think otherwise. I told her what I enjoy about shooting sports and offered that she might enjoy it too if she tried. She firmly said she was very confident she would not like it. She said it like it would be a moral betrayal of herself to condescend to touching a firearm. Her tone and body language gave me the feeling that she basked in her moral superiority, that she was better than me because she would never touch such an evil device.

So I'm not saying that your sister thinks of it like that, but this is my experience with my SIL. She believes the object itself is evil, and I think she rationalizes that people who like those objects must also like evil. You hear that sentiment from the rabid anti-gun folks.

 

[HenryWallace]

Good question. I grew up in a "no guns" household. My brothers and I weren't even allowed to have bb guns (as far as mom and dad knew). Reason being that my dad was a WW II combat vet and he said he had to carry one for 6 years and see all the horrors of war and didn't want ANY guns around him ever again.

Interestingly enough, I'm in almost the same boat, yet my parents found a fanatical religion after I was born and we had to trust in God. So my father let go all of his arms and we carried bibles instead.

I never really imagined a reason to have guns. Never wanted them, and I still abhor having them in my household with my children, but sometimes it's all about preparing for the inevitable. Sometimes you just have to "Have it and not need it" rather than "Need it and not have it."

My children understand them. They don't fear them; they know the reasoning behind them. That was the most important thing to me...

I got into Martial Arts early in life and I never stopped doing it, but the message in the back of my head kept telling me to further my defense mechanisms, especially now that I have kids...

It's the Equality that we have to eventually face. When someone else would have access to one, and I didn't, the equality isn't there.

So basically it's about leveling the playing field. It's not equal almost anywhere else in our rights, our work, our life.. But in our homes and our bodies, we should demand that control.

 

[burt gummer]

Well i will ask again if she want to go shooting but i know that when i get a shotgun or rifle she will never come to my place again, i wish she could understand how i feel and i would be devistated if she was hurt protecting her family

 

[gotojuston]

Because i love the smell of gunpowder in the morning and Hoppe's in the evening.

 

[KellyinAvon]

I grew up on a farm, there were always firearms. It's hard for me to relate to people who are scared of guns. They won't jump up and start shooting, they won't make you evil. You (not the gun) could hurt or even kill someone if you aren't careful, so ALWAYS treat them with respect.
I guess I'm saying it's natural. Both of my parents grew up around guns, it's what is normal to us.

 

[Bunnykid68]

They have always been the toys I enjoyed playing with most besides fishing and they are great for personal protection and keeping my giant kids in line.

 

[bberg]

For myself I grew up around guns and most of the people I admired growing up at least bird hunted. I got my first .22 and that was it I lugged it all over the countryside shooting for fun and taking quite a few rabbits in season. As I grew up and moved away from home I started deer hunting and soon guns and tromping around in the woods became about the same, many many happy hours spent in the woods. I have spent mornings in the woods watching the ground fog swirling around and actually felt sorry for those that don't hunt knowing they would never see a deer or whatever game followed those surreal mornings and great evenings. yes they are challenging, provide protection and many other things but at the end of the day I like them simply because of the many good times spent shooting them and hunting with them whether alone or with good friends

 

[jayhawk]

I used to shoot a bit when I was a kid growing up in KS. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were days spent wandering around the woods or in a gravel pit with a couple friends and our .22s...it was pure, joyful freedom. There's just something innately fulfilling about hitting something over there with something you're holding here...whether it's rock throwing, archery, basketball, tomahawk throwing, shooting or whatever...it's damn satisfying for some reason.

I left my rifle at home when I went to college and didn't think about shooting for about 10 years. In the last couple of years I've gotten back into shooting, and I've approached it a little more seriously than I did as a kid. I've really come to enjoy the exercise of shooting, the way you must learn to focus your mind and body, it's actually quite zen. Shooting really is a martial art when approached on a serious level.

Of course I also appreciate that I live in a nation that does a generally reasonable job of recognizing a wide range of civil liberties and human rights, including the right to keep and bear arms. I try to encourage anyone to responsibly exercise that right just as I would encourage anyone to responsibly exercise the right to vote. Not only are these things privileges (in addition to being rights), but I also personally feel that they are a responsibilities as an able and engaged citizen.

So, I enjoy shooting, and hence gun ownership or just "guns", in sort of an innate (or very deeply rooted) sense, in a well-being sense, and also in a philosophical sense.

 

[Crappiepro]

I too grew up around guns, from 30" spot shoot gun's to six shooter's. My dad and my brother had guns and hunting and shooting clays was a big deal for me to get to join in on with the adults. I also learned to shoot a recurve and then a compound bow at a young age. I was taught that gun's were nothing to horse around with and learned to respect them and respect my elder's for teaching me the love of their sport. I've loved shooting/hunting with my guns ever since.

 

[6mm Shoot]

I was given a 410 Remington 870 when I was 15. Dad gave me the gun so I could go hunting with him. That was some of the best times with my Dad. I remember every time we went out hunting.

I have always in joyed hunting. I don't care for the killing. I do love the hunt. There have been times when I got the animal in the cross hairs I just shouted Bang and watched the animal run away. The idea was always to get to the point of being able to pull the trigger.

Killing some thing isn't that big deal. Life is very fragile. What I mean is life is very easy to take using a rifle, shotgun or handgun. The later being the toughest to learn. I have taken animals with all three. The killing isn't the fun part. The hunt is. Getting to the point of pulling the trigger is the fun part. Any one that can put his or her shots on paper can kill.

I really enjoy shooting. The first time I hit the bull at 500 yards was like winning something or getting something for free. It is great hitting the bull at any distance. But long range is very special. If you don't do it it is hard to explain. If you play cards, it is like drawing the ace to a royal flush. If you play ball it is like making the winning home run.

Shooting for me is very relaxing. I load my own ammo. The ability to hit a bull at a given distance is a real charge for me. The fact that I tuned the gun and ammo is jut icing on the cake.

 

[SERparacord]

Ok my sister asked me why i liked guns, she asked if i like killing things, so just wanted other gun owners answeres why do you like guns

The government taught me to enjoy killing things.

 

[88E30M50]

What's not to like? Some are beautifully elegant mechanical designs that do a simple job exceedingly well. Others are a study of ingenuity in the use of plastics with minimal reinforcements that perform their task perfectly. Some have wonderfully crafted machine work that makes you want to hold and operate them all day long. Guns can be 100 years old or a month old and yet still do a job just as they were designed to do. If you are into mechanical devices, you just have to love a gun.

From another perspective, guns present a sport that allow a 15 year old to compete with an 80 year old without the need for handicapping one way or the other. They provide the same satisfaction in hand/eye coordination that you get from most other sports, but in a format that allows someone in a wheelchair to experience. The allow the shooter to work towards a level of competence that will last for decades. The journey to becoming the best shooter you can be is a lifetime endevour.

From yet another perspective, they are a tool that can allow a 115lb woman to fend off a 250lb attacker. They are a tool that will let a 50 year old overweight man defend his family against multiple attackers half his age. They are a tool that can save a classroom full of kids if the teacher is allowed to carry it. They render the power of a gun in a bad mans hands powerless.

From yet even another perspective, they represent freedom in all of it's glory with warts and all. A gun symbolizes the difference between a free person and a slave. A gun represents a person lives in a country that values rights and liberties. A gun is capable of keeping free people free and also making enslaved people free.

So, I ask again, what is not to like about a gun. They are probably the greatest achievement in mankind in that they eliminate the philosophy of might making right. For a person to spend their hard earned money on a gun, training, ammunition and practice, all so they can protect their family as well as others is the most noble of pursuits that a person can try.

 

[j706]

A couple of observations I have made over the years. People that have not grown up around guns don't know squat about them. Many of those same people have grown up hearing that guns were bad and for thugs and criminals. Some of those will learn to like them when they can see them for what they are. People that grow up around them learn that they are just a tool and not something to be feared.

Another interesting thing is most boys, even at a very young age are drawn to guns. Just like girls, even at at a young age are drawn to dolls. Take a average three old boy and a three year old girl. Sit them on the floor and put a doll and a toy gun on the floor in front of them. See who goes for what.

I think it is a natural attraction. One of mothers favorite pictures of me is where I am about three or four. I am standing on the front steps of our home. I have a western style gun belt on with my six shooter in the holster, a cowboy hat and my pants tucked in my cowboy boots, a lever action gun in my right hand and a (presumably) sack lunch in my left handNot sure where I thought I was going or doing but it must have been a worth snapping a photo.

I have always had a natural attraction to guns that continues to this day. It amazes me that you can take a small projectile and send it to great distances with very accurate predictions of where it will hit.

I raised all four of my kids around guns. They all learned how they work, what you do and do not do with them, as well as how to shoot them safely. They know what kind of damage they can inflict and they respect them for what they are....a tool. Any of my four can pick up your common type weapons and safely, properly put them in action in short order (AR15's 870's Glocks, 1911's ect) None of mine are anti gun. A few like them more than the other two. And they all know the the anti gun attitude is an immature entitlement attitude full of stupidity, exaggerations and out right lies.

 

[JB357Mag]

I grew up with guns around, my dad allways had some type of
shotgun, rifle and handgun around.

I enjoy shooting them, guys just like explosions. Its a controlled
explosion. Like how I like firecrackers and bottle rockets.

There cool!

Movie hero's when growing up had cool guns. Clint Eastwood. John Wayne
and many others.

Target shooting is fun.

But most important is personal protection, I feel much better now that
I have a firearm within arms reach at home, and soon (when I get my LTCH) Ill have 1 with me at all times.

Also the great roll firearms have in american history, and keeping
us somewhat free.

Jimmy

 

[LarryC]

I asked her b4 about comming to the range she said never, so maybe ill ask again. And she would rather be shot by a bad guy protecting her kids then shoot him so not sure how that works ??

Guns are a method of making everyone equal, a 300 pound 25 year old weight lifter is no more lethal than an 80 year old Grandmother weighing 100 lb. if she is armed with a firearm. Shooting is also a great sport, putting a bullet on a bulls eye at 300 yard is just as much fun as doing it with a golf ball. Winning a contest with a friend is as satisfying as winning a card game or pool game.
You might explain that if a Bad Guy were to shoot her while she was protecting her children, he most likely wouldn't leave any witnesses - he would then shoot the children. Happened before - probably will again. The only way she can protect the children is if she can stop the bad guy. Unless he is unarmed and she is a Black belt, I doubt she can stop him without a gun.

 

[old shoe]

there is nothing more stress free than a day at the range

 

[stormryder]

Why the FRELL NOT????????