I just like firearms. I do usually shoot everything I have because I enjoy pounding rounds down range. I like the power of the recoil, the smell of smokeless powder the little holes I can make in a paper target or the reaction of a steel plate. I have a couple I don't shoot just because I keep them for sentimental reasons. Vis a Vis my Dad's High Power. After all of that, I'd feel like a sheep if I didn't have a ready to go firearm in my house, as I would walking around in a very public place without a concealed firearm. I don't want to shoot a living person, but if that living person intends on killing me or my loved one... sorry if I can I will. I ponder this a lot.

1953 at age 5, I got a Hoopalong Cassidy cap gun & holster. My dad loaded the caps and off I went, hooked ever since.

Self-Defense in all it's glory (home, personal, family, country).

I picked 2nd Amendment rights which encompasses all of the above. I'm a hunter, a retired LEO, a former USMC, plinker and a gun tinkerer and maintainer.

Self and family protection is a given.

First, as a young kid because I loved to shoot the single shot Gambles 22 rifle my Dad had.I was really young, like 5 or maybe just turned 6 and he'd hover right over me when I shot. I still loved it.

Then a couple of years later I could go out on my own and shoot and hunt. Then I got to use bigger calibers for deer hunting and actually bought a Japanese WW2 rifle.

At school most of the boys had guns in their cars/trucks during hunting season and m,y Mom let me skip a couple of days of school when deer season started.

My Uncle had a Colt Woodsman, but it was no where near as much fun as a rifle. The, in the army I got to shoot lots of guns-whoopee!

I came home from the Service in November of '68, had no idea what I would do, and ended up a young policeman and that started a love affair with handguns that remains to this day, interrupted only for the time I was pretty darned broke in Law School.

Much later, in my 50s, I discovered shotguns and Trap/Skeet and SC.

I still like 'em all now, handguns rifles and shotguns. But that old Gamble's 22 was, I think, the genesis for my love of guns. I wish I still had it.

Bob

This message has been edited. Last edited by: straightshooter1,

Because of the 2nd Amendment and I want too. I guess another reason is because I was raised around guns, I remember in my grandparents homes long guns as they called them were stacked against the wall in a corner in the living room is where they were kept.

I started early and just liked guns.

I voted "Sport Shooting" because I have enjoyed shooting since I was a child. Years ago I shot competitively in a company indoor league and at some local matches. I do not carry. I do not keep a loaded gun in the house. I still try to shoot every week at an indoor range where I have a membership.

Because America

All the above.

All but hunting, but there was no option for that answer.

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:
Because America

So, you have no actual interest in firearms?

I think the OP was looking for serious answers, guys.

First: Self defense.

My son bought us our first firearm - for self defense.

Second: In considering what has happened around the world after citizens get disarmed, I think having an armed citizenry is very important.

My interest in firearms and coincidentally their owernship has changed throughout my life, I suspect like many of you.

Growing up, I admired my father and his friends. Shooting was their hobby and I wanted to be a part of that club, joining them at the range and at the bench, where Dad hand loaded.

A couple years prior to college, my friends and I would target shoot a lot at a local range and in my basement (I grew up in a rancher with 6 BRs and the basement was huge). In college, I was able to participate in some sporting clays... all of which led me to further appreciate the camaraderie that firearms provided and which continues to drive my interest (plus SF membership!)

After college, I rented my first apartment and for the first time seriously considered their self defense use. A Beretta 92FS soon followed, then departed as I learned I really couldn't hit much with it. I tried many guns, but with a SIG I found that I was a decent shot and slowly improved my shooting capability. A second phase began where I enjoyed competing against myself and learning the skill required to adequately shoot under self-imposed, virtual stress. Discipline and self defense go hand-in-hand, thus I strive for a certain mentality during my range time (while still having fun).

As I've further matured and have the means to buy many guns, and in the process of doing so owning some pretty high end stuff (Korth revolver, Beretta Trident DT10, etc.), I've reached another stage that Para summed up the best. I now admire guns for their instrumental design, manufacturing and utility; their differences and how that affects performance.

Those three primary reasons motivate my firearm ownership. I suspect a fourth reason would rear its head if the Demoncrats had cart blanche control of our government, which is why I'm glad the Second Amendment is there to affirm my rights.

May those rights never sunset in this great nation & God Bless President Trump.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dakor,

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Because I can.

Exactly.

Sorry, I don't buy it. No one owns firearms- any more than they own any sort of item- merely because they can. There must be a driving interest or at least a compelling need.

Who buys things for themselves, for which they have no interest or need, merely because they can?

Again, this response seems to go back to bristling over gun rights and the Second Amendment. State the real reason(s) you own firearms.

Okay, I'll admit to a little bristling as a resident of the PRK, fair enough.
I'll take a stab at a list:
Defense of family and self,
Thinning out the ground squirrels on the ranch,
Learning to operate another machine,
Teaching the kids what feels like an important
skill that an adult should have.
Collecting beautiful, functional, pieces of art,
Furthering a skill and meeting others doing the
same.
There's probably others, but those are the ones coming to mind at the moment.

Okay, all of the OP’s listed reasons (I don’t hunt but I intend to someday) but also because I needed an expensive hobby and golf requires too much walking.

I do have to say though, that I recently bought a Magpul 60-round mag for my AR partly because Feinstein, Schumer, and Pelosi think I shouldn’t have one. Obviously I also wanted it because...why wouldn’t I want 60 rounds of 5.56mm persuasion on tap?

I grew up around firearms. They were an integral part of life on the farm for putting food on the table, dispatching pests, and defense of the homestead. But I also grew up in the golden era of Westerns and war movies and books which were certain to capture the imagination of a young boy. Falter captures the mystique with this painting. My interest grew as an adult and I carried firearms for duty every day of my adult life, and have been training others in their use for nearly 50 years.

What Para said. I own firearms for personal defense, and I use them for that. Incidental to that, I have several, so I collect, I practice, I have my Father's service handgun, I go into the big bad woods with bears. The reason I can is because my great-geat-great-great-great grandfather, from the first Thanksgiving, made sure that I could in this new land they found, then and for all time. I often think of how wise they were, those founders, for understanding and predicting human nature, and knowing that their descendants would not be so different from them.

My answer was “2nd Amendment” but my story is much like many of you. My dad and most of my family, friends and neighbors had guns. I was drawn to them and loved hanging out with my dad and the guys shooting whatever they brought out that day. In college I was too busy chasing tail and drinking to bother with guns but I never stopped liking them. The older I get, the more they’re for defense. I’m too old to fight very well and too young to die yet. Theses last few years there’s also been that “screw you” to wannabe tyrants and the government at all levels.

My father was a pacifist and hated guns. Wouldnt let me have a toy one as a kid until my Mom told him I was playing Cowboys and Indians with the neighbors and I was using a stick for my gun...

Colt SAA cap guns were the beginning. Then Daisy Red Rider, then Colt 1911, Sig, Ruger, Thompson/Center (Still no Glock)...

I love the machine, the fun, and the ability to protect myself and family. And really, they are just cool.