AntiGun Family Or Friends

[m0ntels]

The closest thing I've had to an anti experience was when my friend's younger sister came over with her. Older sis doesnt really likes guns either, but she's seen me carry and knows how much I enjoy them.

We were in my room and I had about 1,000 rounds of various reloads on the dresser. Little sis walks over and asks what's in all the plastic boxes. I let her open one up and she stares with a somewhat shocked look on her face at a 50 pack of 9mm rounds. Told her that was nothing and handed her a 7.5x55 and a 12 gauge slug.

"What in the world do you need something that big for?!"

"It's more fun poking holes in paper with the big ones" I told her. She pawed around with them for a few more minutes.

I agree that most people are only scared from a lack of personal experience with guns. I try to get them to sit in on a reloading session before I take them shooting. After letting them watch the process, I let them put together a box of their own ammo. Seeing all the boring raw materials really sucks out that evil cloud of mystery they had in their heads. Then I tell them to keep the first round they made as a souvenier and let them shoot off the rest of the box. Havent gotten anyone hooked yet, but they always say they feel more educated about shooting and they all enjoyed the experience.

Randy

 

[Sindawe]

The majority of my extended family has very little interest in firearms, 'specially after my 12 y/o cousin took his own life during some damn-stupid showing off with his fathers .357. The only gun owned by any of them is an Uncles .22 pistol that has not been fired in years. Thats from both maternal and paternal lines. We rarely discuss 'em except for with my sister, who is considering getting one since she lives in Georgetown and has a small screechling of four y/o to mind. The gun would be for mountain lions, not the screechling.

 

[dfaugh]

What we always need to do with these threads is to differentiate between the true "antis" and the fence sitters.

There's not much you can do or say to the true rabid anti-gunners. I've found, however, that many people (including my mother and sister) say they "don't like guns", but when push comes to shove they won't argue the point with you. Even my mother and sister have admitted that, in a SHTF situation, they would come to my house, as they know they would be safe here. Hypocriticism in action!

I don't go out of my way to convert the fence-sitters, but I will usually offer to let them try it (and a few have ASKED me to try it). Few have turned into true "gun nuts", but most now understand that guns are nothing more than an inanimate object, and is not to be feared.

 

[1911JMB]

Life is too short to make enemy's of family and friends over one issue. In my opinion, anybody who dissagrees should reconsider their views. I know as friends numerous anti gunners. Anybody who can't enjoy other things with their friends like pool, bowling, or watching football or something needs a new hobby or two.

 

[MD_Willington]

My Aunt who is ex-SAR (military search and rescue) is against firearms, we agree to disagree.

My uncle has no problem with them, if he lived in the USA he'd go the distance for the NFA stuff, he likes cool machinery.

Not really an issue with my parents, they are impartial.

My wife's side, males (4) are impartial the females (4) lean towards not having them but remain mainly impartial.

My wife is impartial.

My friends are for firearms... that's who I go shooting with...

Not many people I know are Anti, except my Auntie...but if she ever visits I'll take her out to the farm and get her hooked on shooting.

 

[Tearlachblair]

Stepping back in the thread here for a second..

I've gotten the "NO Gunman is going to date my daughter!" and "How would you like it if I shot you" yelled in my face on several occasions.

Am I the only one here who would take the "How would you like if it I shot you" as threatening language?

 

[TallPine]

I have yet to meet an "antigun" person in rural/small town Montana

Probably there are some but they just mostly don't talk about it.

I suppose that many of my wife's family are antigun if you asked them, but they all live at least two states away, or rather we live two states away from them (and there is a reason for that ). One of her uncles and aunt visit us once in a while - I noticed him eyeing my revolver when he and I went out for a hike one time, but he didn't say anything.

 

[cbsbyte]

I am an odd ball

Personally, I don't even know how I got into liking guns. When I was growing up I only knew three kids whose fathers hunted. Heck, Bt the infinte loving capacity of my mother, I could not even own a toy gun that even looked remotely like a real one. I am the only person in my immediate family who owns firearms. No one else I know in my parent’s families has ever owned a gun. However, there where a couple distant relatives who hunted, but they passed away years ago. Both my parents are on the anti side to one degree or another. My mother even tried to sabtouge my getting my LTC when I turned 21, by calling the Chief of police to proclaim I was unfit to own a gun. Luckily he ignored them since I grew up in that town and never once got arrest by the police. I long ago stopped arguing, I mean discussing the issue with them. They have not given up pestering me on selling my guns before I hurt myself or someone else. I ignore their pleas. None of my friends own guns, and all of them have grown up with the idea that guns are bad. It has been drilled into them from parents and teachers since they where childern. Therefore, they fall into the anti-category. I have gotten a few friends to come out and shoot but they did not enjoy the activity, nor did it change there minds on the issue. It is hard to rationalize with harden minds.

 

[HankB]

The men on the paternal side of my family have always been "gunnies" . . . heck, I remember tales about how my grandfather used to sneak into Prussia and bring guns back East across the border . . .

Mother's side of the family, no. They're not "anti" (at least not around me) but it's just not their cup of tea. I've had a few discussions, even taken a few shooting on occasion, but generally, the topic just doesn't come up.

As for friends . . . unlike family, I can CHOOSE my friends.

I do NOT have any rabidly "anti" friends.

 

[limbaughfan]

tearlachblair I think he was talking about what people said to him not what he said to them.

 

[MyRoad]

I have a lot of contact with every flavor of anti- or just non-gunners. I find they exist at many different levels. There are some who just hate all guns. Then there are those that warm up quickly to the idea of target shooting at a range, but can't understand why I own an AK-47. There are those that can understand why I have an AK, but can't understand why I would CCW. Some think hunting is evil, while others see hunting rifles as "useful tools" and military rifles as "paranoid militia craziness". Some can be 'educated' past certain points, and some just get stuck at their personal wall.

I deal with all of them by engaging as little as possible. I'm open to talking with them, and really have to take it one person at a time since they are all different. The biggest hurdle I've found is not explaining why I'd own an AK (and I don't just offer that information randomly) -- for me it's been the CCW thing. I think it's because they can handle knowing that all my guns are locked up in my house, but it really makes them uncomfortable to know that I'm sitting there in their home, or across the table from them at a restaurant, and I have a gun on me. Answer to that? Conceal as best you can, and hope they never find out.

Edit: One last thought. I didn't grow up with guns, I got really into shooting in my mid-30's. I was anti, on the fence, or ambiguous most of my life. The biggest thing that I've found as far as talking to anti's is to be 100% comfortable with guns myself. This might be obvious to many here, but for the others; think of it as if someone challenged the choice of car you drive -- you'd probably not really care about winning that argument, and that's the way it should be with guns. I present little or no emotion, no agenda, and I don't care about the outcome of the discussion. When I'm at peace with it, the conversations inevitably turn out O.K. That's what works for me, anyway. YMMV.

 

[jjohnson]

I just do what I do.

I don't carry all the time - I try to stay out of places where I feel like I'd need it, but then, you never know. At any rate, I just carry concealed... and hope that in fact it IS concealed. One thing I DON'T do, though, is carry into somebody else's house if I know they're hot on it - that's just rude. The iron can stay in the glove compartment. Most people who know me well enough to invite me into their house are either okay with it - or we both know that I carry and it's outside in my truck. I don't try to argue - if they don't like it, iron stays outside and I'm not up for debate. I've only had one occasion when I was really ready to use it. On the other hand, I have occasion to be polite just about every day. There have been a couple times when somebody noticed my empty holster, but nobody ever asked a question about it - it was just an eye contact thing - wonder why THAT is?

 

[bumm]

I have no family members who are antigun on my or my wife's side of the family. Very few rabid antigunners here in my part of rural Iowa. On the fairly rare occasion when I DO come across someone who is antigun, I seldom argue with them, but I do promote my side.
The best statement I can make seems to be "When I was a kid, a person could buy any gun he wanted, short of a machine gun or sawed off shotgun, THROUGH THE MAIL, and there was very little gun crime." I don't try to get anyone to admit they are wrong, and I don't expect them to change their minds after one discussion. I'm perfectly happy to see some of them actually THINK a little though.
Marty

 

[Mauserguy]

This weekend I had my wife's very liberal ex-roommate. She was over at my house and found out that I keep a loaded gun for home protection. She informed me that it was illegal to shoot an intruder in California. I pulled my copy of the California Attorny General's handbook of gun laws off the shelf and opened it to the paragraph dealing with "Fear of Imminent Bodily Harm." She said, "Oh, I didn't know that. I heard that it was illegal in California without a permit."

Soon, the conversaton drifted into hunting. She told me that it was illegal to hunt bears. I went over to my computer and pulled up the DFG website, and pulled up the code section on bear hunting. "I was told that it was illegal. I gess I was missinformed," she said.

She made several other factually incorrect statements, so I had to ask her where she learned these things. "Oh, I saw it on Law and Order." I guess you can't argue with the television.
Mauserguy

 

[BGlaze250]

Am I the only one here who would take the "How would you like if it I shot you" as threatening language?

For some reason, I think that many fathers say that to the boy that their daughter is dating, politics aside.

 

[limbaughfan]

mauserguy,sadly that person's ignorance doesnot suprise me.

 

[Boats]

One of my sisters-in-law is a subject of the UK. Once, at my father's place over Christmas, I pulled a custom Buck 110 (my "sheeple knife") to extricate some of my son's toys from their packaging.

Somehow she had missed the brown belt sheath on my waist all morning. SNICK! She about leaps out of her skin.

"Why in the name of heaven do you carry a weapon like that?"

"Baaaaah. Baaaaaah. I am the Chinese Cardboard Slasher." With as much theatrical brio and sarcasm as I could muster.

My brother infuriated her by apologizing right then for her jumpiness. Oddly enough, she and I have never discussed knives or guns since.

Antis are never worth the effort, only fence sitters are.

 

[limbaughfan]

so true

 

[Lupinus]

there are two types of anti gunners

those who have their position but can live and let live without cramming it down your throat and will leave well enough alone for neither party to bring up

and there are those who will cram it down your throat

the first group can be lived with easily enough. However the second group tend to be more the rule rather then the exception with modern anti gun types. If you want to deal with these types depends on how miserable you want to be as their friend. I have a few friends who aren't extremely anti gun, they just don't care for them and wouldn't mind seeing very tough restrictions or bans, they just aren't willing to shout it from the roof tops or argue it with me. Then I have past friends who felt the need to argue with me about it constantly and were more or less intelegent people but on the particuler issue were lunatics and extremely ignorant with no want or desire to better their understanting. These people are quickly kicked to the curb.

My mother for example doesn't care for guns but I have them and she understands that fact even if she does roll her eyes when mentioning I keep a loaded gun by the bed. But she knows better then to bother arguing with me because she knows it wont change, it is one of my set in stone will never change so don't bother positions and rules.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Mauserguy- Sounds like your wife's ex-roommate was more misinformed than anti. She admitted that she was going off what she heard rather than what she believed. Step two...take her shooting. Oh and bring your wife so she doesn't get jealous
These anti gun people can shreik from the highest rooftop about their beliefs. I won't listen to them and I don't think many people on this board will either. We know (and deep down, they do too) that if the S really does HTF, they are going to be the ones victimized, laying dead in ditches and cowering in corners and we will be the ones out restoring order, no matter how much faith they have in the JBTs. It happens every single day on a person to person basis. Their time just hasn't come yet.

 

[Hoppy590]

i think my friends girlfriend ( and subsequently a good friend to me) is ANTI! i mentioned im selling one of my bows and was gunna put the money towards a new rifle ( nagant or save up some more for a marlin 1895 cowboy ) and she seemed unaproving.

upon further convo i now think shes a fence sitter. she said if they get married there cant be any guns int he house if theres kids. i told her that when stored correctly they are safer than other house hold dangers, and she seems to be more accepting. fence sitters are always easier than antis

 

[HankB]

This weekend I had my wife's very liberal ex-roommate.

You had your wife's ex-roommate? And your wife was OK with this?

 

[witiku]

Messing with the antis

I was at a visiting a friend that was not into guns or hunting, no negative about it at all, great people. They are just not into it. Let alone SD.

Well we went to a get together and the conversation got arround to the evils of Ducks Unlimited. Woah, I needed 'splainen on that one. They had a formed a consensus that the only reason DU exists is to allow the killing of ducks, bla, bla, baah.

I was surrounded by antis and anti hunters even.

Well, even though they were correct, they were not right and about then the whole anti gun, anti hunting and Soft Citiy dweller type hippie theme became aparent.

I couldn't let it pass without rebuttal. In good fun though.

I had no time to form a coherent arguement as I recall. I just went straight to the flying meat of it. I said ~"Ducks that you murder yourself tasted great!", ~" DU save the environment to hunt ducks and for the birds to thrive forever..." They threw down.

I'm laughing now because I don't know if it was my deliberate use of the 870, the 'homicide' of the woodland creature for its flesh or the hunter in their midst that really got to them. Maybe they didn't know where to start on me but they droped it as we parted.

I said that without hunting there would be no civilization, no human beings.

There was no answer to that as it's true. Even from the antis.

 

[Ctone03]

When I met my wife, she loathed guns. She was not a statistics spouting anti, but she thought guns were stupid. It took a couple of months but now she shoots all sorts of weapons, carries, and has her own unique taste for firearms. I'm out of the country for awhile, and my brother-in-law gives my wife a shakedown when she comes over to see my sister; "Let me see the knife, let me see the gun, just checkin!"
A month after I left, I was talkin to my wife on the phone. The maintanance men came by to change the filters in the apartment (they had left a note the day before) and knocked, let themselves in, and announced that they were there, but she did not hear them. She just about had a heart attack when she saw the two large and scarry men, who quickly told her who they were and apologized. I heard the whole thing on the phone and it scared me pretty good for a few seconds. She realized right then how quick things can happen, and she keeps her .38 a little closer now. Her mother is not very fond of guns and does not like the idea that her daughter keeps them in the house, and most of her family thinks we are crazy for carrying. I don't know many people who don't carry, much less people who don't own guns. Everyone in my family is, and has always been, well armed.

 

[Landor]

I amazes me how many people have no idea or ever will know how stimulating a day at the range can be.