People with guns who never shoot?

[Hamsen]

People with guns who never shoot?

I'll use my uncle as an example. He purchased a S&W revolver
chambered in .32 caliber. Took it to the range with a box of
50 rounds and in his words "Learned how to use it".

I know for a fact he hasn't been back to the range or fired
his revolver for going on 5 years now. I asked him

I seriously doubt he could hit the broad side of a barn now
but, he thinks shooting those 50 rounds has taught him
everything about the gun. He complains also, that he never
finds .32 in the stores. I told him why? You won't shoot it
anyway

 

[rd2007]

I'll never understand it.. I work with a girl and have been trying to get her to go to the range for about a year and she still hasn't. She bought a Bersa .380 a couple years ago and took it to the range a few times and that has been it. Another guy I work with is too busy buying guns to ever shoot them. Me, I like buying new toys, but I absolutely love shooting them. If I'm not at the range at least once per week I start to get a little agitated.

 

[omegaflame]

My dad stopped shooting from when I was born until I was 20, he always had the guns and never had to use them (there was a 380 beretta with JHP triggerlocked in his closet on the top shelf with the gun keys in a jewelry drawer).

When I started shooting on my own accord he started up again. He's much more of a shotgun person though.

Some people only have it for use as a self-defense tool, which is fine by me as long as they know how to use it (and the laws as well).

Edit: He never told me where the keys were until after I bought my own gun, at 23 (I have 2 younger brothers who've shot with us and they don't know where the keys are)

Edit2: They aren't in that location anymore since we moved

 

[smhbbag1]

I think a majority of gun-owners shoot less than once per year.

If it's true that 1/3 of US households have them, it's probably a strong majority. There just ain't that many people who make the intentional effort to head to a range or out to the country.

 

[valorius]

If you read Armed Citizen every month in the American Rifleman, the one thing that really stands out at you is that most of the stories involve people with little to no firearms training or experience.

And these are people who have all used firearms to successfully defend themselves.

In honesty i don't really shoot all that often either (though in my lifetime i have tens of thousands of rounds downrange). Fortunately, most bad guys -never- practice. Most bad guys have never even shot their gun except to possibly test fire it to make sure it goes boom.

Heck, most of the cops i know rarely shoot either.

 

[KJS]

Around 1970 my father bought a S&W 10 for home defense. Upon his death several years ago I inherited it along with a partial box of .38 ammo that I'm guessing was from 1975 or earlier. I base that guess on how the cardboard had aged from white to yellow and how it lacked a UPC code. For all I know that might be the only box of ammo he ever bought for it and stopped after four cylinders full, feeling no need to use a whole box in training.

I can't personally recall him ever firing that gun, so before my time.

I suspect this is the fate of most defensive handguns. Fire it to see that it goes bang then stick it in a drawer till you drop dead.

Growing up my father never discussed guns nor taught me a damn thing about shooting. I suspect this was because what he knew likely amounted to you stick the "bullets" in there and you pull this trigger to make it go bang.

 

[Mp7]

The Guy who first let me shoot/hunt was a young father of three sons ..
... and while working hard, bringing up the kids he also took great pride in coaching
a lil college football team .....

They had a room one of his sons had moved out,
filled with gun racks for the 30 something hunting rifles and shotguns
and he kept 50+ Handguns in his bedroom-cabinet.

Many guns were family heirloom, pa´s, granpas, greatgranpas ...
and some were bought by him.

When he showed me all thos wonderful pistols and collectors wheelguns
he was like: "Believe it or not, i haven´t shot a gun in 18 years ..."

They did not have a loaded firearm in the house.
But it was deep down in the appalachian sticks,
where no one would be crazy enough to believe that

... i bet his Dan Wesson 8" .357 and the Browning A5
were happy to get some quality time with me

 

[MikePaiN]

I don't know , maybe "People with guns who never shoot" are better off.....They buy one gun, a few boxes of ammo, are happy and feel safe(and I know many, many people like this, that keep a gun in the house but are not shooters).

They don't look their gun thinking is it enough, do I need that .45 or maybe a .500, should I run +P, do I need a laser, night sights, 10 more mags. They don't ponder which HP is best for SD and is 1000 rounds through enough to assure reliability. They don't think "I need a gun for the kitchen, office, bedroom and truck and oh yea! one(no two!) to bury in case SHTF". They never wonder if better glass on their sniper setup would help if they ever really had to make a 500yrd shot and what breaching tip do I need for my HD shotgun. They haven't purchased 10 OtW and countless ItW holster or that one that clips on the side of the bed. They don't buy guns to shoot be because "that ammo is cheaper". They don't loose sleep, because Walmart was out of "that caliber" and they have to pull ammo from "the stockpile"...Mostly, they don't look back at the end of the year wondering where $10k went
You know what I'm saying.....

 

[4sooth]

I know many people who 250-300 guns but never shoot. They are fascinated with things like barrel length--own every barrel length variant of a 686 ever made. Same for Mod. 10 Smiths. But none of the guns are ever fired because "it would ruin the collector value". I've tried to tell these guys they are collecting firearms which are not 'collectable' per se. One of them has a safe full of Jennings, Raven, Titan and various other .25 caliber autos--most of these are junk but you would never know it by the way they drool over them!

 

[tguil]

To MikePain: How true.

 

[hso]

Hamsen,

That's the way it used to be and still is for most folks. They purchased a small revolver and bought a box of wadcutters. After learning the basics of how to load and fire the pistol they were comfortable that they could use it. They just want something that they expect to go BANG when they need it to and until then it's just a tool like a fire extinguisher or a car jack. They aren't interested outside of that. Heck, how many of us have actually jacked the car up and changed a tire for practice or fun?

 

[19&41]

A gun is no more going to protect one by itself than go out on its own and wreak all the havoc that anti gun folk ascribe to them. One must do more than just familiarize, one must practice. It could be a matter of life and death.

 

[hey_poolboy]

I'm not one of those people. I do my best to shoot at least one of mine every week.
A good friend of mine is now one of those people, but not by choice. Life changes and guns get squeezed out for some folks. He and his wife went from 0 kids to 3 kids (one with down's syndrome) in a little over a year. (yes, adoption was involved). Since then he hasn't gotten out to shoot at all.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

One must do more than just familiarize

For some that is enough.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

One must do more than just familiarize, one must practice. It could be a matter of life and death.

Funny thing about such skills is that they are generally limited to a very narrow range of applications. People should also be experienced in open-handed self defense, current on first aid and with proper supplies, know how to use a fire extinguisher effectively, etc. Yet there are so many things in folks' lives that require more than just familiarization that could be a matter of life and death and they don't do them either.

The classic example set of such a lack of preparedness is clearly evident on this forum and many others where folks proclaim being defenseless or unable to defend themselves when they are disarmed.

I have been in and helped with several CHL classes. In at least two of them, folks have shown up and unloaded the carry ammo from their guns which was the same carried ammo they last loaded in their guns when they completed their last qualifications years previously.

I also like the justification that folks give about certain carry guns that are "meant to be carried a lot and shot a little" either because the gun is cheaply made or because it is too nice to shoot and they don't want to cause the gun to lose value by practicing with it.

 

[DrLaw]

How about a cop who didn't shoot?

Back in 1980, I was presented with a revolver that a long-time, part-time cop used as his duty gun. He said he was having problems with it.

It was a Smith & Wesson older model .38 Special, 6 inch barrel, pre-model 10. The cylinder would not open, or for that matter, would the gun cock.

After a while messing with it, I finally got it opened. The bullets were the next problem. They were refusing to eject. That did not take as long as getting the cylinder open, though. The brass cases were all green and covered with verdigris. The lead was whiteish.

Seems that he carried the gun in all weather, and never took it out of the holster to clean it when he got home. Rain, snow, hot and cold, that gun stayed in the holster and never was taken out to clean and dry, much less shoot. I think the six original cartridges he got were still in the gun. The action was rusted, and though I saved the gun with cleaning, I was not happy knowing this guy had no idea of the problem he created. I did not work with him again.

The Doc is out now.

 

[gwnorth]

With estimates of anywhere from 250 million to over 300 million privately owned firearms in the US, and estimates of up to 50% of households with at least one firearm, I'd say the vast majority of firearm owners do not shoot often, if at all. I know people who own handguns and have never, ever shot them. They bought them, learned enough to load them, and tucked them away in a drawer or other hiding place. I had a neighbor once who bought a Glock 17, loaded the magazine, put it in the pistol, put the pistol back in the factory case and stuck it in a bedroom closet shelf. I offered to go to the range with him, but he always claimed he never had the time (and clearly did not seem worried about it either).

P.S. he did understand he would have to rack the slide to chamber a round, he was not that clueless.

The people on this and other popular firearm forums are by no means the norm for gun owners, IMO. For that matter, neither are the folks you are used to seeing regularly at your range.

I know I do not get to shoot nearly as often as I would like to - life, health, work and such all often tend to get in the way of doing what we want to do. This year, with finding a new job, moving and settling into a new state, town and job, I have not been to a range since March.

I'd also point out that the vast majority of gun owners will never even come close to actually using their weapon to defend themselves or theirs, so for many people, I think it is just a "peace of mind" type thing, to have one available, but they just are not of the mentality where they feel (or recognize) a need for regular live fire practice.

 

[sideways]

I have a safe literally full of guns when and if I go to range I shoot one of my two carry pistols ,but I still like knowing that I own some beautiful pieces of history.

 

[M2 Carbine]

You would not believe the number of (very nice) unfired guns my good friend has. He actually does not know how many guns he has (I don't know how many guns I have).
Seldom do we go to the gun shows that he doesn't buy a new (or nice used) gun.

He likes to shoot but just "can't get around to it".
What makes it worse is he lives less than 15 minutes from me and my gun gun range and can shoot any time he wants.

He's not what I would call a "collector". He buys most anything that strikes his fancy, then never shoots it.
He likes everything about guns but just "can't get around to shooting them".

 

[Corsair]

I think part of the problem is finding a place to shoot. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people buy a gun with good intentions but then get discouraged when looking for a suitable range. There are gun shops all over the place which make it easy to buy a firearm but it's not so easy to actually shoot it. The closest range for me is 20 miles away so I don't get out nearly as often as I'd like.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

The closest range for me is 20 miles away so I don't get out nearly as often as I'd like.

For me the closest is still over 50 miles away. Most require membership in a club.

 

[JoeMal]

My father-in-law has a few guns that he never shoots. He claims he 'used to shoot when he was younger' but I'm not sure about that. I really don't understand it...

 

[M2 Carbine]

I think part of the problem is finding a place to shoot. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people buy a gun with good intentions but then get discouraged when looking for a suitable range.

But even with a free place to shoot and free ammo and free use of guns, most people still won't put out any effort. There's 3 neighbor ladies not 4 minutes from my range, that can be shooting or learning to shoot most any day but they just "can't get the time".

There just ain't that many people who make the intentional effort to head to a range or out to the country.

This is true.

Not one person in thirty that I've told I will help them learn to shoot the "gun they have around the house" will drive the 15-30 minutes to to my range.

I don't know how many people I've talked to, that express an interest in learning to shoot or getting their carry license, that are too lazy to show up.
They "can't find the time" even after I've told them I have many guns they can shoot, at no charge, to see what they like and I'll even give them the ammo free.
(last few years I gave away thousands of rounds of 9mm, 38 Special, 22LR, etc, to new shooters.)

People are lazy beyond belief.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

They "can't find the time" even after I've told them I have many guns they can shoot, at no charge, to see what they like and I'll even give them the ammo free.

It is ALL related to the amount of interest a person has in shooting. The lower the interest level ,the less effort expended.

 

[Boris bush]

I always did wonder whay there is always sooo much 40S&W ammo on the shelves. Everyone owns a gun in the caliber but never.........