So anyway. If out of the blue, your significant other is understanding or supportive of your gun habit and offers no reason, red flags should go up.
Not a bad observation. However, if you wear them down over time (my strategy
) by taking them shooting, making guns commonplace around the house, making talking about guns commonplace, convincing her anti-gun family that guns are a normal part of everyday life, etc., then it's much less worrisome if they gradually start to come around.
After getting married, I caught on pretty quickly that when she's happy, I'm happy, and when she's unhappy, I'm unhappy. It's amazing how much smoother things go once you figure this out. It takes some people a really long time. Well... over time she's realized that it works both ways, and she's started slowly getting used to the idea of more firearms b/c she knows it makes me happy (plus, she's starting to like them and become pretty darn knowledgeable about them herself, too!). One day when I had a really bad day, she knew I needed a boost, so she told me to go to the range. That did the trick, and she knew it would! So that was a promising sign. She's slowly coming around.
The only issue is that her idea of a time line between purchases is MUCH different than mine. She thinks once I buy a gun that I'll be done for a few years before I buy another one
! Needless to say, I'm working on that!
I got a rifle about a month ago, and I'm already planning for the next purchase. Money is tight, which is the ultimate limiting factor. If we were loaded, I think she'd care a whole lot less how many guns I buy or how often. Still waiting on that winning lotto ticket...