#83
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How many guns do you own?
83. I am sure that most times this is asked in innocent curiosity. Young guys start to acquire a few guns and they wonder how many would be owned by someone who has been doing it for a while. But this is the Internet, and these are gun owners, and the combination of the two is sure to generate suspicion and paranoia. The usual response to this question is a sarcastic comment like “Why none, officer (or special agent). All of my guns were lost in a tragic boating accident.”
I read once that the average gun owner has 3 guns. That figure strikes me as low. Most of my friends have around 30 or so each. As for me, being older, living debt-free, and having no kids, I have spent the last 42 years accumulating guns since this is my hobby. I no longer count how many guns I have, I count the number of gun safes I have.
But I am an amateur compared to a couple guys I have seen. Two members of Internet forums have posted photos I saw showing literally hundreds of guns in their collections and I don’t mean cheap guns. Both included a couple dozen fully automatic weapons and when you start collecting machine guns, you have a serious investment. Another man I met allowed me into his home where I saw so many guns stacked and piled throughout the house (and it was a large house) that I can only guess at the total number. Maybe 1,000-1,200 that I saw and I know he had more I didn’t see.
