Programmed to be anti-gun

Not out here, but AZ has been open carry since we became a state. It's a habit that can be broken - look at yourself! You did it, and so have others.

I've lived in NY my whole live and I have never been in a situation or seen one where having a handgun would've been necessary. I don't have a problem with handguns other than most aren't very practical or worth the money. However I do have a problem with states that just pass them out to anyone. I don't want every random idiot who wants a handgun to be able to carry one. I sell firearms and I see people who can't even operate a bolt action rifle and they want to carry a handgun. Most people think you just pick one up and start shooting the bullets will go where your hand is pointing. Most people I've met whose only interest in guns are handguns, want their world to be like one of the stupid video games they live in. You want to protect your home get a shotgun, otherwise if you feel the need to carry a gun on you, you probably are hanging around places you shouldn't be or one of those people who hopes for an excuse to use it. Hell, I've even met people who own a handgun and don't even know the caliber bullet it fires.

Um...wow.Lopezni, you should come and shoot at my club sometime. Sure, we don't need handguns,but they sure are fun to shoot, collect and own.

you probably are hanging around places you shouldn't be or one of those people who hopes for an excuse to use it.

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Handguns aren't the first choice for protection, but they can be very easily toted and concealed. This makes them the ideal *everywhere* firearm. As far as trouble only happening in "bad" areas, this is a load of nonsense. Trouble can come anywhere, anytime. You can either try to be prepared for it or trust to luck.

However I do have a problem with states that just pass them out to anyone.

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Shortly after I moved here, a fellow at the range just gave me a Makarov, gratis! True story. I love this state.

Hell, I've even met people who own a handgun and don't even know the caliber bullet it fires.

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Do you mean the chambering? Most shooters probably don't know the actual caliber unless they handload. Ask someone with a .38 Special what caliber bullet they're firing and they're likely to tell you it's a .38 caliber, when of course it's a .357" or .358"

...otherwise if you feel the need to carry a gun on you, you probably are hanging around places you shouldn't be or one of those people who hopes for an excuse to use it.

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This is bad programming.

Partly b/c it is opinion and conjecture being spewed as fact, but mainly b/c it is entirely incorrect.

Wow. Talk about a stereotypical blanket statement...you nailed it, sir.

Anti-gun philosophy is a failure to think.

lopezni: Be glad that you haven't ever been in a situation in which you might need a handgun, because not having one, you could wind up not being able to defend yourself or ones that you love. Also, have you ever had a house fire, flood, earthquake or tornado? You probably have insurance for each of those instances; just because you have not had an incident yet doesn't mean that you shouldn't have that insurance. Firearms of a portable personal defensive nature (handguns) are the same.

Gouranga, funny thing. I worked with a fellow for a while from the Boston area who said nearly the same thing about him growing up where only police and bad people had guns. Nice guy, family man, smart, maybe wound a little tight at times but I attributed that to yankee upbringing as well.

He wasn't really an anti- he wasn't completely sure about concealed carry but thought having guns as a hunter or even a large number as a collector was fine. He didn't care much for so-called "assault weapons", this was probably his worst anti characteristic. He even wanted me to teach him and his kids a little about shooting. Sorry I never got the chance.

I had been so ingrained with the mindset there on handguns I can honestly say for years i thought of them (almost instinctively) as something bad and dangerous.

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Sadly, there are many within our society that are being conditioned just as you were.

Places that restrict firearms result in only two classes of citizens WITH firearms, LEO's, and criminals. Citizens will ONLY hear about how firearms are used to target people, either by criminals while conducting criminal acts, or by police targeting criminals. Combined with TV and hollywood, citizens come to associate firearms with ONE thing...shooting humans.

For those of us fortunate enough to have grown up with firearms, the opposite is true for the most part. Early associations with firearms most often revolve around using them to harvest game while hunting, or for shooting targets, and while we KNOW they can be used for defense, the very last thing we would associate a firearm with is the taking of human life and crime.

Most citizens don't realize that MILLIONS and MILLIONS of rounds are fired each year, and that the percentage of rounds aimed at human targets is minuscule when compared with the amount used for target, sport, and hunting. I would imagine it is less than 1/3 of 1%.

Education is the key to eliminating ignorance about firearms. When people are given the facts about an issue, they will generally come to a logical and rational conclusion, which in our case, means that firearms are NOT the evil things they are depicted as being. They are just another tool, subject to the will of a human, like any other tool.

It is being taught at EVERY public school in America

Kids can not go to school wearing a Ruger , Colt ,S&W shirt without being pulled out of class and haveing the parents bring them a more "appropriate" shirt

No more playing Cowboys and Indians , G.I. Joe , Cops & Robbers etc. etc. -- and just look how good America is because of it

Gouranga
There have been a lot of misconceptions that have been tossed around as fact in history. There was a time when it was believed that wolves were the most dangerous animal in the world. What disappoints me are the people who really should know better. Cops who spew antigun lies and exaggerations, and hunters who think that AR rifles and handguns are more dangerous than the shotguns and rifles they use.

Yes, it's called a public school education. And left leaning parents.

I have posted the link on this book before.

It is, I think, a really important book on the subject of guns and society.

http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Monsters-Children-Make-Believe-Violence/dp/0465036953

Reading is fun

Please name one state that passes handguns out to anyone.

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And I will rent there long enough to get my free gun!!

Quote lopezni,"However I do have a problem with states that just pass them out to anyone."

Uh... Where is it that handguns are legally available to anyone? I think you'll need to reconsider your thoughts regarding your sales process if you don't really see the implications of the 4473 and the phone call of acceptability.
Best,
Rob

It depends where you live to. I live in a nicer area of CT, thats not really rural. Finding places to shoot is hard, very hard.

A lot of people are not anti gun per say, they just don't grow up around them or see a use.

I know at my school which is a big state school, its very conservative and very pro 2nd ammendment. Other than some PETA people all the active groups are conservative. I have a Sig sticker on my truck and have had a number of people comment on it, mostly Sig's rock.

Well, AZ DOES have optional firearms education for schools, with mandatory range time to pass, per law. I have had handguns given to me while living here, won one of them off this website. Odd how our murder rate appears to be lower than NYC...

It got me to thinking, anyone else find themselves programmed in such a manner when they were young? is this a NY type of thing or are there other parts in the country this type of thing is prevalent?

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Yeah this has happened to plenty of people in plenty of areas. It's basic conditioning just like Pavlov's dogs.

You want to protect your home get a shotgun, otherwise if you feel the need to carry a gun on you, you probably are hanging around places you shouldn't be or one of those people who hopes for an excuse to use it.

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I take extreme offense at that. While I keep, and have used a shotgun for self defense at home. I have had to draw my concealed handgun three times - every time at work! In one of those instances all of the responding cops said I would have been justified in shooting. I did not. I was happy that night, and have been happy every time I've thought about it in the nearly 15 years since that I did not pull that trigger. Trust me, if I was "one of those people who hopes for an excuse to use it," you accuse me of being we'd have had one dead criminal. As it is I stopped a burglary in progress, and no one was hurt.

So, if my trying to make a living and protect myself is wrong - guilty. Until you've been there done that I really don't want to hear your... I can't say here what I want to since it wouldn't be very high road, but suffice it say the emoticons don't do it justice!

Do not paint us all with one brush. If you choose not to take responsibility for your own protection be aware of the consequences of that choice. Remember the police have no legal obligation to protect you. Only you have that responsibility. Meet that responsibility or not as you choose, just don't attempt to take that right from those of us with enough b... um, courage to shoulder the responsibility for ourselves!

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"You want to protect your home get a shotgun, otherwise if you feel the need to carry a gun on you, you probably are hanging around places you shouldn't be or one of those people who hopes for an excuse to use it. "

I take extreme offense at that.

I agree with Dan and I am also offended by that remark ---- and YOU SAY YOU SELL GUNS Lopezni ???? How do YOU know that one of the firearms you sold have not been used in a murder ???????

This is The High Road not the High and Mighty Road !!!!