What guns mean to you

hdwhit said:

I am - in my community - known for the motto that, "I shoot to support my reloading habit".

Still, I would never let reloading or shooting get in the way of either the physical or emotional needs of my wife, my sons, their friends, my church, or the clients of the food bank that I manage.

If shooting takes you away from your family/loved-ones then, I suggest you are missing out on something you will later miss.

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My dad placed his love of guns and hunting above his wife and child.

50 years and 3 wives later, he is broken and alone and regrets his choice in priorities. Or at least I hope he does.

Guns have been around me since I was born---I've always been fascinated by them, even just a day plinking at empty cans brings a big smile almost 60 years later.

I've always enjoyed being outdoors and hunting---guns bring outdoor enjoyment--self reliance----security to my family, home, neighborhood and country.

Guns secure my freedom and rights-------without the 2nd amendment, all other rights will be null and void in due time.

Without God I wouldn't even be here. I would have taken myself out long ago. Yes, I proved this to myself long ago. I liked to drink & was the kind of fellow that might go out for a beer & come wondering back a few days later. I crashed cars, spent all my money, had blackouts where I didn't even know what I was doing or had done, etc. Thankfully someone introduced me to some people that taught me I didn't have to live that way & showed me a way to come back to God. Sadly the person that did that died about 10 years later due to where their addiction took them. I straightened up she didn't. We parted ways. I have been sober by the grace of God since 1988. I was 22 when I sobered up.
I love my family & they are infinitely important to me & a major part of who I am today. I don't even want to think about what my life would be like without them.
I like guns, I enjoy shooting. I like learning about different platforms. How they work, how to work the controls, etc. I like very much the fact that I can use them to feed & protect the people in my life that I hold dear.
What guns are to me? Freedom.

Guns are fun(up in the mountains with 2 adult sons, shooting), guns are a tool(CCW everyday)....

AlexanderA said:

The 2nd Amendment doesn't depend upon a belief in God. We'd best leave God out of this.

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Why? The Framers didn't. Although there is no specific reference to God in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, The Framers understood that our rights are given to us by God and not the Government as evidenced in the statement from the Declaration that "we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights", or as the POTUS elect puts it "you know, the thing."

I really enjoy my firearms and am quite passionate about the sport if shooting, and the associated hobby if reloading. I also view them as something that could save my life some day if I do my part.

But I’ll never put owning them or shooting them ahead of sound financial planning for my future or my friends and family.

Kevin5098 said:

Why?

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Why leave God out of the "rights" discussion? Because a good portion of the population are atheists or agnostics, or don't even think about matters of theology. Even among churchgoers, I would guess that many don't really believe what their churches preach. So if you base your rights on a divine grant, you weaken your argument, as far as it is directed to non-believers.

A "state of nature" is a savage one, where the strong prevail and the weak are devoured. Theoretical "rights" have nothing to do with this. Raw power has everything to do with it.

Throughout history, ordinary people have had to wrest their rights from reluctant rulers. These very rulers have often based their rule on the traditional "divine right of kings." So the rebellious commoners were defying the purported "divine will." This very much applied to the American Framers. Sure, they put in some references to the Creator, but then they were masters at propaganda. (Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, cut and pasted the Bible, deleting the parts he didn't agree with. His vision of God was very different from that of most today.)

I'm sorry, but I blanch every time I see references to guns as a "God-given right." They only exist as a right because people demand that they do.

We are not debating the existence of a God and whether such a deity gave us 'rights'. Let that line of discussion drop.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Oh great...thread-lock in 5.....4....3...2.....

Yep, if folks can't understand our rules and follow a mod posting to reign a topic in, that's it. Infractions follow too!

Closed.