Anyone here a gun enthusiast and NOT a materialistic and/or competetive person?

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I live in a modest home in a modest neighborhood. I drive an eleven-year old SUV and a 22-year old pickup truck. Either will go anywhere a BMW or Corvette will (as well as many places they won't.) I own no Colt or S&W firearms, yet the guns I do have will do whatever I expect them to do within their "duties", which include HD/SD, and sport shooting. My carry pieces are a Bersa .380, and a Charter Arms .38. My HD first-grab (when I'm not wearing one of the carry pieces) is a Taurus 66. Two Rugers (Mk-II and a 10/22) are also in my collection. The remaining are more obscure pieces.
I am not a materialistic person. However, I do not particularly believe that desiring to own more precision-crafted or "refined" guns means that one is. Could I win a shooting competition with my Taurus? Not unless the other competitors really sucked. For what some people want of their guns (or anything, for that matter), they sometimes have to spend more. Doesn't make them "materialistic" at all.
 
Not me. I try to live well within my means, and I really don't care to "keep up with the Jones's. I prefer to keep a low profile. I do spend what it takes for good quality tools, including firearms, but I will never spend extra money just for a "pretty" gun. Function is far more important to me. Same goes for vehicles, I spend what it takes to have a comfortable, reliable car, but I avoid flashy. Though I guess there is one exception, my Harley, but even there, besides the initial cost, the upgrades and accessories I have added to it are all more functional than for appearance. And it's not just for riding to the local bar to show it off. It's 9 years old now, with close to 100,000 miles on it.
I don't come close to meager or spartan, I do like to be comfortable, and at this point in my life I can afford to be comfortable and enjoy doing so without feeling any need to show off.
 
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"my cell phone is 2 generations old"

What generation is mine, it doesn't even have a camera?


I moved into a shabby-hip, up-and-coming semi-eccentric fringe neighborhood in 1980. I still live here, but now my little $41k town house (1350 sq.ft.) is $300k+ and the neighbors are hanging little brass historic district plaques by their front doors and comparing decorating tips and stuff.

I'm not afraid to spend money, but I don't have to in order to have a good time. I'm cheap, but sometimes I can't help myself, like the quad core pc I had built last year. And I haven't had a car payment since 1986, so that helps.

I'm competitive at poker, been playing pretty seriously for 25 years or so.

Cash is good. I've forgotten what debt is like.

John

P.S. - I'm glad I don't have a $2000/mo. mortgage like one of my coworkers. And her husband was just laid off from his job at the aluminum foil factory. It's closing.
 
I like quality things, and if I could afford a new-ish sports sedan, an 1800-square-foot house, a powerboat, and steaks twice a week, I'd probably have them, and not because of the Joneses. But as it is, I drive a 12-year-old Buick (and like it, L67's rock), live in a modest house in a working-class neighborhood, our TV is a hand-me-down, I don't have cable (though I do have an Xbox), our furniture is mostly secondhand, and we live quite modestly.

As to competitiveness, I enjoy playing the game more than winning, dislike the "rah rah, my team's awesome, your team sucks" aspect of most organized sports, and can't quite comprehend those who want to put others down just to put them down.

But I do have my competitive side, I guess...

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That's me, my wife says...
 
I do decently well and I am not into cars at all, though a lot of gun owners are, especially the ones who view guns as mechanical objects as much as weapons. I live in a upper middle class neighorborhood due to it being one of the more secure places to live in the Gretater Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Area. I'd hate for all my guns to get stolen. :D

The majority of the gun owners I seem to know, however, fall into "the society is going to collapse so I need a gun to protect myself from the neighbor" crowd. They are far from materialistic and defitnely do not have "trohpy" wives and they do not drive German and Italian sports cards. Let alone wear Rolexes and Brioni suits. :evil:
 
As an old-school Lutheran, I recognize in myself the sin of materialism. I really don't confess enough that sometimes I love my guns just a little too much. On the other hand, I am not very competitve in my materialism. Keeping up with the Joneses is not a high priority. I am, for example, more than happy with my late 80's AR-15 and have no desire for an M-4-gery to keep up with the local tacticool boys at the range. However, since I sin in loving my guns too much, I break the whole of God's law. However, I lean on God's grace and forgiveness madde possible by Christ's work on the cross.
 
I'm really big on buying quality. In a way, I guess that's materialistic. However, I won't buy expensive stuff just for the sake of buying expensive stuff. One exception is an engagement/wedding ring. I'll splurge on that if that's what she wants.
 
I believe I am not very materialistic in comparison to most Americans. I do have a few items that I expect to work when I need them to. Mostly a computer and a car and a firearm or two. I enjoy the beautiful agony of making my truck run well and when it does again I will expect it to be reliable, I will make it so. When this thread started I was expecting it to run a slightly different course. Because this is primarily a gun discussion site I was expecting the materials we were discussing to be the firearms. Some of the posts on THR read like. . "I have 3 AR 15s, 3 SKSs, 5 1911s, a Glock, 7 S&W revolvers, 5 shotguns. . ." and in that case the firearms are materials that count for a person's "materialistic" score. So instead of buying a new car you buy 10 new guns, that is materialism. I admit to materialism in my own life especially when I think of all the new firearms I "need". If I owned 5 more guns I would probably shoot the same amount of ammo that I do now and therefore get less enjoyment out of my property on a gun by gun basis. Materialism is not necessarily bad though. With the strange economic times ahead I am sure that material items will retain some of their value. I am not so sure about the paper money in my wallet. Now I have mentally moved the guns we all love so much into the "investment" category and everything is much more balanced. Now I want to go invest in some new investments.
 
"Ein Feste Berg", BlackHand1917; "Ein Feste Berg" (or, "A Mighty Fortress (is Our God)").

- another devotee of the Grampa's Iron Cross on the Wall Synod of Unreformed Lutheranism.
 
I live in a 30 year old house, drive a 10 year old vehicle shoot mostly surplus riflesand old savage shotguns. The one thing i splurged on was my brushed stainless colt commander. Hey, everyone deserves ONE pretty gun, dont they? lol
 
I lead a fairly complex life with the store and the kids. My wife is the President of three companies, all owned by the same NYT best selling author. So between her traveling on book tours and his institute and my work for the store and the Guard, it gets pretty crazy. That lifestyle has enabled us to provide an outstanding life for our family. One of us is always here with the kids, they want for nothing especially love and affection.

But while I drive a four year old truck and my wife drives a 2 year old Honda, we live in an amazing house, have no credit card debt or seconds on the home and my gun collection is simply outstanding if I say so myself. We love our toys, and spend money on ourselves and our children. When we see something that would be good for the family or bring us joy, we get it.

So yeah, we may be materialistic but most of what I buy is going towards the day when all the electronics and toys will be of little or no use. It wont last forever and I am doing what I can to make sure that my family is taken care of when it all goes south. But until then, we are going to enjoy this life however we can.
 
I like guns and I like cars and trucks. These are really the only things I'm willing to drop big bucks on, but "big bucks" is relative here, since all my cars and guns are old and inexpensive.
 
i'm afraid i can't honestly say "no" in answer to this question. i do like material things. not to show off though. i like functional things. i get made fun of by my preppy friends all the time for my goofy watch with the built in barometer and altimeter and for my Merrill's that i always wear, but i don't care. i hate the fact that i have a trendy douchebag phone and use the wi-fi in it all the time. so much so that i'm building a log cabin on some property i have specifically to get away from all that garbage. still i partake in the materialistic world. if it makes any difference, my favorite gun is my Win '94 in .30-30 which accompanies me when i'm at the property working. its black bear territory after all.

as for competitiveness, i couldn't be guiltier. i'm as competitive as they come. one reason i'm building the cabin is because some family said it couldn't be done. reverse psychology works all too well on me. tell me i can't, and i will.

my cousin has been kickin my rear at target shooting for the last 10 years. i decided that i WILL be better in at least one area and i chose trap. so i took my $329 semi-auto shotty and practiced until i could shoot in the 90's consistently. our last outing, i shot 91/100 an beat him by 24 birds. that felt GOOD. even though he's family, and a Major in the military and someone i respect immensely, it feels good to win. i think it would be hard to find many target shooters here that aren't the same way.

i can't say i know any other gunnies that aren't the same way. we all have a will to win, a will to live and the desire to have the best that we can afford. one of my buddies became an Obama buyer and started off with a Benalli M2 and and a S&W MP15. he wasn't the aficionado of anything before. now he owns better stuff than i do!!

anyway, just some ramblings from a (relatively) long time shooter.

Bobby
 
When I separated from the ex my spending habits changed. Living within my means is an easier way of life. No credit usage is Cool.
Not part of the gottahavit. I drive an eight year old tundra and runs like a swiss watch. There is no reason to get of her.
Guns? As long as they are accurate and dependable.
 
I have 7 cars and trucks (& storage building), over a 2000 displayed yo-yo collection, and many guns displayed in my filled gun room.
Everything is paid for and I have no credit cards...but then i am okld too.

Because they make me happy.

I'm a material Girl.........(hurmor)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0XcEUS0eEU
 
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Hehe... yeah...

I'm SO materialistic that I left being a stockbroker BEFORE the downturn to be a Jr. High English teacher.


In all seriousness, no... not materialistic at all. I am about saving money, no debts, and having solid, quality things that I need.

In that vein, I have a paid-off house, two paid off vehicles, and no debts.

If I get a firearm, I want it do function as I envisioned it to do, if I get a vehicle, I want it to do the same. I value the land that we own because it affords me freedom and privacy.

Not materialistic at all. Responsible and pursuing a certain manner of living-- sure.


-- John
 
...

The jones´s either like me or not.

I tend to not be interested in talking to "run-after-status"-people,
as i find that they are wasting their life with trying to impress
people, that they cannot impress with their personality or intellect.

I´m not materialistic, but i live by the rules
of a materialistic world .... which i believe
will collapse in my lifetime.

Friends are the greatest value. Then family.
 
I don't know what "materialistic" is supposed to mean... other than it's a word that describes other people's greed when they do the same things that when I do them are "saving for retirement".
 
When I look to buy a gun, I look for what features I want, then what the cheapest way to go to get those features would be. I demand a certain level of quality as well. For example, I was looking for a suppressed .22 pistol package. This is purely a philanthropic purchase, but my father always told me to get your toys before you get married, and this is probably the only time in my life that I'll ever be able to get one. I thought that this way I can go out and shoot a lot more, and since it's a .22, I can do it cheaply. Plus it's a great training tool for new shooters. Anyway, back to the point. So I needed a .22 pistol with a threaded barrel that was somewhat reliable and within my means. I ended up going with a Walther P22. Having done a lot of research, I found that the P22, while not being the perfect pistol, seems to be slightly more reliable than the Sig Mosquito, and with a little fluff and buff can perform pretty well. It was also within my budget, whereas a Ruger MKII with a tactical solutions threaded upper was not. As for the suppressor, I went with the SWR Warlock. It is not the cheapest .22 suppressor, but it ranked the quietest on silencerresearch.com's test against about a dozen other leading competitors. It was much cheaper than some other cans, but I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that it had the best feature to price ratio for me. I also shopped around for the best price and got the Warlock for about $50 under MSRP with no extra charge for the transfer (except the $200 AFT tax).

So in short, I would rather spend hours researching and know everything there is to know about a purchase so that I can get the best value for my money. If I had more money, I might do things differently, but I like to think that I am both picky and frugal.

As for keeping up with the Joneses, I am a very low income person, and I live in a very low income neighborhood. So a pistol grip shotgun and a baseball bat are a pretty easy arsenal to keep up with. I have way more guns than the people I know and they are way nicer, but it's because we're all poor and I'm the only one that likes to turn every extra penny he has into smoke and noise.

However, I lean on God's grace and forgiveness madde possible by Christ's work on the cross.
Click to expand...
It's like welfare for your soul.



ETA:
I just realized how my comments would sound with that last joke about welfare. Just to clarify, I'm not spending all of my hard earned money on guns while leaching off of society and subsidizing my gun purchases with your tax dollars. I have never been on welfare, and I will never be on welfare.
 
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Gun people, not so much. We like things and concepts related to things. We tend to have jobs and hobbies that reflect this. We are more likely to be head of maintenance than head of human recourses. We are more likely to be
engineers or work with computers than be councilors or social workers. We would be surgeons rather than pediatricians or psychiatrists, mow grass rather than wait tables. When we do watch TV it is likely the History channel or Discovery channel. We like to hunt, fish, ride motorcycles and participate rather than watch other people play sports.

Gun owners tend to be individualists and don't fit in with the collectivist mindset. That is why we usually are conservatives and libertarians rather than Democrats or socialists.
Click to expand...

This pretty much says it all for me.
 
Gun people, not so much. We like things and concepts related to things. We tend to have jobs and hobbies that reflect this. We are more likely to be head of maintenance than head of human recourses. We are more likely to be
engineers or work with computers than be councilors or social workers. We would be surgeons rather than pediatricians or psychiatrists, mow grass rather than wait tables. When we do watch TV it is likely the History channel or Discovery channel. We like to hunt, fish, ride motorcycles and participate rather than watch other people play sports.

Gun owners tend to be individualists and don't fit in with the collectivist mindset. That is why we usually are conservatives and libertarians rather than Democrats or socialists.
Click to expand...
Hmmm. Interesting line of thinking. I never thought about it like that. I think you're on to something.
 
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