As you grew up, how did you avoid siding with anti-gun thinking?

[tomrkba]

Dad taught me right.

 

[Deus Machina]

As previously mentioned, it comes down to the person. I have liberal leanings in other places, but believe in letting people do as they chose as long as it doesn't hurt others, and then putting the blame on them instead of objects.
To my family, it's just a tool.
Both sides taught me what my grandfather called 'practical pacifism'. Avoid violence, never enjoy it, never begin it. But if it's forced on you, make sure you're the one with the means and demeanor to stop it.

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

Having guns around was not an issue outside of cost. We were told we would need to have a .22 instead of a BB gun as my father had seen a girl's eye put out with one (this is before the movie) and my parents were worried about ricochets.

When we were about 11 or so we got involved in shooting rifles at the local sheriff's range and it just very slowly and logically developed from there. Then in my late teens or so I began reading Guns and Ammo.

The anti-gun side never had a chance.

But then my parents were incredibly indulgent. While in high school I became interested in amateur rocketry--the type where we formulated our own fuel and built our own engines. I had a scary assortment of potential explosives in the garage lab.

 

[Rusty Luck]

I was taught from a young age to rely on logic and reason more than emotions. Almost every anti gun person that I've seen or read about lacks logic and reasoning and is ruled by emotions.

When someone says they "feel safer knowing there aren't guns in the house", its emotion hence the "feel". If I say "I am safer because I have a gun in my house", its logical since there is a basis for my reasoning and statistics corroborating my statement.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Never an option. Hunting guns in the unlocked case in the living room - racks elsewhere. Rifle racks in trucks and not to hold fishing poles.

Competitive shooting after school.

Color me lucky, a family of practical use firearms ownership.

Well, then there was the old school prairie libertarianism.

 

[Palehorseman]

I just turned 75, when a kid there was always a single barrel 12 ga beside the kitchen door. On 10th birthday my dad let me shoot it twice, thereafter I was expected to take it out daily for rabbits and squirrels to put on the table. In my family anti gun discussions never came up, they were just a part of life on the farm.

 

[shiftyer1]

Growing up, guns were just there everybody owned shotguns or rifles. Handguns not so much. I never really thought about it back then

 

[CoalTrain49]

I really don't think that a persons indoctrination pro or con regarding firearms when they are young has much to do with it. As one grows older they make their own decisions about lifestyles, religion, politics, etc. Just because your parents were Hippies doesn't mean you will become a Hippie.

I have two brothers and we all grew up in the same family. Neither of them are gun owners. My dad was a WW2 vet and an avid hunter. I had some early lessons and spent a lot of time hunting. I would have eventually found my way to hunting and rec shooting without that, it just would have taken me longer.

 

[browningguy]

I grew up in the South, my dad spent 24 years in the USAF and both sets of grandparents were farmers, quite honestly I never met anyone that was anti guns. They were a necessary tool on the farm so everyone, including my great grandmother was used to them. When I was growing up most of us got into the NRA when we were about 8 and started competitive rifle shooting.

Keep in mind this was the early 60's and it was a different world.

 

[marv]

There were no anti gunners and not much in the way of gun laws when I was growing up.

 

[Vodoun da Vinci]

Same here - raised by a Union Steward Father and Union Nurse mother...staunch Democrats and die hard "for the working man" mentality and both of them pro gun. My Grandparents were the same - Hard core Democrats and gun owners that put meat on the table with guns for years.

Lots of guns in my family and my Wife's extended family of Farmers and all of the guns left to me by ancestors were originally owned and operated, kept and used, by folks considered to be "liberals" by today's standards. Me personally?

I was raised that a gun is a tool and a human has the inherent right to certain things chief amongst them the right to defend and protect - to hunt and provide for him and his. I was also raised to believe that people are more important than money or things and that we are all responsible for each other and charged with taking care of the weaker, less able ones even if we need a gun to do that.

I'm a very confused individual in the gun community. I have few political affiliations now due to polarization. I do not hold with folks who want to "take" any right nor thing from anyone. Nor do I hold that guns are inherently evil or that all Democrats are "liberals" and anti gun.

VooDoo

 

[commygun]

I had anti leanings right up to the day I decided to buy a pistol. None since.

 

[WolverineFury]

I've been shooting BB guns at soda cans since I was three. I was so small that I had to put the stock over my shoulder and shoot it like a Bazooka. I don't ever remember learning gun safety or how to shoot rifles accurately because it was something I was taught from birth.

Despite this Dad wasn't (and isn't) really a gun guy (eight kids may have something to do with it (I'm the eldest)). He used to be big into firearms, but kinnda' lost interest once he got married. I always wanted him to take me hunting, he had hunted when he was younger, but didn't want to deal with the hassle of it all. I started getting to shoot his 10/22 at the family land when I was 12-13, mostly doing target shooting.

One 4th of July some friends of friends brought a bunch of guns down to the land, and being 15 and not yet having shot anything bigger than a .22 I had a blast. I got to shoot a Glock in 10mm, a 1911, a 12 gauge PGO (OUCH! (though admittedly I held it wrong)), a SKS on a bipod, and a couple pocket pistols in .32 and .38. Apart from being sweeped by a disgruntled wife who didn't like the way a gun shot it was a good day. Ever since then I started saving for a rifle. When the Sandy Hook shooting occurred my dad told me to find one quick (my birthday was a month away and he said he'd make up whatever I was lacking as far as funds go). I had already decided that I wanted an AKM. So I got on ArmsList and was able to arrange to buy one about a week before prices went through the roof.

Since then my interest, which was a bit slow coming to fruition, has expanded. I have bought a bow because I couldn't stand to wait for November to go hunting, and I now own several more firearms. At this point in time I'm eagerly waiting for my 18th B-Day at which point I'll be able to Open Carry.

To answer the original question. I'd known that there were people who didn't like guns, but didn't know that there was really an 'anti-gun' camp until Sandy Hook. Of course being Home Schooled may have had something to do with that At any rate myself, my brothers, and the (Home Schooled) Neighbor always ran around all morning with toy guns, played "Goldeneye 007" on the N64 and were generally did stuff a liberal would have a heart attack at. I was allowed to watch any movie as long as the only "bad" stuff in it was violence, sooo.... yea...

 

[Deaf Smith]

As you grew up, how did you avoid siding with anti-gun thinking?

My parents sent me to the agoge.

Sparta's idea of kindergarten tends to clear the mind.

Deaf

 

[CZardoz]

My dad took me out and taught me to shoot and I loved it. Family encouraged it, no way would I ever give up shooting after I made dad so proud.

Ditto! Take your children shooting, enroll them in gun safety, have them watch old westerns with you, make them realize that good guys that aren't cops do good with guns too!

 

[tdstout]

I was raised around guns, got my first 22 at age five as a birthday present and never even knew that there were people who were against guns until I was in my teens.

I live in southern Oklahoma though, and everybody around here has guns.

 

[sherman123]

I went to a private school and heard slightly less of that gun control drivel because of it but still heard some here and there. I had one teacher say it was morally wrong to shoot an active shooter or otherwise use deadly force against them even if it saves countless lives. Yeah. Can't argue with that kind of madness.

 

[sawdeanz]

The poster asks a good question. I was raised in an anti-gun household. My mom was always relatively sensitive about toy guns, etc. Not overbearing or overprotective, but as I matured I realize she had the right idea from a child raising view. This is different from those that teach their children to shoot, I'm talking about keeping me away from violence in childhood programming.

Since exploring the 2A myself I've had a few discussions with my parents about the issue. My mom is your typical anti-everything, and my dad is more apt to listen to reason and carry an intelligent discussion, but not having a good understanding of guns it is hard to get him to agree with what most gun supporters would say is reasonable (i.e. he is against assault weapons, carry in universities, etc.)

Somehow I had always resisted these thoughts I believe for two fold. First I liked guns for all the typical video game and action movie reasons, except that I was always a fan of war movies, old/new what have you which I think gave me a respect for guns on a historical and engineering level. Before I really knew about the 2nd amendment I just knew I would want to own guns some day. Second my parents never really tried to push me on one political agenda or another, and I was able to develop my personal feelings independently.

 

[fromtheplaines]

I grew up in cook county illinois which is pretty the 9th circle of hell when it comes to liberal policy. Both of my parents are very anti gun. We moved further out, and it was something that interested me more so. I bought a shotgun. My dad gave me his father's old Sears 22 to get it out of the house and now I am hooked. It's a bit rough, since you more or less have to teach yourself everything yourself. But when my kids are old enough I will start bringing them to the range. But to get back to the point when I moved out of cook county and went to bass pro shop and they had the guns out there. They lost a lot of mystique, it was just something out there like the fishing rods

 

[bigdogpete]

Never heard of anti gun when I grew up in rural Iowa.

 

[The_Next_Generation]

Growing up I was pretty anti-gun (thanks to mom and dad). I was also against suppressors, thinking "Why would anyone need to fire a gun quietly? If you are in danger and shooting your gun don't you want folks to know about it?" I even remember having a conversation with my father about it!

What changed that was when I got an airsoft rifle around 13 or so (took forever to get mom and dad to let me have it!). I was real small back then and couldn't fight against the neighbor kids very well..of course, one day I wised up and brought the airsoft gun with me once I had had enough of being teased for my size when walking to the park with my even smaller brother

I believe the saying goes something like, "God created man, Samuel Colt made them equal!"

As I got older I got smarter. I liked researching airsoft stuff so I figured I may as well learn about the "real steel" versions of the replicas I liked. Once I was 16 I had outgrown airsoft and had become very pro-gun (mom and dad were coming around as well), but it wasn't until the death of my grandfather when I was 17 that I received my first rifle; his Remington 740ADL in 30-06. Grandma wasn't much for hunting, and didn't want the rifle around the house. Since I was the only one in the family with any kind of firearm-knowledge she left it with me on my 17th birthday. I wouldn't sell it for what they go for now, that's for dang sure.

Now I am the state director for Students for Concealed Carry in the Evergreen State, and I am an active volunteer RSO at the local range. I consider myself to be self-converted after lots of research and thought. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

[Davek1977]

It was easiebecoming a shooter in my home than it would have been to be an anti-gunner. I grew up rurally, and firearms were just part of life growing up. I was taught gun safety at a young age, and by age 12, I had unrestricted access to all the guns in our house. I grew up in the sort of place where the only gas station in town also doubles as a cafe and grocery store, and the proprietor has an FFL. Guns were/are hardly taboo in the area, and a vocal gun control advocate is something I've yet to witness in 18 years of living there and another 18 of visiting. It would have taken something trumatic beyond the scope of my comprehension to ever turn me anti-gun. I played with toy guns as a child, and was given a BB gun as soon as I could shoulder one. We swapped copies of "Guns and Ammo" in school, and openly fantasized about how we'd equip our personal armies if given the chance. I was ID'in g various guns as a child the way others would shout out car makes and models going down the road. The LGS held my interest far more than the toy stores did by age 12 or so. We swapped hunting tales over school lunch, and wandered over to our friends' fathers trucks after school to check out a freshly killed buck or coyote. "Anti-gun" was a concept I had no comprehension of as a youngster. I had no clue there were people who hated what I and my friends and family were so passionate about.

 

[pockets]

I don't recall hearing the term 'anti-gun' until long after I grew up.

.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

As you grew up, how did you avoid siding with anti-gun thinking?

Kinda difficult to take up "anti-gun thinking" when you're busy playing Cowboys and Indians with cap guns all the time.

 

[Cee Zee]

I never knew there was such a thing as anti-gun thinking when I was very young. When I did hear about it the ideas came from a crank or a crybaby so we pretty much ignored such things.