Once a gun collection is reasonably developed, do you ever get the idea that buying more guns is really a way of wishing we had more time to spend with the guns we already owned? No, not really. Many people collect material items, be it Beanie Babies, Hummel figurines, coins, stamps, motor vehicles, dolls, antique furniture, dead butterflies, tropical fish, reptiles, wrist watches, tools, whatever. Firearms... just another avenue.
I think in America we have this fantasy of an easy way out of the time traps we are in that we can get out by buying more things. I'm gonna disagree. Sometimes, just gazing at or fondling whatever one collects that tickles one's fancy might just make it seem as though one is at a stable point in life and has "made it."
I think this may be an illusion and buying new guns maybe a way of self-medicating out of the aspects of American life that are not free. Work, wives, yard work social media or the lack thereof. "Wives?" Okay, I'll buy that. But "self-medicating, nope. I have typically felt fulfilled by my jobs and also felt I've served my God, my family, my community and my country. And I love doing yard work! For me, it IS freeing. I enjoy my cigar and cold brew while sitting out on the back deck admiring the results of my labor and smelling the fresh-cut grass. As for social media... this, and one or two other internet forums are the entire extent of my social media existence.
I mean once you've got 50 good guns that run the gamut from revolvers to decent semi auto pistols, numerous various shotguns, hunting rifles in 5 calibers, and semi-automatic war machines in 3 calibers or more, that you don't really have time to shoot to the degree desired, then is buying more guns really just a cry for help for the world to give you more time ? Ah, there's always something more out there. If there isn't -- in any aspect of one's life -- why go on?
but since you can't get more time you just buy stuff? And I plan to live to at least 100... and I'll have gone shootin' the day before I walk on.