Did your parents own a gun?

[G.A.Pster]

I think the majority of gun owning people, had gun owning parents and it helped get them into it, but maybe my assumption is wrong.

It’s important.
I’m trying to figure it out, to get other people into the sport.

If your parent(s) didn’t have a gun what got you into it?


Another thing I’m doing is asking around on non-gun forums, what guns and gun terms are the least and most threatening. (the less threatening something is the more likely it is to be accepted)

I forgot one of the poll options: #6 One didn’t own a gun but wasn’t anti, other was anti.

If that one's youdon’t vote, just make a post.

 

[dakotasin]

my parents did not own guns.

dad was neutral on the gun issue, mom was mildly pro-gun.

what got me into guns was curiosity... nothing more, nothing less. i lucked into a good gun shop and everything was set in motion from there. had i gone to one of the many gunshops i see so often now, i probably would've been pro-gun w/ no guns.

 

[CornCod]

My parents didn't own guns. I bought my first guns because I was in ROTC and I wanted to become a good shot for military purposes. I anticipated that the then Cold War would someday go hot and the Soviets would come roaring across the Fulda Gap. I didn't end up getting commissioned, but kept shooting anyway.

 

[Country_boy_88]

There was never a gun in my home growing up or in any of my other immediate families(uncles, grandparents, cousins). The first time I was able to purchase a BB gun was when i was 14. At a young age i would go to a friends house and beg him to shoot his.

In high school i was introduced to hunting. The first real gun i ever fired was a .270 then a 12 guage. For my 17th or 18th birthday my father purchased a 12 gauge and a 7mm mag for my brother and I. Shortly after i got a .300 win. and he got his own 12 gauge. Yea we fought about who got what ha ha.

Around that time my father borrowed an old winchester .22 and would watch us plink at squirrels. Within 4 years we had our father in the woods with us as well and he was able to take a 6 point with his 30-06. Hes still got that borrowed .22 and a 12 gauge now to.

His parents were skeptical at first and frown upon it(they live in PA where my father was raised, I grew up in SC). Now half of my family on either side enjoy hunting.

so far between my brother and I we have 2 .22 rifles. 1 .22 silouette pistol, a .300, a 7mm mag, 2 12 guages. I also own a fullsize 9mm and a ccw 9mm. Hes on the market for his first ccw. Not bad for two 21 yr olds

However i brought home my first CCW this weekend and my mother was not to pleased on why I "need" a gun on me at all times. Some people just don't understand.

 

[G.A.Pster]

It’s a good thing that never happened or there’d be a few billion less people and a nice green glow everywhere. lol

 

[mljdeckard]

Fair enough question. It makes one wonder how much of our liking guns comes from the fact that we grew up around them and are comfortable, or if we were brainwashed from birth.

 

[Geneseo1911]

My parents did technically own a gun, but hadn't fired it (an old Rem. Rolling Block .22) in years & years. When my brother & I left home, Dad wanted a gun to shoot the varmints we had previously been keeping under control, so I found him a 12ga single shot. (it was cheap.....like him!)

Recently, Mom wanted a defense gun, and I found her a model 10. I just need to get her to shoot it more. The increasing number of drug stops on the nearby interstate, as well as increasing crime in general were major factors.

Both were pretty well apathetic towards guns until my brother & I showed them the utility of having them around.

I'm not sure, but I think my brother got the addiction from my uncle; likely when he shot his SPAS-12. I have no idea where my uncle got it from though. I don't think there were any guns at all on that side of the family historically.

 

[bangkok]

My stepdad had shotguns and revolvers all around the house and one in his Craftsman tool chest!

 

[sniper5]

A gun? A gun? Like only one? You're joking, right?

 

[vett3v]

Both were for the most part anti, guns were ok for police, military, etc.. etc.. but not the common folk. (well at least till later in life, believe they changed due to my uncle's persistence, as you shall read)

They about blew a gasket when my uncle gave me my first rifle almost 38 years ago. A Sportking (remember those?) that I still have and shall forever have.. Needless to say, he was my most favorite uncle who took me out plinking whenever he had a weekend free. (Amazingly my mom relented and let me go. heh)

May they all rest in peace. (They're probably still arguing about it in the great beyond.)

 

[Tinman357]

Yep, Had several in the house...

As a matter of fact my Mom shot my Dad with a colt .25

He richly deserved it. I often wished she would have been a better shot.

Don't critique me to harshly for this one. the 60's and 70's were a different era. Battered women didn't have the resources they have today.

Hopefully, those memories have made me a better father and a better man in general.....

 

[HammerBite]

My parents owned guns but I don't think I was supposed to know that. I don't think they ever fired the guns.

 

[Macgille]

Pistols, rifles, bows, knives, swords, battleaxes, maces, and morningstars. We are a clan of warriors.

 

[Str8Shooter]

I don't think my dad had any real objection to guns, but my mom wouldn't even let me have toy guns. She thought it would make me turn into a criminal. Of course I played with toy guns at my friends' homes and later bought a friend's BB gun, which I kept at his house. When I was a teen, my best friend's dad took us out in the California desert to shoot .22s. Got my first real gun, a Remington Nylon 66, after I joined the Air Force.

 

[doc2rn]

My mom was anti gun but my dad was pro. My great grandpa got me into it after trying to disparage me with both barrels of a 10g and my back to a tree.
Ggrandma raised wholy cain! I had a bruise the size of a football.
Next trip up I asked to go shootin again and he actually was forced to hand me the .22 lr and Ggrandma gave me half a box of shells. Nothin better!

 

[Legionnaire]

Neither owned guns when I was a kid. Both had guns in their homes when THEY were growing up. Neither were anti. Ownership just wasn't a priority for them.

 

[rondog]

My dad always had shotguns and a .30-06 (which I have now), my brothers all had guns, my grandfather had a shotgun and a cool Winchester .22 Automatic that we didn't know about until he was gone, my grandma even had a couple .410's. I can remember as a wee kid Grandma showing me her old Iver Johnson .410 single, and telling me she could also shoot .45 Colts out of it. Like I knew WTH a .45 Colt was at 5 y.o.

My mom wasn't a gunny, but she was the game cleaner/cooker!

 

[Deus Machina]

Dad's side of the family has been hunters and fishermen since they stepped off the boat, often from necessity and sometimes because the old man would have spent his money on the drink, and he darn well better bring back something, because they often also married women that could help in the shop or farmwork. Tough Irish descent, right there.

I can't remember a year before I moved south that didn't have a few dinners of pheasant or squirrel or deer.

Mom's side had a few outdoorsmen, but were more neutral. Her side's extent was "Huh, you got a gun. Be careful with that," whereas dad's side made a habit of teaching the boys to shoot young and handing down a gun once they could trust the boy to bring home a bag of pheasants instead of fingers.

Dad didn't give me a gun until my 23rd birthday (a Ruger Mk3 22/45, mmm.) but did teach me to shoot (a .22LR Luger) young, and never thumped me again after he did.

 

[jpwilly]

Dad owned the guns, Mom didn't care for them. We had lots of guns...

 

[garyr]

My father owned guns...my mom was anti. Her father was a licensed dealer in our state and owned more guns than anyone I've ever met. I remember him trying to give my brother and I a couple .22 rifles when we were kids and my mom shot that down.

 

[Oyeboten]

My Dad had a WWI S&W Revolver in .45 ACP with the Half-Moon-Clips...Mom was anti-gun.

Dad was very low key about it, was a WWII Vet, and he had really good Gun Habits, good Gun Safety Habits, and, he showed me the right protocols when I was around 7 or 8...showed me many times, in case I was ever playing at some one else's home and an other kid produced a Gun from somewhere...(which never happened, but, good on him for preparing me in case it ever did...)

When I was 10, we'd go out and Target Shoot...old Tin Cans and so on...and, I observed all the Safety protocols well, and, I was a good shot.

I am amazed in looking back, that I was able to handle that S&W so well...I was rather a small, slender,and dreamy child.

Ammo was always 'Brown-Box' WWII Military Surplus Hardball.

 

[Clifford]

My father took me shooting for the first time at the ripe old age of three! Guns in our family have been the family sport for fifty+ years!

 

[chieftain]

My father was an immigrant from Germany. Got his citizenship in July 1940. He turned 18 in 1943, but was already with deferments for the war effort, lens maker (that’s how he put himself through night school and became a Mechanical Engineer in the late 40’s).

When he was called up, he was 4F. Ears shot and no knees, thanks to football. I gladly paid for our right to be in the United States in 1966 when I joined the Marine Corps for 10+ years. It was something I wanted to do. In fact I was afraid the Vietnam war would end before I got there. The foolishness of youth.

But we were not allowed to speak German. As my father always said, “We are Americans, we speak English.” (one of the few things my mother was right about, we should have learned German, but Pop was dead set against it.)

So we had a 22 rifle, 12ga pump, 30-30, and a revolver. I started shooting the 22 rifle at about 6 years old. My father really didn’t know squat about weapons. What he did know is that Americans had guns. He turned me over to a friend of his, a Marine, that started to teach me how to shoot properly at a very tender age, in the mid 50’s.

I started the NRA Jr. Programs IIRC they were run by another friend of my father’s and my father saw that I went and improved. We lived in the south by Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The rest as they say is History. At 61 years old, I am still loving it.

Go figure.

Fred

 

[jakemccoy]

My parents still don't own a gun. My mom has been to the range with me and wants to own. My dad is anti. He's not going anywhere on that. All the standard anti-gun arguments are his own.

 

[9MMare]

None as far as I know, but my dad was in the Army for awhile.

Grew up in suburban NJ....no guns that I know of, but got 2 sets of toy six-guns for my third birthday as I was already intent on being a cowgirl. (it wasnt politically incorrect in the 60s for kids to have toy guns...and funnily enough, I didnt even grow up violent! [end sarcasm] )

But my folks are total republicans (I'm not) so I doubt they are anti-gun. Never discussed it with them, but they will be visiting this week and I will be introducing them to my new 9mm and we WILL be discussing it, lol. I think they'll be surprised, but fine with it.

As with most things in my lifestyle, I am very different from my entire east coast, republican, Wall St family. I have pursued my own course.