Discoveries of an Anti-Gunner: My Conversion to the Other Side

[Spats McGee]

No, not me. I ran across this blog post on Facebook the other day. I haven't seen it in any other thread, but thought y'all might enjoy it.

http://www.agirlandagun.org/discoveries-of-an-anti-gunner-my-conversion-to-the-other-side/

 

[jonnyc]

Interesting. A good case study.

 

[steve4102]

Then I bought a gun.

Seems odd and out of character. Why?

 

[maxxhavoc]

Seems odd and out of character. Why?

From the comments:

We talked after 9/11, but Hurricane Katrina changed a lot for me. I began casually storing food and water so that if my city experienced a disaster my family would be ok for a few days until things calmed down. My husband was concerned that he would have no means to protect us or keep looters from taking our food. I began to consider a gun (for him to use) that would be locked away in a safe to be used only in an emergency. He enjoyed shooting, but understood the fears I had of having a gun around our children, so he encouraged me to join A Girl & A Gun and become educated. The rest is history!

 

[OilyPablo]

Awesome.

This is how we win.

 

[FROGO207]

Guess I was lucky. I was taught from the first thing that I needed to think out a situation and the need to be self reliant for my own well being. I could never rely on others for my total safety. That is why I do not like to fly on a commercial airline, as I have to relinquish my safety to someone elses hands. I am NOT afraid of flying however. In fact I can fly a single engine plane safely but there I am the one in control. We take many calculated risks every day, and if I can choose a safer path I will always do so. Like carrying when I am legally allowed. Going to a movie in a posted place?------Sorry I'll wait till it comes out on a DVD or Netflix for example. I even dislike having to disarm and empty my pockets to go 10 steps past the metal detectors in the local Federal building to get a printed copy of needed tax documents.:banghead: As if that makes someone feel safer.YMMV

 

[larryh1108]

There is hope.....

It does seem that as more and more women buy their first gun these days, the anti-gun forces seem to be losing ground. I do believe that the women of this country will be the ones to turn the tides of anti-gun sentiment.

 

[crazysquirrel]

You may have hit on something there about women and guns. Many I talk to are afraid of them. Perhaps this is because they do not understand them?

I want to get my wife one but she is 'gun shy'. I am too to a degree since I never had any desire to get one before. They make me nervous. Perhaps that too is because I am afraid of the responsibility?
Dunno.

But I plan on getting each of us one and especially her some women's training. Then see how she feels about guns. (mine will probably just be a paperweight as I would rather go fishing )

 

[200Apples]

(mine will probably just be a paperweight as I would rather go fishing )

While I applaud your thinking re your wife's training, I have the opinion that if you're going to purchase a firearm you should become a little more than familiar with it's operation and safe handling.

Please, at the very least, purchase "snap caps" or "dummy rounds" so that you may also practice loading and unloading your handgun, and become proficient in it's safe operation. Only then should it be considered a paperweight. Even then! it should be safely handled and used at a target range from time to time to maintain proficiency in it's use and safe handling.

I understand, too, the differing priorities for our free time but if you've chosen to invest in a firearm for your personal safety and home protection, treat it with the respect it warrants. When away from home and not carrying it on your person, it should be locked away out of view. Welcome to The High Road.

 

[crazysquirrel]

Apples, sorry I failed to mention that I had military training in pistols and shotguns.

Pretty much I just need a refresher course and a little practice from time to time.

My wife has never shot a pistol but she has shot a shotgun a few times when she was young.

My desire for a gun is for protection against home invasion primarily.

Any place else, I will exercise my right to RUN LIKE H3LL to get away if I can.

If robbed outside the home, everything I have can be sorely missed, but replaced. The robbers just want what you have and to get away. Not worth killing someone over a few bucks in my wallet.

Best advice: carry enough cash to buy a dime bag of crack. If they rob you they will be less inclined to harm you if they know they can get the money for their drug fix. Don't carry much more than that.

Carrying nothing will tick them off and out of spite they are stimulated to seek to harm you because they couldn't get what they wanted (money for drugs).

Think if carrying money in public like going to the casino - only take what you can afford to lose.

If armed however, that is a personal choice to take someone's life.

 

[crazysquirrel]

While I applaud your thinking re your wife's training, I have the opinion that if you're going to purchase a firearm you should become a little more than familiar with it's operation and safe handling.

Please, at the very least, purchase "snap caps" or "dummy rounds" so that you may also practice loading and unloading your handgun, and become proficient in it's safe operation. Only then should it be considered a paperweight. Even then! it should be safely handled and used at a target range from time to time to maintain proficiency in it's use and safe handling.

I understand, too, the differing priorities for our free time but if you've chosen to invest in a firearm for your personal safety and home protection, treat it with the respect it warrants. When away from home and not carrying it on your person, it should be locked away out of view. Welcome to The High Road.

I had my eye on a taurus 9mm. It takes a special key to unlock it and to lock it.

Dunno which gun to buy yet.

I can lock the gun on one lockbox and the ammo in a different lockbox.

My kid is old enough to not touch things if I tell him not to. He has been around a rifle for years and never ever touched it. He is more interested in video games lol.

Ammo here is expensive and sometimes hard to find, especially 22LR's. People seem to want to hoard them. 9's are a bit easier to get.

Still haven't decided on which guns to get. A dirty harry gun for the wife and a 'noisy cricket' for me?

 

[Baron_Null]

Best advice: carry enough cash to buy a dime bag of crack. If they rob you they will be less inclined to harm you if they know they can get the money for their drug fix. Don't carry much more than that.

Carrying nothing will tick them off and out of spite they are stimulated to seek to harm you because they couldn't get what they wanted (money for drugs).

Think if carrying money in public like going to the casino - only take what you can afford to lose.

If armed however, that is a personal choice to take someone's life.

Be warned that this isn't a guaranteed outcome by any means. There are many, many cases where an innocent person who was complying with their aggressor's demands was still harmed. My girlfriend's grandfather is an unfortunate example of this. He was robbed by a group of young men, and was beaten into a coma regardless of his compliance with their demands. The complications from the coma later led to his death.

Compliance vs. resistance with an aggressors demands is more a topic of discussion for the Strategies Tactics and Training subforum, though.

 

[Baba Louie]

Not worth killing someone over a few bucks in my wallet.

CS, this is YOUR reality but are you really taking a chance that someone who sticks a gun in your face shares the same values of human life?

So maybe bad guy just takes your "stuff" including your keys, phone and wallet. Wife and kids at home alone waiting for you... someone else gets there first, with a gun in hand...

Or perhaps the next person he chooses to rob gets shot, maybe killed?

Decisions decisions decisions...

 

[crazysquirrel]

Well, keys - car is insured. Wallet? Nothing in it that is worth money. Phone? Don't have one.

If they drove to my address on my ID they would go to the wrong place lol. I haven't changed it yet (just recently moved).

Where I am gun crime is very low but theft from break ins is very high.

I tend to use common sense like staying in areas with people around, cameras, and rarely go out after dark.

Now if I went to a big city that would be a different story.

But here, I feel much safer due to the lax CC laws (no permit needed to CC here). And I believe that people around me are generally armed. It is kind of like being at a police convention lol.

My neighbors won't tolerate any bad behavior from criminals.

My main purpose for guns is for home protection not necessarily personal protection outside the home.

I try to avoid trouble like the plague.

 

[Baron_Null]

Where I am gun crime is very low but theft from break ins is very high.

I'm glad that where you live is relatively peaceful and the threat of violence is comparatively low, but that is absolutely not universal.

Frankly, giving out advice such as "carry enough cash to buy a dime bag of crack. If they rob you they will be less inclined to harm you if they know they can get the money for their drug fix. Don't carry much more than that." implies that you believe your situation to be universal, when there are people here that can tell you that it's not by any means.

Once again, I'm happy for you that you live in a place where you can feel comfortable that your measures will deescalate a situation. However, I would appreciate it if you can refrain from giving out this "advice" without caveats making sure that people don't interpret your words as some universal constant, and to make sure that when giving out said advice you acknowledge the possibility that it has a very real chance of not going as you say.

I try to avoid trouble like
the plague.

You and me both.

 

[bandur60]

Old story,new actors ....

2-3 weeks ago, three of us put on an informal crash "hunter's ed" course for a group of nine or ten people, mostly from Florida (this was in NW Montana.) It wasn't really to qualify them, they just wanted the exposure to the knowledge and some hands on. The youngest (I think, a 20-year-old lady college freshman) agreed to come but I don't think she planned to touch any hardware. After, actually during, the initial discussion, guns started being shown, then passed around one at a time. That went fine, after lunch the CZ .204 and a .223 came out, anyone who wanted could shoot them; next came a Bearcat and a MkIII Ruger with Ultradot. The young Jane Doe took everything in stride, then moved up to a 9mm Sig and a .38 Smith snubby. Some of them shot the Judge with both .45 and .410 loads,one wife made a trip to town for more ammo!! Never did get to any shotguns (long guns), or have any safety issues.

It was a picture perfect Christmassy day, 4-6 inches of powder the night before and a calm day, maybe 30-35 degrees, they shot until it was too dark to go on. Definitely made a convert that day!! The Thank You card was just extra icing on the cake.

 

[rcmodel]

That's all great and all that you did that.
I was a Kansas Hunter Safety Instructor for 10-12 years.

But, WHY in the world would you start a new shooter out with a .204 or .223???

Both are relatively LOUD, and can scare the panties off a new shooter just from the concussion!

Start them with a low noise, no recoil .22 RF until they get the basics of proper hold, sight alignment, and low noise sorted out in their brain.


And figure out shooting isn't going to hurt them when a .204 or .223 blows up in there face (they think?) the first shot.

rc

 

[200Apples]

Apples, sorry I failed to mention that I had military training in pistols and shotguns.

No worries. Yea, I ran into another one of your posts elsewhere and thought, "Wait a minute... this guy knows more than he let on in his handgun-as-paperweight post..." Hahaha...

Please! carry on.

 

[JSH1]

You may have hit on something there about women and guns. Many I talk to are afraid of them. Perhaps this is because they do not understand them?

Many are "introduced" to guns by idiots that give them something like a 12 ga or 357 magnum for their first experience shooting a gun. They pull the trigger, experience physical pain along with just being startled by the noise and recoil. The men have a good laugh, the woman puts down the gun and never picks one up again.

(My wife was introduced to guns with a 12 ga shotgun loaded with 3 inch slugs when she was 14 and weighed 90 lbs.)

 

[crazysquirrel]

a question. Was the handle pretty? lol

I think that if the gun was stylish or decorated more women might take the plunge?

 

[crazysquirrel]

When I was a young teenager my dad took us to a farm to let my mom learn to shoot.

She shot a whole box of shells but one. I begged to have one shot, just one.

My mom couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a 20ga. She missed every time.

The last shell I was allowed to shoot. One shot, and the coffee can exploded! Dead on hit.

I'm guessing here from memory but the can was about 30 feet away. Hard to remember.

 

[crazysquirrel]

No worries. Yea, I ran into another one of your posts elsewhere and thought, "Wait a minute... this guy knows more than he let on in his handgun-as-paperweight post..." Hahaha...

Please! carry on.

Shhh.... my secret lol

I do know a lot but not a lot of new information. Especially laws and situations. And even the guns today are different than those back then. More safety features I believe.

Military situations are far different than civilian situations. I haven't shot a gun in 35 years.
I had to shoot 30 rounds to qualify. First shot I missed because I didn't know what to expect and was afraid. The next 29 shots were kill shots. I expect the same will happen again when I pick up that horse and start riding again so to speak.

I really want to get one but something came up and I may have to wait another year (financial expense).

And if I could get one now, it really would be a paperweight (or nut cracker?) because I could not afford to shoot it lol

 

[barnbwt]

I was never an 'anti,' though I did sympathize with many of their policy prescriptions for a time, mostly because their side was all I ever saw (even then, I'd figured out that they should be focusing on handguns more than rifles, though; folks who oppose assault weapons imo are simply too stupid to ever be free). Upon graduating college in the mid-2000s, I decided to buy a rifle & learn to shoot, because "it's simply one of those things a man should know how to do*," and after even the most cursory examination of gun-stuff online while shopping for the 700 SPS, the veil I'd seen the gun issue through was quickly lifted. Basically, the instant I had even the slightest reason to actually think about the issue, the house of cards for gun control collapsed. I suspect the vast, vast majority of their support is rooted in similar passivity, from similar folks in peaceful boroughs who have never had cause to consider the issue.

Guns really can be used for self defense, and to do so makes sense.
Assault weapon bans really are such misguided policy prescriptions that it casts enormous doubt on the entire gun control conceit.
Anti gun politicians & activists really do know less about guns than I learned in an hour researching a single purchase online.
Gun control is and always has been about suppressing the threat of native minority groups.
The people that doubt the above are some of the most naiive and domesticated ('over civilized' is another term) creatures you can encounter.

After a few years of shooting & acquiring a few more guns, I came across the gun building hobby, which quickly disabused me of any further respect for the gun control movement or its adherents. Gun building requires a much more nuanced view of gun technology, as well as the laws regulating it, and the perspective gained is not flattering at all to the gun control folks. They know literally nothing about the issue, they are proud of this fact, and outright hate gun owners for possessing this forbidden knowledge. At best it is the pining for brutal authoritarian rule over their neighbors; at worst an anti-intellectual breed of mysticism heralding a new dark age.

TCB

*This impulse is what is missing from so many modern Americans. I got mine from the Boy Scouts and admirable ancestors. This overriding principle prevents stagnation of the character, and the formation of utter dependence in every facet of life. Every man (and every woman) should know how to do a whole long list of stuff, and be able to make an even longer list of stuff, yet far too many can only 'do' so in the virtual realm.