Ever let someone borrow a firearm?

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I've only lent my firearms out under one condition. If it's a hunting/shooting trip where I am involved and it has to be returned to me at the end of the outing. I also don't let anyone else ride my motorcycle unless it has to be transported and I am unable to ride it myself. Firearms and motorcycles are personal objects much like a pair of shoes.
 
Being in the Military, a person can form a very special bond with a few folks.
There are one or 2 such people in my life that would die for me and vice versa.
They have unrestricted access to everything I own and have NEVER let me down..... (one guy trades cars with me just for fun)...

Any one else.... sorry, it's just not gonna happen.
 
Anyone that can borrow my car can borrow my gun, which is just about no one. and definitely. no one with out a very good reason.
 
I classify my guns by which I would loan out and which I wouldn't. While I was in California, it would have been a strict no for all of them law do to the nature of laws, there, but down in AZ or up here in WA, I am bit more relaxed about it. BTW, that's usually just for close friends. An 870 or 10-22 is more likely to be in the "I can replace it easily so I would let a friend borrow it," category, where as the EBRs and pricey pistols are in the "Only for TEOTWAWKI, would I loan/give this out, and then only to someone I trusted with my life."

I have borrowed a few firearms, (To go dove hunting when I didn't own a shotgun,) and babysat a few, (Fellow Marines who couldn't keep them in the barracks and certainly weren't putting them in the armory,) so I'd be a hypocrite to never loan any out.

But everytime I let one go, I realize it might never come back.

I think joab's Car rule of thumb is a good one.
 
Most people my age has their own. When I was younger I lent guns out and other than having to ask for them back - I didn't have any problems.

When I was in school, my father didn't own enough rifles for all us kids to hunt deer with. I asked my uncle several times if I could borrow his 30/30 that he recieved as a gift from a priest at our church when he was a kid. It always came back with a fresh coat of oil and a big thank you. It had been ruined from lhim leaving it in a gun case under his bed.. I spent many hours trying to rub the rust off the reciever of that gun.. My dad even bought a set of RCBS dies for 30/30 Win. even though he never owned one. Just because we always borrowed his brothers rifle. I also borrowed several other rifles off him before I was old enough and rich enough to buy ones of my own.

I asked my grandmother several times if I could borrow my grand fathers rifle and it always felt like pulling teeth. Finally she just gave it to me and said to take it in welcome. One day my dad decided he wanted his dad's gun back and I took it up to him. The last I saw it, it was in his gun cabinet and had not been cleaned or oiled in the last 10 years. That is the way he takes care of everything he owns.

If they ask and say May I, Please and Thank YOU. Then yes I will lend them anyone anything I own. If you lend something out and you have to fear that they will not oil it or clean it or take care of it. Might be left in the trunk of someone's car for weeks at a time, or if you have to pester someone to get it back, or if they are too lazy to even come to your house to borrow it. Then you can pretty much expect that they are not trustworthy enough to be lending it to in the first place..

One of my dad's co workers - was a shyster and was into buying and selling guns. He knew that you could get a large sum of money for a .22 Hornet where I live.. My dad told them I had a .22 that I might sell. They asked him if he would bring it in so they could look at it. I lent him the gun, a (.22 MAG ) and immediately they didn't want it. Because I wanted as much for it as I had in it. $250! They thought that I was dumb or something and that I had a .22 Hornet and would just sell it for next to nothing and then they could put it up for sale for double or triple what they bought it for.

When he found out they didn't want it, he just put it in the trunk of his car.
Problem was that he had been hauling tomato's home for my mother to can all week and the juice was in the carpeting. It was hot outside that day and the humidity must have been very high in his trunk and it ate the blue on the barrel and even attacked the clip to the point where it was junk. A nice Marlin 22 now ruined.

So for anyone to say - I will lend it out to a family member, I would have to say to anyone other than my father!
 
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This Galesi 25cal pistol was my first firearms purchase.. It was 1966 and I paid $35.00 for it, new.

Around 1970 or so I had become a bit more prosperous and had acquired a new Charter Arms Undercover, (not THAT prosperous), and the little snubby replaced the Galesi for cc.

My wife's Aunt visited us and mentioned she needed a firearm as she was working nights.. I "loaned" her my Galesi, in hopes it would vanish in the night. It was never terribly reliable, and I warned her about that.

I forgot all about it and we relocated next door to her and her husband in 2002. About a year ago we were visiting her and she said "I've got something of yours" and came out with the old Galesi.. AND my original Ga. cc permit..

The pistol was frozen (rusted) solid, and she had never fired it.. Same 6 rds still in the magazine as when I gave it to her. I gave the Galesi a two day oil bath, then managed to free it up. I ordered a new complete spring kit for it, and had a friend (gunsmith) put it all back together. Now it shoots just fine, with the same unreliability it had the day I bought it.

Basically it's not worth a poop, but has a lot of sentiment for me. The next time it leaves my possession it'll be to my "heirs"..;)

Best Wishes,

J. Pomeroy

P.S. The Charter Arms Undercover was actually a very good little snubby.. I got a touch of "brand name snob" syndrome and replaced it with Colts & Smiths, but none were ever any more accurate, or reliable than the $87.00 Undercover. I gave it to a favorite Uncle who needed personal protection.
 
Most of my firearms are of the self defense variety, and I definitely would be hesitant to loan them out to anyone for that purpose other than a family member or a "very" close friend. If a co-worker or casual acquaintance suddenly decided that they needed to borrow a gun for safety, I would offer to drive them to the gun shop and offer my advice. I would expect to be held at least partially responsible for anything they did with a loaned gun, and asking me to do that crosses a line they may not realize is there. If they really need one badly enough to ask me to do so, they should be more than willing to buy their own.
 
I *SWAP* firearms with one friend, and two relatives. Anyone else, I will let them TRY it at the range, where I hand them the firearm ready to fire, and take it back from them.
 
I swap and trade guns with my dad all the time , my sister-in-law I loaned a 38 spec snubbie for self protection with the caveat that she take lessons but didn't and on top of everything she had it locked in a box to which she lost the key (never again ) , and a departed old neighber who had the keys to my house , car and safe . And finally a friend I loaned my 45 to put down a beloved pet of his (he was still in tears the next day at work when he returned my gun ) .So to whom I loan a gun to depends on character and reasons
 
My guns are where I am.

That said, I've had a friends revolver for almost 2 months. He's not so picky and it is an easily replacable gun. Before it goes back to him, I've at least given him the privelege of it being cleaned better than he has ever cleaned it.
 
I let my neighbor borrow my 10/22 when he went up to the mountains for vacation so he could teach his kids how to shoot with it. I've known him for about 10 years and I know he is responsible. I figured I helped do my part with teaching the next generation about guns and shooting by letting him borrow my 10/22. I wouldn't let anybody borrow any of my handguns though. I let friends shoot my guns as long as I'm with them, but the guns always go home with me.
 
no, plain and simply no.

No one borrows my tools. No one borrows my car. And most importantly no one borrows my guns.
Click to expand...

+1.


A friend that I have known since childhood asked me ONE time, to borrow my mdl 19, so that he and a friend of his could go shooting.
My friend had a DW mdl 15-2 and his friend had nothing.
He said that his friend had some handloads that he wanted to try.

I told them both to send their wives over and I'll let him use the revolver.
They asked why their wives. . . .

I said that I had something that I wanted to try on them.:evil:

Don't ask to borrow my guns, and I won't ask to borrow your wife/S.O.
 
yes.

I have let people borrow my firearms, and will continue to do so. I never lend anyone anything unless I'm okay with the possibility of never seeing it again. I make sure that all the members of my tribe are armed who want to be, so most of my kin own firearms already (though I suppose they could get stolen or destroyed somehow; but then I would help them get new ones to keep).

If you came to town tomorrow and said "Hi, I'm so-and-so-off-of-THR, can I borrow a gun until my family gets set up and can get ourselves one?", I would most likely let you borrow one. Unless you seemed dangerous or evil. It would be a break-top 12 gauge, probably, but it would be good enough to get you through.

Experience has taught me that naivete is more practical than one would initially assume.
 
Yes I do

Yes I do. If I know the person very well.
FIRST - Ask yourself this question - would I trust this person w/a family member?

What is the pourpous, and length of time of the loan. This is a ground rule needs to be set. Do not loan it out indefinetly, or it will never come home.
 
Simply put...no. Nor do loan tools, my vehicles, my dogs (dead now), my credibility or my wife.
But we could possibly work out a rental agreement ...................
on the dogs.
 
During college, a friend signed up for a trap and skeet class... without first enquiring as to whether he needed his own shotgun. The first day of class, he chased me down, wanting to borrow my 8 shot Ithaca riotgun, minutes before the class started. I loaned him my gun for a few days until he could borrow something more appropriate. There were apparently no problems, since almost thirty years later, the gun's sitting in my safe right now.
 
To my father, to my brother, (who is also a soldier,) and to a very tight circle of maybe three friends who are familiar with my guns because we have cross-trained on all our weapons together, and whom I trust enough that if one of them showed up on my doorstep at 2am and told me; "I need a gun, no questions asked," I would give it to them. Maybe three guys.
 
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