FREAKED OUT by guns

[kazaam]

Just kidding, I'm not freaked out by firearms. Seems like most people who haven't used one are, though. Which brings me to these questions:

Were any of you freaked out the first time you shot a gun?

I put off going to the range with my buddy for quite a while simply because I was kind of nervous about all the stuff I've heard on the news about shooting deaths. When I got to the range, I was probably even more freaked out since I started hearing gunshots (never heard one up until then) lol. After I started shooting, I thought it was the coolest thing ever and that's how I found these forums.

Were any of you freaked out about the first gun you brought into your home?

So now that I've had some experience with guns, I'm obviously not freaked out about them. So naturally I want to get a handgun. HOWEVER...I keep getting <removed> from everyone telling me all of these random statistics about most firearms deaths being from the persons own gun, higher rates of suicide amongst gun owners, about no matter how careful you are "it only needs to happen once" and a bunch of other things.

I do know owning a firearm is a large responsibility, which I'm confident I can handle, but I'm curious about your (first) experiences with firearms.

 

[mljdeckard]

I shot my dad's Ruger Mk I when I was about four. I remember being very exhilarated, and being very careful not to hold my thumb behind the bolt, because he told me it could break it.

Now I train my boys with that gun.

 

[CSestp]

If these were not the common traits felt by new/late blooming members of the gun community something would be wrong. I grew up with shotguns, and shot my dads Mk II once when I was young. Other than that I had no contact with guns. I was never shunned away from firearms. Just never thrust into that world ether. When I began my collection at the age of 19. I had to pretty much learn everything on my own. Fear of humiliation at the gun range, and ignorance of proper gun range manners set me back for a while. Because my first few trips out I encountered what I felt as a very elitist attitude being the green horn at the gun range. I finally fell in with some older gents that enjoyed teaching others the right way to act, behave, and preform.

Now after a few years anytime I see that same unsure face at the range to the right or left of me. I make it a point to lend a helping hand in anyway I can.

 

[Skribs]

It took me a bit to be comfortable with my first gun, i.e. carrying with a round in the chamber. But after carrying it cocked, chamber empty for a while and having it not go off, and literally banging it on the table while loaded at the range, I grew comfortable, and I have been ever since.

 

[m3mh0g]

My wife cried her ever loving eyes out the first time she shot my S&W 639. Her mom made her terrified of guns, wouldn't even let her or her brothers play with water pistols. After she hit the bucket with her first shot and stopped crying she did very well. So well I got her a 3913. She still doesn't like the noise in an indoor range but enjoys shooting away from everyone else.

 

[hardluk1]

Freaked out!!! Different times different ways of life I guess when I grew up to even think ,freaked out about guns.

No I was tickled . I was 6 years old when I first fired a .22. Bought my first firearm with the help of dad when 13. A springfield 12ga pump shotgun. Hunted my butt off with it too. At 18 I bought a a 788 rem in 308. At 21 a 357 dw. A bunch of use swamp rats had our shotguns guns at school in the trucks rear windows on racks too. Even a 13 or 14 year many of us were excepted by the fish and game in the woods hunting by our selves hunting and fishing. Even the sheriffs deputys did not mind driveing on a county roads in a 4x4 or buggy if no homes were around and traffic was very low. That was not a problem back then. We had way more miles of roads than people.

Just different times then. Best times too.

 

[Sam1911]

Nope. My first exposures to guns were through seeing them regularly in the hands of, and universally in the gun cases of, my dad, uncles, both grandfathers, and most of the other men (sorry...back then it really was just the men...what can I say?) that I knew.

Took a while to catch on to the fact that folks really COULD be "freaked out" by them.

 

[Tcruse]

I had handguns in my early 20's and living in a place where I could shoot in the backyard. After that time moved to a more city location and got married, had a family, ..., Guns were just not a part of everyday life while my daughter was growing up. Now, she is in her 30's and last year I told her that I was going to buy a carry gun and a CCW license. My daughters response was to think I needed to visit the guys in white coats. No guns ever in her household. Last week she wanted to know where to learn to shoot. So, sometimes it just takes a while to accept the idea and to admit that the police may not always be able to protect you.

 

[JohnM]

I was getting older when I found out guns weren't a part of everyone's daily life.
Might have even been junior high, I got a BB gun at 5.
I remember my Mom was kind of ticked at my Uncle for giving it to me then.
She thought I should have been 6 before I had my own rifle.

 

[hso]

Nope, they were just part of the background growing up.

You should do some reading off the Resources page in the Activism forum or any of the threads in General about dealing with Antis and people fearful of firearms.

You know the statements people are making about the dangers of a gun in the home are a lot like saying people that go outside in the daylight are at a greater risk of sunburn. How else would you become a statistic if you weren't part of the population of people that had them? Look at the number of firearms owned in America. Look at the number of deaths per year and see that the percentages are so low.

 

[Skribs]

Some things to keep in mind, now that I look at the OP again...

1) The reason a gun in the home is more likely to lead to a suicide by gun is because that gun is available. If it weren't available, people would choose a different method. Removing the gun doesn't prevent suicide. Treating the depression would have better success.

2) If you follow the proper safety rules, a negligent discharge is less likely to hurt you. That's why there are redundant rules in place. Keep your finger off the trigger and a quality firearm will not go off. Keep it pointed in a safe direction so if it does go off, its not likely to injure you or anyone else.

 

[toejamm]

Freaked-out? Hardly

I can't remember how young I was when I first shot a firearm....pretty young.

Firearms were ALWAYS in our home.
It actually would freak me out to live in a place where there were no firearms.

I suppose it all has to do with ones upbringing

 

[nyrifleman]

Played war games wih my brother for as long as I could remember. My dad got me my first BB gun when I was 6, and first .22 when I was 8. I was excited, not freaked out. However, it's all a matter of conditioning. If you don't grow up with guns, I can see how getting into it could be harder psychologically. Glad to hear you learned to enjoy shooting!

The studies you are quoting -- 1) "gun owners are more likely to be shot with their own gun" and 2) "gun owners commit suicide more often" -- are twisted by the antis. The first study looked at PEOPLE WHO WERE MURDERED, and checked to see what they had in common. So it's not "gun owners are more likely to be shot with their own gun", it's "people who are murdered in the US are more likely to have owned a gun". Since 70% of the people in the US who are murdered every year are violent criminals (usually killed by their own "buddies"), it makes sense that those people had guns (ILLEGAL guns). By the way, the same study found that more of those people were renters than property owners... so does it follow that "renting an appartment puts you at risk of getting murdered"? No. It just means that violent criminals tend to be renters, not property owners.

Study 2) again the antis twist the wording of the study. Gun owners don't try to commit suicide any more often than other people. However, gun owners are successful more often (shooting yourself is more sure-fire than most of the other methods of suicide... I believe trying to overdose is the most popular method, and that's notoriously unreliable). Secondly, antis like to look at only the gun suicides... and of course, gun owners have more gun suicides. Doctors and drug users have more overdose suicides. People who have cars have more suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning. People use what they have at hand.

Now if you (or anyone reading this) have a history of suicidal thoughts, suicide in the family or have attempted suicide in the past, I would really recommend you see professional help. But having or not having a gun at home is NOT going to stop you.

 

[SlowFuse]

I, Like most of the posters so far, was raised around firearms. Mostly hunting rifles and shotguns. I shot my first 22 when I was around 6, and had a pellet rifle shortly after that. Dad bought me my first real gun, a New England single shot .410 when I was 9. My dads gone now so I will forever treasure that little single shot. I have since increased my collection significantly starting when I could legally buy long guns (im 25 now) but, here's how I can relate. My mother has, like me, been around long guns all of her life. She even has a BL-22 of her own. She however has always been "freaked out" by handguns. One of the first times I left a revolver out (cleaning it, unloaded, went to shed to get patches) I came back and she tried to hand it to me holding it by the grip with 2 fingers like a smelly diaper! I explained to her that yes, I shouldn't have left it in the open but many accidents happen from improper handling by untrained individuals. Shortly after, we worked on general grip and stance drills and eventually got to live fire. She turned out to be a great revolver shooter! Arthritis keeps her from racking slides on most of my autos. She now keeps a K frame (model 15) at her bedside and is quite proficient with any revolver you put in her hands as long as its not a j frame or similar size. Now if I were to leave one laying around and she happened to see it I'm positive she would hand it to me with a proper grip, muzzle down!

 

[rcmodel]

FREAKED OUT by guns?

I have been a couple of times, when someone else was pointing them at me.
A guy even shot me in the leg once, and that freaked me out a little.

Other then that?
No.

rc

 

[Nushif]

I guess I'm also in the camp of never having this acute fear response. My first shooting experience happened with an air rifle at a German range, so maybe I got eased into it very well, but I can't say I've ever gotten anything more than the normal amount of butterflies in the stomach during important events like qualifying.

If these were not the common traits felt by new/late blooming members of the gun community something would be wrong.

This response of being too scared to go a range or of being afraid of dying simply because someone's around a gun ... I am entirely unsure I would call that a "healthy fear or respect."
Butterflies in the stomach, nervousness, twitchiness for instance (from my fear of heights, for instance) I would call normal, but an actual inability to go to a public place out of fear, or the thought of dying at a moment's notice because of proximity to an object ... I am not sure that's healthy fear.

 

[mokin]

Not freaked out. I grew up shooting .22s with my dad and don't really remember my first experiences. Guns were always there, kind of like the dog. I can sort of relate to the idea though. My sister-in-law is really freaked out and I imagine dreads visits to my parents' house as it inevetibaly means a trip or two to the range for my nephew. She would just as soon him never have anything to do with guns. I had one pointed at me once and as RC said, it was a little "uncomfortable".

 

[230RN]

m3mh0g remarked,

My wife cried her ever loving eyes out the first time she shot my S&W 639. Her mom made her terrified of guns, wouldn't even let her or her brothers play with water pistols. After she hit the bucket with her first shot and stopped crying she did very well. So well I got her a 3913. She still doesn't like the noise in an indoor range but enjoys shooting away from everyone else.

Well, nobody likes the noise at an indoor range.

But I found a long time ago that it pays to have them double-up on ear protection, that is, plugs as well as muffs.

Sometimes, what with extra hair and earrings and whatnot, the earmuffs do not work as well as expected.

Oh, and make sure they button their blouses all the way and wear a hat.

Not much you can do about the concussive slap of someone next to her firing a loudenboomer. That can be bothersome to them (and me, too.)

I couldn't wait to fire my first .22, back in 1946-7 or so. Heck, I wuz brung up on Tom Mix and RR, and Gene Autry, and the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy and like that there stuff. I saw the gun sanding in the corner of the kitchen of the farmhouse we were staying at, and my first question was, "Is that a real gun?"

I recently bought a duplicate of that gun, a Remington Sportsmaster, just for olde tymes' sake.

To this day, the smell of a .22's exhaust brings me back to that day I took my first shot.

Terry, 230RN

 

[Dnaltrop]

Me? Other than nearly being shot, they've been nothing but a joy.

My wife used to shiver like a wounded animal in the car when she first was brave enough to join me... Childhood in one of the (then) worst parts of Portland with gunfire outside her window all night.

I left her alone to read while I shot, and kept offering over the years, and once she finally took a revolver in her hand and emptied it a few times, she not only got over her fear of shooting, but has become an owner herself.

 

[MrDig]

Being a product of a 1960's childhood and a father who was a WWII Veteran, no. I was raised watching shows like Dragnet, Hawaii 5-0, The Rifleman, Branded, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke and Bonanza.
The idea of guns never freaked me out, I thought there was a purpose and a point to owning them. From Hunting to Cowboying to Protecting others from Bad Guys guns have their place in my home. I'm not a Cowboy, or a Law Enforcement Officer, and my Soldier days are long ago but I still think guns have their place in my home.

 

[Snag]

Nope. Guns were always around when I was a kid. Most males over 13 had a gun, or wanted one. No one had gun safes, most had gun cabinets.

I didn't run into anyone that became freaked out by the presence of a gun till much later in life. Honestly it kind of makes me chuckle, like when you show someone a snake that hates snakes.

 

[chrt396]

The first firearm that I ever had the opportunity to shoot was a 30-06. The recoil pad was basically non-existant. I was never instructed to hold it in tight to my shoulder pocket..so when I pulled the trigger..I was not a overly excited kid! Felt like I was hit with a hammer! ESPECIALLY when you aren't expecting it!
Bought my own S&W 686, Ruger MK1, Colt Combat commander in the early 80's give or take...sold the Colt when my son was born...hid the others from my wife...and then started shooting again about 2 1/2 years ago. I have now amassed an arsenal...actually obsessed!!

It didn't freak me out when I bought them..it just intrigued the heck out of me. Just knowing "what" they could do..created curiousity. The first time at the range was eye opening, for I really never heard a real gunshot before. It was LOUD!!! 30 plus years later...nothing freaks me out in the way of guns. I love them and love shooting them even more!!

 

[Trent]

I was freaked out the first time I pulled the trigger on my Barrett.

Not much else has freaked me out before or since.

 

[checkmyswag]

Not freaked out, but frustrated I opened this post.

 

[Coop45]

No, I was tickled to buy my first .22 when I was 10. It was a JC Higgins single shot that sold for $12 and it was fun hunting squirrels with it.