Did I mention my wonderful, tolerant wife?
I started purchasing guns about 4 years ago...started with an SKS. My wife has been wonderfully tolerant of my want/need to further augment my collection which has grown very quickly. Last night I was telling her about this thread I'd started and that I then knew what my next firearm acquisition was going to be. Again, I had to remind her of my
primary reason for owning firearms...which is not because they're very very cool (which they are, of course). My primary reason is for the same reasons the Founding Father's insisted on the 2A...I should have the right and duty to defend myself, my family, my countrymen, and my Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, or those who would seek to deprive me of life, liberty or property. My wonderful, Liberal, Very-Uncomfortable-Around-Guns wife continues to support our ownership of guns and continues to support 2A.
Ok, so you must be wondering what in the heck that heavy philosophical schtick has to do with this otherwise light-hearted thread. Well, I told you all
that so that the following would make more sense.
Without revealing to the world
every gun I own, here's what some of you mentioned that I should have and, in fact, already do:
SKS
.308
couple of shotties
Makarov (I admit it, I'm a Makarovnik...great little guns!)
Sig 226 9mm
Now, considering my little diatribe above (i.e., my primary reason for owning arms), here's why I own these (yes, this is leading somewhere...I promise)
SKS was my 1st acquisition. It was recommended to me (correctly) as one of the best multi-purpose rifles around. You can hunt, defend yourself, it's very reliable, inexpensive to own and operate, etc...
Then, the Mak. Concealable, reliable. Yea, less ideal than a lot of handguns (9x18, for example) but not too bad nonetheless. I still had much to learn about handguns at that point (and still do for that matter).
Then, the shottie. Nothin' says "you're about to die" like the "SHUK-SHUK" of a 12 ga being cycled.
Ok, here's where this all starts making a little sense (I hope). Those were the "Essential 3." I believe every household (well, that I'm in charge of anyway) should have a good hunting rifle, a concealable handgun, and a home-defense shotgun, so now you have an idea behind my buying patterns for firearms.
So, after I got the "Essesntial 3" I started getting guns that could be higher-quality replacements to the Essential 3, making my original guns very handy and reliable back-ups to nicer, newer guns ('cept for my shottie which I got brand new). I also purchased guns that filled in a few gaps that the Essential 3 leave. In my case, my handgun (a Mak) was a good concealable gun, but 9x18 isn't exactly the most powerful round. Don't get me wrong...I won't wanna get shot with one. But why have a 9x18 and have some lingering doubt when you can have a 9x19 or, better yet, a 45 acp or .357 mag and be sure your target is going down (provided proper shot placement of course)! So, I got a Sig P226. Alright...before you say "hey, that's not a terribly small and concealable gun, mister!", allow me to point out that I am 6'2" 240lbs. It's concealable on
me.
Now, back to "present day" where y'all have helped me decide to go with an AR-15 forst instead of the Glock.
In answer to a couple of previous questions/observations...
Yes, the Glock is gosh-awful ugly. I asked my very non-gun-savvy wife to tell me, strictly from an aesthetic point-of view, which looked better to her....my Sig or a typical Glock. She literally recoiled when she saw the Glock. She said, "It looks like a design based on a 6-year-old boy's drawing of a gun." ...and she's a teacher, folks.
But I am bound and determined to get a Glock anyway. Why? Because I've had too many people, some of them recent combat veterans, tell me that they would (and have) put their lives on the line with a Glock and wouldn't trust any other firearm's reliability as much as Glock's ever again. That was kinda difficult for a Sig man like me to take...but I heard it over and over again. So, even though I'm still a Sig guy, I'm gonna have a Glock in there too.
This should be pretty obvious by now if you've followed my gun-buying pattern, but the AR is a replacement weapon for my SKS. Well, not a replacement, really...the SKS stays, but will now mack up my AR.
So, what's in my boom-stick future after the AR and Glock? I'm sure I'll add a revolver in there (prolly a .357). I don't think I'll need much more than the 9mm and .45 from a semi-auto handgun calliber perspective, but who knows what I'll think of tomorrow. ;-)
One thing's for sure though...what I read on THR day-by-day will be, in combination with my own opinions and on-going education, a very infuential factor in what comes next. Heck, I just let you guys make me buy an AR! (yea...you "made" me do it...that's what I'll tell the wife).
