Interesting experience with neighbor

[DWS1117]

I was outside this evening enjoying the nice cool 90 degree temp and chatting with my neighbor. He was telling me how is wife had gotten tickets to the Texans pre season game for tomorrow night, but they weren’t going because they had no sitter for their two kids. Being the good neighbor that I am I volunteered my wife to watch the kids. He got excited about going. Now I though everything was settled. We worked eating times and bed times and bath and all other details. He then asked me if I had any guns in the house. I was like ***? Great I live next to an anti. I responded by asking why it mattered. What he said just floored me. He said that he and his wife don’t let their kids stay in any house that does not have adequate protection.

I had always pictured this guy and his wife as antis. I am glad I was wrong. Turns out he is an avid shooter and from continuing talks seems very pro gun and pro RKBA.

Looks like I may have a new shooting buddy.

Has someone you just “knew†was an anti turn out to be pro-gun?

 

[Standing Wolf]

No, but I have a neighbor who surprised me by mentioning she not only owns guns, but went out one evening after a prowler armed with a .30-06. She's a wee bitty wisp of a middle-aged lady, mild and polite as you please, but made of sterner stuff than she appears, I'd say.

 

[Sven]

It's happened to me more than once.

More significant in my mind: Was home visiting my parents, brought up my new hobby. Step-dad runs upstairs and brings down some gorgeous guns that had been in the house the whole time I was growing up - he never told us because, well... kids is kids.

One of the guns is a 95%+ Colt 1911 pistol dating back to 1917... God, that gun is amazing. Others were shotguns that my grandpa Squint (rest his soul) used to hunt back in the early 1900s.

Open communication is tough on these subjects.... but, you live in Texas, right? I mean, isn't gun ownership required to be a CITIZEN there?

 

[AZTOY]

Yes

I has house sitting for a older lady and in the living room is 3 years of NRA magazines, America's 1st Freedom

There was also a .357 next to the bed and a shotgun in the closet.

 

[Horsesense]

"I have a neighbor who surprised me by mentioning she not only owns guns, but went out one evening after a prowler armed with a .30-06. "

You got to have a talk with that woman, before she kills someone two blocks away (or next-door! ) sounds like she's got a good attitude but needs help in selecting a weapon.

 

[Jake]

Ya you can get a surprise once in a while. I remember when I was about 12 or 13 and finding out that dear little grandma always had a .357 handy.

 

[Morgan]

My father asked me what I was doing one weekend a few years back. I told him I was going to the NRA convention (this was just after the Columbine shootings). He asked if we should carpool - he's never owned guns, but it turns out he's been an NRA member for years, which he'd never brought up before.

My brother and I got him a pistol for his next birthday, and a revolver last Christmas, which we then had tuned by one of the best in the business. The Old Man is proud of that one, I tell you. And I'm proud of him.

 

[NRA Instructor]

We are not alone and not nuts.
I had a similar experience with our new Pastor. I told him there was a church meeting I could not attend as I was working at our outdoor range on deer hunter sight in that weekend.
I found out he's a NRA member, a hunter and wanted the address of the range as he wanted to sight in his .270 for the fall deer hunt.

 

[redneck2]

Regardless of what the media says...

I'm in sales. I talk to people all the time. I run into very, very few who are anti's (in fact, I can't remember a single one)

but I run into a lot of people that are shooters and hunters. As is typical, the media reflects the world as they wish it was instead of the way it really is.

 

[BryanP]

Sven said -

.... but, you live in Texas, right? I mean, isn't gun ownership required to be a CITIZEN there?

My favorite scene from the movie "Miss Congeniality" is after Sandra Bullock (undercover FBI looking for an assassin) tackles a man when she sees him reaching in to his jacket where she had noticed a gun earlier.

Turns out not to be who they're looking for. After everything is calmed down she says "But he had a gun!" Candice Bergen responds "This is Texas! My hairdresser carries a gun!"

 

[Airboss]

Texans

Only two kinds of People in the World
Texans
and those that wish they were

 

[Sharpie1]

Texas

I also used to think of Texas as being a gun-owner's utopia - until I actually began reading about the carry laws, etc. in Texas.

- Only "approved DPS Instructors" qualify to train for the permit
- 10-15 hour training required.
- more training for renewals
- exorbitant fee for permit
- NO OPEN CARRY!!!

Then, my appreciation for the freedom we enjoy in the Commonwealth in Virgina was reaffirmed.

Obviously, I am all for proper training....but state mandated training? Of course, I'm not a supporter for state-mandated permission slips for carrying, either.

*sigh*

TD

 

[Roper]

I don't think so Airboss! What state is on top for Texas? Who's your daddy!

 

[Stetson_CO]

Not my neighbor but my g/f got the Ruger SP101 .357 that her grandfather carried after he passed away and now shes taking classes(in Denver) on how it works and shooting techniques.

She went shooting with us and had a blast. I knew she didn't have a problem with guns but I didn't know til last weekend that she was THAT interested in shooting.

I got lucky with this one


c):{

 

[Sisco]

My son wanted to take one of his buddies to the range with us, I said I'd be glad to do it but had to get permission from his mom first. She's a single mother and I really didn't know her that well at that time.
I gave her a call and asked if it would be OK if he went with us, explained that they would be safe and supervised every minute. I didn't know what kind of reaction I was going to get; a yes, a no or a rant about guns.
Her answer really surprised me, she wanted to know if I had enough guns or would we need more! She just happened to have a couple of .22's that had belonged to her dad.

 

[Detritus]

Mine was finding out that the Pastor of the church i grew up in, (an otherwise fairly liberal person) not only owned guns but had a gun vault about half the size of my house (his daddy was some sort of big time lawyer/judge type), filled with all kinds of goodies, and had a class 3 license!! the last one mainly to make DAMN sure that it was legal for him to have his father's prize pistol, a full auto Broomhandle Mauser made in Guernica(sp?) spain (the one that was bombed by the Nazis and inspired a rather lurid Piccaso painteing).

 

[Dregan]

One of my co-workers (a very nice quiet lady, whom I won't call old, even though she is 30 years my senior) saw me cleaning out my wallet at my desk one day, and one of the thing in my "keep" pile was the receipt of my Walther P99QA. I ended up having a 30 minute discussion about why I chose the Walther over the S&W99 (like HERS!)... Blew my mind that she'd even know the difference between a revolver and a semi-auto, let alone OWN one...

 

[XLMiguel]

I was at the Dr.'s for some blood work, and I asked the Nurse Practitioner (nice lady, perky 50-something) to add in a lead test, as I shoot at an indoor range fairly regularly. She smiled and asked what did I shoot, so I answered, "Mostly handguns, .45 & 9 mm, how 'bout yourself?" Big smile and she says she and her husband are into sporting clays, big time. Apparently, she's the dead-eye in the family And this was in McLean, a pretty yupper-crust area in Fairfax County

Oh, yeah, the doc's a shooter, too.

 

[Chupacabra]

My coworkers continually surprise me on how open and receptive they are to the idea of firearms. Not one of them has told me "Guns are bad!" or questioned why I own them. A few have even expressed interest in going to the range with me!

 

[Moparmike]

I personally have no aspiration to be a Texan. After merely driving thru the state on I-35 from Okie City to Laredo, and from Baton Rouge to Houston to Laredo, I have had enough of Texas. The Louisiana side isnt bad, but south of Austin what yall call a tree is a sapling here. 35-foot tall tree turned out to be 150 years old! Looked like a 35 foot shrub. And I-35 is all concrete on both sides and copper-crap brown colored (yall call it "earth tones") strip malls! I was sickened when I noticed everything was the same color!
[/Texas rant]

However, I do wish that we had a "Make my day" Law.

I found out that my mom was a pro-rights person, and not the Anti I thought she was.

 

[benEzra]

Local children's medical clinic is having a sporting clays fundraiser for special needs kids.

 

[TearsOfRage]

Explain to me why I would want to give up my freedom to live in Texas? In addition to what tadyson listed, there is a long (and variable?) list of places Texans can't carry.

I don't think I've ever met an anti here, except for a few who show up at the statehouse to counter our rallies.

 

[longtom4570]

I just found out that my PA at my doctors office not only shoots but does the whole tacticle training with pack andweb gear he even told me about aplace he and his buddies shoot thats about 10 min from my house and its all desert with mtn back stop for long range and other stuff

 

[Kentucky Rifle]

In Kentucky...

..it was a minister who campaigned relentlessly because he wanted to preach while wearing his Glock 27. I'm pretty sure he got THAT silly law changed. But I'm not sure.

KR

 

[capnrik]

Explain to me why I would want to give up my freedom to live in Texas?

I personally have no aspiration to be a Texan. After merely driving thru the state on I-35 from Okie City to Laredo, and from Baton Rouge to Houston to Laredo, I have had enough of Texas.

Say, that's exactly right guys. No need to move down here....spread the word amongst your neighbors....Texas is terrible...stay up north.