Long story short, the girl has been shooting but did not want me owning guns for a variety of irrational / emotional reasons. Rational reasoning in all other forms failed.
"It's for protection." -> "Get a baseball bat."
"It's enjoyable." -> "So take up golf."
"You know, this area has almost 3 times the national average of rapes per capita."->"I can take care of myself, a gun wouldn't help anyway."
"It's for political reasons (a relative of mine was in a concentration camp)." ->"well, my family was run off their farm in the old country, and a lot of them got shot, that doesn't mean I go out and buy a gun."
So I said: "Here it is. I didn't want to being this up but this is how it stands. I feel that you're intruding on my personal boundaries by insisting that I get rid of my firearm. We've dated for awhile, so I can tell you the following. If I just met a hypothetical woman and she said 'It's the guns or me' as you just did, for a variety of reasons I would say that she didn't respect or trust me, and I'd show her the door. Please don't make me answer that question if the woman is you, because I don't think you'd like the answer. I understand that you are scared of guns, but recognize that that falls under your personal boundaries and owning guns falls into mine. I love you."
...and what do you know, she said, "OK. Even if we move in together, it's still outside of my boundaries to insist that you get rid of the gun. The relationship is more important to me. I'm still scared of guns though."
Huzzah!
"It's for protection." -> "Get a baseball bat."
"It's enjoyable." -> "So take up golf."
"You know, this area has almost 3 times the national average of rapes per capita."->"I can take care of myself, a gun wouldn't help anyway."
"It's for political reasons (a relative of mine was in a concentration camp)." ->"well, my family was run off their farm in the old country, and a lot of them got shot, that doesn't mean I go out and buy a gun."
So I said: "Here it is. I didn't want to being this up but this is how it stands. I feel that you're intruding on my personal boundaries by insisting that I get rid of my firearm. We've dated for awhile, so I can tell you the following. If I just met a hypothetical woman and she said 'It's the guns or me' as you just did, for a variety of reasons I would say that she didn't respect or trust me, and I'd show her the door. Please don't make me answer that question if the woman is you, because I don't think you'd like the answer. I understand that you are scared of guns, but recognize that that falls under your personal boundaries and owning guns falls into mine. I love you."
...and what do you know, she said, "OK. Even if we move in together, it's still outside of my boundaries to insist that you get rid of the gun. The relationship is more important to me. I'm still scared of guns though."
Huzzah!
Now that's just plain messed up.
