People with guns who never shoot?

[M2 Carbine]

It is ALL related to the amount of interest a person has in shooting. The lower the interest level ,the less effort expended.

Yes.

A few months ago a neighbor lady was saying she was scared when her husband was away for days on business, She wanted to get a gun and learn to shoot. I told her I'd teach her to shoot and she could shoot a number of guns so she could decide what she wanted and it wouldn't cost her a thing.
No show.


Sometimes I think if I tell people I'd teach them to shoot for $100 and charge them for the ammo and use of the guns they would jump at the offer.

 

[Wheeler44]

I grew up with guns.....In my teen years shootin' forty rounds of centerfire a day was normal...For my own (very good) reasons I didn't shoot for 25 years....I had "friends" that didn't "understand"... Oh well....I guess it wasn't for them to understand...We are all different...And life is long (except when it isn't).

W44

 

[strmday]

I've owned guns for years but used to shoot very little. For me it was the lack of places to shoot. I used to drive about 30 miles to an indoor range that allowed ANYONE to shoot. Shady kids shooting their "nines". Even saw young men in long coats shooting pistol grip shotguns. Used to scare the crap out of me. The range was pay by the hour so if one of those guys showed up, you either shot with them or lost your range fee. I'm far from a gun snob as I like to shoot AK's, AR's as much as the next guy. Finally someone opened a range about 10 minute away that will not let in questionable characters. It's membership only, expensive, but a great, SAFE place to shoot. The older I get the more important the SAFE part is to me. I normally shoot there once or twice a week now.
Some day when I can afford my place in the sticks, I can't imagine not shooting almost every day.

 

[Sky]

Yep

Growing up I could walk out the back door and shoot as long as I did not hit the live stock. Dad was a Patton grunt in WWll so he had me shooting BB guns by 5 and a shot gun by 7..Never wanted me to have a .22 until I was 12 due to range issues. Afraid I might hit a neighbors cow. Now that I am older it is a pain going to my gun range for it is about 25 miles away partially driven in traffic. I have been shooting at least twice a week these last few months due to some new acquisitions and scope combos but alas it is a pain (outdoor range so hot it be egg cooking heat). A Pistol for home defense with something like a Crimsontrace that is zeroed at a range appropriate for your situation makes the pistol something I do not worry about shooting every week. Pitch black of night I don't even worry about the sights...laser on target whether from hip, prone in bed, upside down from ceiling fan, whatever, laser on target bullet gonna go there.

My second batch of kids will never get the chance to be "one with the outdoor universe" I fear.

There are people who have a weapon because it gives them peace of mind just knowing they have one somewhere they can get their hands on. Others for peace of mind or work feel they have to be very proficient with their shooter and be ready at all times (plus they enjoy the whole shooting thing). I have more guns than I could ever hope to carry unless placed in a rather large R.V. so I must not be the brightest bulb in my string of lights but I know I can grab something for a given situation, if given enough time to find it! Peace of mind is relative

 

[Onward Allusion]

You may be surprised at how many people do just that. We on THR and other forums are enthusiasts, collectors, avid shooters, hunters...etc. The average guy/gal may only want a gun to protect themselves and may only go shooting once a year if that. I know quite a few guys who only have a single gun at home and almost never go shooting. They want to have it "just in case" and they also don't carry on a daily basis. I personally think it's not a good way to go with owning a firearm, but that's just me.

Hamsen
People with guns who never shoot?

 

[Onward Allusion]

Marketing 101. Perceived value. You were giving "it" away so you either wanted something from her or are a hack. NOT SAYING THAT YOU ARE. Just saying that's how some people think... It's the whole no such thing as a free lunch thing...

M2 Carbine
<SNIP>Sometimes I think if I tell people I'd teach them to shoot for $100 and charge them for the ammo and use of the guns they would jump at the offer.

 

[22-rimfire]

I shoot less than I would like to. Shooting is not my No. 1 non-work time hobby. It does take some effort and I'm even a member of a private range. Of late, when I do shoot, I mostly shoot 22 rifles. It used to be dominantly shooting handguns (22's and centerfire); but I still enjoy shooting my 41 mag revolvers. I'm not really that concerned about being to be able to do a 2 second reload with my carry piece and I don't really care if I can't hit better than about paper plate accuracy at 10 yards with that gun.

Many buy a gun and shoot it a few times to familiarize themselves with the operation. I personally don't feel you have to shoot a lot to be able to hit "the broadside of a barn" with anything other than a derringer and derringers are for 3 feet or less distances.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I personally think it's not a good way to go with owning a firearm, but that's just me.

That doesn't make us right or them wrong. We all have to please ourselves as far as our own shooting habits go and support THEIR right to keep a gun in the closet "just in case".

 

[FourteenMiles]

For some it is just a tool and not a hobby. I have some hand tools for normal home upkeep but I don't spend hours in the garage/workshop like some folks. The tools are good to have but I do not get excited about them.

 

[MikeNice]

I think part of the problem is finding a place to shoot. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people buy a gun with good intentions but then get discouraged when looking for a suitable range. There are gun shops all over the place which make it easy to buy a firearm but it's not so easy to actually shoot it. The closest range for me is 20 miles away so I don't get out nearly as often as I'd like.

THis is a big problem for a lot of people. I live 20 miles from the nearest "public" range. They will not let you on the range without a back ground check, you have to complete a training course, you can not practice holster draw with a loaded weapon, and it cost a minimum of $20 per hour. That is if you buy five or more hours at a time.

Now you can join for $125 a year plus other fees. Then you still have to pay $10 - $15 an hour.

If I join the nearest "pistol & rifle club" It cost $150 a year plus $125 initiation fee. Plus you have to volunteer to work comps, range work days, and other events. So, you pay plus you have to give your time. So really you are paying more than $125 in dues. If you figure each hour of work at minimum wage, you are looking at well over $200 a year to go shoot.

I tried going to the inlaws to shoot. However, even in the country people start complaining after 30 or 40 shots.

Finding a place to shoot is probably the biggest hinderance to most shooters.

 

[content]

Hello friends and neighbors // I had time to drive the 40 min, where I shoot outdoors yesterday. The indoor range I frequent is much closer but handgun caliber only and no shotguns.

I knew a friend had purchased a firearm for HD several months ago and offered to include him. He admited not having fired the handgun yet but 96+ degrees was not an option for him ,even after I reminded him there was shade and plenty to drink.

I tried but no go,, had a blast myself trying out some new (to me) rifles/shotguns and a 1976 S&W Model 28 Highway Patrol I had done some work to fun, fun ,fun and more fun. Just take a sweat towel.

I think there are many who like the security of just having a firearm accessible in the house. The more they educate themselves about its proper usage the safer for us all.

My older uncle does not shoot any more but he is holding on to his M1 Garand "so I can get off a few shots if I need too". Tough old Marine to the end, got to respect that kind of non shooting gun owner.

I don't know any real collectors.

Among my hunting friends we all have our safe queens at this point but few compared to our shooters. I have increased buying guns I can shoot at the indoor range since I moved closer to civilization ( I could walk outside and shoot for twelve years) so now I have guns I rarely shoot except when hunting or preparing to hunt the game in season.

I know many people in this last group and it is growing fast.

Thinking about it, hunters I know that also Bow hunt practice with the Bow much more than their Firearms.

Funniest way to find out if the person is a shooter..... ask them if they have a gun, then ask them what make and model it is(like a car) and caliber. Many will not know.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Tough old Marine to the end, got to respect that kind of non shooting gun owner.

HE has my respect whether he still owns a gun or not.

 

[liikeaboss]

I'm very opinionated on this... so I'm probably going to get flamed for saying this, but I believe If you do not actively fire your gun(s) and strive to become an absolute marksman with it (them), you do not deserve to own a gun(s). A gun is a big responsibility, and it should not be likened to tools you keep in your garage to fix your lawnmower, this is not a even comparison.

A gun is a weapon, and if one chooses to wield a weapon, one should become fully and completely expert with that weapon.

I know there are many stories of "non gun people" successfully protecting themselves with guns in serials such as Armed Citizen. But how many incidents do we not hear about, where someone was unable to hit their target and was killed because of it? Or perhaps how many people have shot someone they love thinking it was the "bad guy" because of never having trained in a high stress environment or because of poor trigger control, etc?

IMO it is NOT okay to buy a gun, shoot 20 rounds through it, claim you "know how to shoot it", and throw it in your nightstand "just incase". But hey, that's just me.

PS: This comment is directed towards people planning or using the gun for self defense at some point. If someone is simply collecting guns, as collectors items, and has no interest in shooting them, that is a different matter.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I believe If you do not actively fire your gun(s) and strive to become an absolute marksman with it (them), you do not deserve to own a gun(s).

You and I could not be further apart on this.

IMO it is NOT okay to buy a gun, shoot 20 rounds through it, claim you "know how to shoot it", and throw it in your nightstand "just incase". But hey, that's just me.

No-one is asking you to do this. What a person does with their own property is THEIR business. If I buy a car drive it home and park it in my garage never to take it back out,so what? No comparison? More people are killed each year by unskilled drivers than by unskilled gun owners.

 

[LibShooter]

I convinced my boss to join me at a gun show. He caught the bug, sorta. He first fell for fancy shotguns. In the last two years he may have spent $30k on REALLY nice over/unders.

Then he bought an S&W wheelgun. Now he has a dozen or so .38s, .357s and .44s.

Then he decided to get a carry permit. The Walther he bought for the course has the 48 required rounds through it, and that's all.

He has purchased three or four dozen firearms in the last couple of years. As far as I know he owns 2 rounds of ammo... the two left in the box after his HCP course.

That's fine with me. He enjoys the guns as objects of beauty and craftsmanship. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

[Justin Holder]

I know a few people that are to busy buying new guns to ever have time to shoot any of them.

This I can't comprehend.

In point of fact, my cousin bought a new 1911 45 with a factory installed crimson trace laser grip. He brought it up to my house (10 minutes away) to shoot it at paper for the first time. He shot it a couple times and we discover the laser is not properly calibrated to point of aim. I offered to help him sight it in properly but he says no, "its good enough".

I'd bet he has less than 100 rounds through it, but he still thinks he is well prepared if he ever should need to use it.

Money is easier to spend than time I guess.

 

[mcdonl]

Shooting guns, and hitting a man sized target at 3-5 yards is pretty easy. My 11 year old daughter can do it with 9mm pistol, carbine, .357 magum, 38spl and a 22... could by the second or third shot with each gun.

Self defense shooting is more about how you deal with stress. You may "train" weekly and shoot 1000's of rounds a month, but crack under pressure... or you may be as cool as a cucumber under pressure and get the job done after simply learning how to operate any given firearm.

Some people practice their whole life to learn how to play the piano and never master "let it be" and others can sit at one for the first time and play like Beethoven... we are all different with different abilities and WE ALL HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO KEEP AND BARE ARMS!! Not just those with stock in 5.11 and a tactical underwear collection.

I am getting tired of people on this website saying who should, and who should not own guns. Slippery slope.

 

[JR47]

This isn't a new problem. How many WWII vets brought home a ".45", put it in a drawer, and died having never needed to shoot it in self-defense? That's a GOOD thing.

Years ago, everyone was expected to own a revolver for the home where we lived. Many of them had just enough rounds put through them to insure reliability to the owners. My father called me one afternoon, and asked me to come by his house. He and my step-mother were living in her house, and he had found a gun in the basement. It had been bought by her late husband, for protection. It is a nickle plated Iver Johnson, in .32 S&W Long. There was a box of dog-bone Remington cartridges with it, the lead having oxidized white. It was still in the factory box, with glass solvent bottle and brush.

The gun had sat, waiting to be needed, since the 1930s. Her late husband was a hunter/shotgunner, but didn't do much with pistols.

This is far more COMMON than we think.

NOBODY has the right to set arbitrary rules as to how much training, or how good a shot, someone is when they buy a gun. Especially since they are using in their own home. All the relentless "what-ifs" are just that, what if? In the real world, they have a nasty habit of never occurring.

A person who owns a gun for protection isn't going to vote to give them up, or restrict their use any further. What kind of fool would mirror the morally bankrupt politicians by advocating "minimum standards"? Spare us the tripe.

 

[William Lee]

"I am getting tired of people on this website saying who should, and who should not own guns. Slippery slope."

I agree with mcdonl, that's the same thing we hate on Illinois for doing.

 

[22-rimfire]

I think it's great that some gun owners like liikeaboss feel compelled to "master" the shooting arts. I felt that way at age 25. The fact is, I believe there is a certain mastery that comes with shooting that does not go away. You can improve on it, but the basic skill remains. I liken it to shooting instinctively with a bow & arrow.

I'm a realist. There is only so much time and some have better eye sight, coordination, and practice more than I do with firearms. That is fine. That does not mean I don't feel confident that I could defend myself if the need developed. I also enjoy shooting just to shoot and don't really need to do any better than beer can accuracy at 10 yards most of the time with handguns.

For budding shooting masters and collectors, where do you think all of those as-new handguns come from that are 50 years old? ....Dresser drawer or the closet of course. These are the ones that were never shot at all or much. But you only can shoot so many.

I think every honest adult should own a firearm or two and to develop a rudimentary shooting skill set. I don't care if they shoot once a week, or once every 5 years just to make sure it still works.

 

[CDR_Glock]

I was on a hiatus since I lived in MD for 4 years. I used to shoot 3 times a week. It did not take long to get back into the swing of things. It is not hard if you have proper technique and trigger control.

For those who have fired no more than a 100 hundred in their lifetime are foolish, if they have no practice beyond that initial trial. Semiautos may lock up if there is no maintenance. A revolver is the best thing for the buy and store away folks. The Colt Single Actions are the way to go.

I shoot once a week, now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wheeler44]

A gun is a weapon, and if one chooses to wield a weapon, one should become fully and completely expert with that weapon.

Wrong....A gun is just another tool in the tool box...You would be just as dead if you improperly used your chainsaw or brush-hog, as would any unfortunate passers-by..You would also be just as dead if smashed upside the head with a ball peen hammer..Your assertion that every gun owner must be a "marksman" with each and every tool is somewhat laughable. I believe that anyone that cannot see anothers' point of view as valid (and I do believe that you should be a marksman if that is your wish) should be required to take sensitivity training (insert evil smiley here).

W44

 

[texas bulldog]

I'm very opinionated on this... so I'm probably going to get flamed for saying this, but I believe If you do not actively fire your gun(s) and strive to become an absolute marksman with it (them), you do not deserve to own a gun(s). A gun is a big responsibility, and it should not be likened to tools you keep in your garage to fix your lawnmower, this is not a even comparison.

A gun is a weapon, and if one chooses to wield a weapon, one should become fully and completely expert with that weapon.

I know there are many stories of "non gun people" successfully protecting themselves with guns in serials such as Armed Citizen. But how many incidents do we not hear about, where someone was unable to hit their target and was killed because of it? Or perhaps how many people have shot someone they love thinking it was the "bad guy" because of never having trained in a high stress environment or because of poor trigger control, etc?

IMO it is NOT okay to buy a gun, shoot 20 rounds through it, claim you "know how to shoot it", and throw it in your nightstand "just incase". But hey, that's just me.

What a bunch of BS. First of all, the Armed Citizen has documented thousands of cases of relatively untrained people successfully defending themselves with firearms. And it has been well-documented that most cases of successful defense with a firearm occur without a shot even being fired. If you truly believe that these are outweighed by instances of people accidentally shooting loved ones or getting their gun used against them or whatever, the burden is on you show some proof. Your speculations and assumptions are just that.

Look at it this way...
If your mom/sister/grandma/whatever were attacked in a parking lot at night, would you rather her be unarmed or have a revolver and only the limited knowledge that "you point this end at bad guy and pull trigger"? Do you really think that not being a "master" with a firearm makes you better off curling up into a ball and praying for the attacker to take mercy on you?

That is beyond foolish. Please drop the self-righteousness and anti-gun mentality. We are all citizens with natural rights. Not meeting your standard for "mastery" doesn't make someone less deserving of those rights than you.

 

[monet61]

Never shoot

I have a pretty good friend that I have worked with for 16 years. He is a person who has some of the nicest ( and most expensive) guns I have ever seen. He had one of those "Quigley" rifles built for him that cost him about $8,000 that I know for a fact that I'm the only person who has ever shot it.
About once a year he brings me a pile of guns for me to "clean up". I do it for him, but they are never dirty.

I don't get it either, but he's my friend and it makes him feel good.

Also, and I really mean this, I regret that some of you have such difficulty finding decent places to shoot. I guess one of the perks that us desert dwellers have is that there is no shortage of places to shoot in a quiet, peaceful place. ( Course the BLM owns the land).

But still....

 

[Guns and more]

People with guns who never shoot?

There are people who enjoy shooting guns, and there are those who enjoy owning guns.
Both are pro second amendment.
Now I don't understand buying a gun that you NEVER shoot. Just to have one.
I don't shoot enough, but all my guns have been shot.